Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ When You Finally Find One ❯ In Which We Make New Friends and End Up in Another Dimension ( Chapter 1 )

When You Finally Find One

By Elbereth in April

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z. I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. Aren't they cool, though?

__________ __________

Chapter 1: In Which We Make New Friends and End Up in Another Dimension

I suppose you could say I have definite opinions. I'll admit to this; after all, doesn't everybody? But don't you call me stubborn. If I'm intractable about a certain issue, that only means I've researched it already, and come to the conclusion that I am right.

Take my daddy for instance. I've thought about this long and hard, and decided that no other man could come close. It's why I'm still single at 21, I suppose. Who could compare to the best man on Earth?

At any rate, I haven't met him yet.

_________ __________

Fast forward to the day this story starts. I had invited over my two close friends, Pan and Marron. We were sitting in the kitchen, eating yogurt, debating on what to do next-have a friendly spar or go shopping, our two favorite activities-when Trunks and Goten came walking in.

"Trunks!" I exclaimed. "You ran out on work again!" Now that I was almost out of college, he and I had been taking turns running Capsule Corp as co-Presidents, and today had been his weekend to work.

He laughed sheepishly, one hand behind his head, doing a very good Son Family imitation. "Nothing important was going on."

I shook my head and sighed.

"All right! Five-way spar!" Pan suggested, licking the last of her yogurt off her spoon. Marron nodded enthusiastically. The 3 of us shrugged.

And it was just then that we heard a loud crash outside, as if an air ship had wrecked in our backyard. We all blinked at each other and then ran out to see what had happened.

Trunks and I recognized the ship from old family photos. "It's Mirai Trunks' time machine!" I cried. We ran over to it, worried. Smoke was coughing out its back engine. The door slowly opened, as if it was stuck on its hinges.

Mirai Trunks himself got out. He still had the long purple hair and the blue CC jacket. He wore baggy navy pants and black boots and had his sword strapped to his back. I observed him carefully. He was so like my Trunks, but his eyes had a haunted pain in them from seeing things my brother had never seen. He seemed to be around 25 or 26, a few years younger than my Trunks.

He looked at us in surprise. He stared at his other self in wonder. "You've grown," he stated. "This isn't the year I meant to land in at all. This stupid machine is malfunctioning." Then his eyes rested on me. "Mom? No. . ."

I smiled, then leaped on him and hugged him. "I always wanted to meet you! I'm your little sister, Bura!"

His eyes were huge. He pulled back a bit to study me. "A sister? Mom and Dad are still together?" And then, "They named you Bura?" I grinned; I'd become resigned to my name long ago. "That's Princess Bura, thank you." Pan pushed her way forward. "Hi, I'm Gohan's daughter. I've heard about you!"

"I'm Goten, Gohan's younger brother." Mirai was looking more and more befuddled.

"And I'm Marron, Krillin's daughter." She waved.

"Woah, Krillin found a wife?"

We all laughed. "So what are you doing here?" Trunks asked.

Mirai looked down, suddenly sad and depressed. "I just killed Buu. I-I wanted a vacation. Earth can get along without me for awhile."

"What about Mom?"

The pain in his expression increased. "Buu killed her," he told us softly.

Silence. Then I hugged him again. "I'm so sorry."

Pan changed the subject. "What do you mean you didn't want to come to this year?"

"I just wanted to come over to your reality at the same point my timeline was in. Right after the death of Buu," Mirai explained. "I thought Trunks would be about 8 years old."

"Ah. Yes. I was, when we fought Buu." Trunks nodded.

"Then you did fight him, too?"

"Yeah. And boy, was it hard! It took Goku and Vegeta together to beat him."

__________ __________

Fast forward a bit, to all of us sitting cross-legged on the lawn and talking, the time machine still smoldering in the background, waiting for my mom to get home to fix it. We'd discussed the Vegeta-Briefs family at length, Goten had told his story, and now it was Pan's turn:

"Of course, a 15 year age difference is a lot, but Mom was only 19 when she had me, after all. Anyway, he's such a cute baby brother, even if Dad did insist on naming him Piccolo. . ."

_______ ________

And now switch to New Namek. An alien named Deus was talking to a demon called Itsuki. Gathered around them were 7 dragonballs, a number of Namekian corpses, and a portal to a place called the Makai. Deus was running his hands covetously over the dragonballs and Itsuki's hands were occupied holding an unconscious human guy named Sensui.

Deus and Itsuki had just come to a deal. "So, it's agreed then?" Deus asked. "I got you the dragonballs so you can wish your lover back to health. That's one wish. I use the next wish to send my most hated enemy to your reality, where you'll take care of killing him."

"Leaving you free to conquer your enemy's planet of residence, with an eye on the rest of the universe. Yes, it's agreed. But what about the third wish?"

Desu thought. "I think I'll save it. In case there are problems."

"Fine. Let's begin."

The first wish was made, and Sensui slowly opened his eyes. "Nani?" he began, while Itsuki hugged him in joy. As he explained the situation to his newly awakened lover, Deus made the second wish.

"For years you've haunted my existence, the cause of all my suffering," the alien snarled, a rather insane light in his eyes. "But no more!" Switching to Namekian, he commanded, "I wish for the Prince of the Saiyans currently on Earth to be transported to Itsuki's home dimension, to the realm of the Makai!"

__________ ________

Now here's where things get confusing. As it just so happened, at that time there were 3 Saiyan Princes on the Earth. And the dragon, not liking Deus one bit, decided to just pick one at random (and not the one he was pretty sure the alien meant).

So, in midsentence, Mirai Trunks disappeared. You can, of course, imagine our confusion, as we didn't figure out the cause until much later. Not until that alien showed up on Earth, with no idea what was about to hit him.

_______ ________

When we felt the evil ki, we all gathered around the alien spaceship-Daddy, Trunks, Goten, Gohan, Pan, and I. Marron and Mom were hovering in the background, along with Videl, holding the hand of her 6 year old son.

"It's a Thaddian ship," Daddy informed us. "That planet was brought into Frieza's Empire by force. Frieza wanted their technology. He sent me to convince them to offer themselves as his servants."

An enemy, then. Well, we'd figured that out already.

Deus was shocked and furious when he got out of his ship and saw Vegeta. "You! You're supposed to be dead!" he screamed.

Daddy raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What makes you think that?"

"That was the deal! How did you get back to Earth from where the dragon sent you?"

We looked at each other. "Why don't you tell us the whole story," Daddy commanded.

"Just die!" Deus was practically foaming at the mouth as he attacked us.

He was, of course, overmatched. The fight was brief, though ugly, but we eventually got the tale out of him. Daddy gave him one chance to just go away and leave us alone, and when he refused, Daddy killed him. He takes our safety seriously.

At any rate, we decided to go to New Namek to wish Mirai back from that other dimension. Daddy stayed on Earth to protect it. Goten, Trunks, and Pan volunteered to go. Marron and I determined we would go, too. Krillin and 18 agreed easily enough, and after another brief but ugly battle, Daddy agreed to let me go, too.

I do usually get my way.

So Trunks swore to protect me with his life, and Mom got a spaceship ready. And we were off.

__________ __________

So a few months after Mirai Trunks had vanished, we stood on New Namek, talking to their Guru, arranging for a guide to make the last wish for us, as none of us spoke Namekian.

We ended up with a young, flighty fellow, who I believe Guru sent with us because he found him as annoying as I did. He was much given to getting distracted by dandelions and patterns of clouds.

Fast forward to the 6 of us gathered around the dragonballs, the dragon hovering in the air, and our guide only half-listening to our wish. And let this explain why, instead of Trunks getting wished back to our dimension, we were wished to his.

__________ __________

When the mist and darkness cleared, we looked around and found ourselves in a very ancient forest, with trees towering above us as far as we could stretch our necks back to look.

We argued amongst ourselves until we figured out what must have happened, then began a search for Mirai's ki.

Interestingly enough, it was several dozen feet above us. And someone else was with him-someone who was very strong, whose aura was a bit dark and strange. But I sensed no danger.

I shrugged. "Trunks and I will go up," I said. "You stay here and keep watch."

So Trunks and I flew slowly upwards, to where 2 people were asleep on either end of a huge tree branch. Mirai-and an incredibly attractive, black-haired, black-cloaked guy. I think my only coherent thought at that point was "Wow!"

"Mirai Trunks-kun!" Trunks called softly.

There was a blur as the stranger uncoiled himself and faced us in a fighting stance, a katana in his hand. Mirai woke a little slower, but straight into a defensive crouch, wildly peering around.

"Trunks! Bura!" His face lit up, and without thinking he dived for us and hugged us. Fortunately, we each caught an arm before he realized he'd better start flying, quickly.

The other stared at us with narrowed red eyes, a frown on his face, still holding his sword ready. I noticed that his right arm was bandaged. Had they been fighting Desu's friends?

"What's all this?" he demanded in an absolutely gorgeous voice. "Who are they?"

I decided to grace him with my most reassuring and beautiful smile (one I had learned after much trial and error, used most often on Daddy).

"I'm Bura," I told him. "I'm his sister."

Something flickered behind his eyes, but I couldn't catch it. "Hn," he said. The similarities between him and Daddy were escalating.

"And this is-well, this is me, from an alternate timeline," Mirai indicated Trunks.

"Them?" he grunted, pointing down.

"Goten, Pan, and Marron, our friends," Trunks supplied, smiling as well.

"More ningens," he complained.

"Well, no, actually, none of us are fully human, now that you mention it," Trunks mused.

He blinked.

"And what are you, if not ningen?"

"And what's your name?"

He looked discomfited at all the questions we were throwing at him. Then he recovered that indifferent demeanor, finally sheathing his blade, and crossing his arms. "I'm a demon, of course! I'm Hiei."

I whispered his name in my mind. It sounded like a caress. I smiled in growing satisfaction. Dangerous, bad attitude, strong. How strong was he? I wondered. I wanted to see him fight.

_________ __________

Eventually, we all settled in a circle on the ground, where we explained to Mirai and Hiei how we had ended up there, reluctantly concluding we had no idea how to get back.

This brought us to demanding Mirai's story.

"Well, one minute I was with you guys, and the next I was here in Makai. That's the demon realm. There's 3 realms to this Earth-the demon, the spirit, and the human.

"Anyway, I was no sooner here, trying to figure out what had happened, when I was attacked by 2 strangers-the Itsuki and Sensui you were told about. Naturally, I defended myself. Our battle caught the attention of Hiei here, who recognized them both from when he'd fought them before. This Sensui apparently tried to kill all of Ningenkai not too long ago, and Hiei was part of the group that stopped him and Itsuki."

Mirai looked over at Hiei, who remained unmoved. Mirai smiled. I could tell we were all thinking that Hiei reminded us of Vegeta-why we all instantly liked him, I suppose.

Mirai continued, "Normally Hiei would have minded his own business, but when he realized who I was fighting, he joined in. I guess he really doesn't them. Anyway, we managed to subdue them, and they escaped through some sort of weird dimensional gate Itsuki made.

"After that. . . well, Hiei took off, and I followed him, because he was my only contact to wherever the heck I was. Eventually he rounded on me, very annoyed, and demanded to know what I was doing. I told him I was lost and asked for help. He found my whole story interesting enough that he actually stayed around to listen to it all. Then he decided to take me to the Spirit world to the guy in charge there, to tell him that Sensui and Itsuki were back, and to see if he could send me home."

He sighed. "He couldn't. He was completely out of ideas. He was going to send me to Ningenkai until I told him I wasn't human." A smirk. "So then he told Hiei to keep me out of trouble, and Hiei told him he didn't take orders from anyone, and stormed out. I followed him again.

"Back in the Makai, he promptly challenged me to a duel, as we're both swordsmen, and that entertained him enough that he decided to let me be his partner, as long as I continued training with him. Not long after we'd agreed to be partners, those 2 bakas attacked us again, and we finally managed to kill them. I think. They slipped back into that portal before actually dying, so we can't say for sure. But they haven't bothered us since then.

"Since then we've been traveling around the Makai. I've been here 2 months. I'm enjoying it. It's better than where I was. With Mom dead I was alone. I don't want to go back there," he finished defiantly, tossing his head and glancing at Hiei out of the corner of his eye, as if slightly worried how he'd take it.

Hiei looked the tiniest bit smug, to the Vegeta Family eyes. I knew the others couldn't read him, but we'd had practice at this sort of thing.

But Pan and Marron were pouting. "I want to go home!" Marron declared. "My parents will be missing me!"

"And I had a date tonight," Goten complained.

"You have a date every night," Trunks said flatly. "It's time for you to settle down."

"Like you can talk, Mr. Still Most Eligible Bachelor in Japan and Pushing 30!"

"Sure you're not ningens?"

"Well. . . half," Goten confessed.

"3/4," said Pan shortly. "But mostly, we're Saiyan!"

"Except for me," Marron sighed, resting her elbows on her knees. "I'm 1/2 human, 1/2 android, and I want to go home!"

Hiei sighed. "Che. Well. I could take you to Genkai. Maybe she could help."

"Who's Genkai?"

"One of the team who fought against Sensei. Wise old martial artist. Trained Yusuke in the Rei Gun."

"Who's Yusuke?"

Hiei looked away. "Guy I knew."

Silence. Mirai shifted. "Koenma--that's the leader of the Reikai-he said that Hiei was once a Rekai Tantai-a spirit world detective. He and 3 other people kept mankind safe from demons. They were disbanded after the fight with Sensei. Koenma's father really doesn't like Yusuke now, because it turns out he's part demon. The other 2 detectives were named Kuwabara and Kurama. Kurama apparently is a 1000 year old fox spirit who currently inhabits a human body. It all sounded pretty complicated to me."

Another pause, while we digested all this. Then, "Where can we find this Genkai?" Pan asked.

Hiei stood up. He was my height, which meant he was shorter than everybody else. Well, one thing I learned from Daddy is that size has no relation to power. And apparently Hiei was, indeed, powerful.

I felt myself smirking.

Hiei stretched, then looked us all over, observing and judging. Finally he nodded. "Follow me."

He flitted off rapidly and we followed.

__________ ___________

We ended up at a big, old temple in the Ningenkai. I felt around for ki's. One big power, and another that I was learning to recognize as demon.

We walked up the front steps, to find 2 women waiting for us on the porch. One was a pink-haired old woman whose eyes said "authority, don't mess with me." The other was a gentle, sweet-seeming girl, who smiled at us happily.

"Hiei!" she cried, and hugged hum, to his discomfort, and seeming secret joy. Inwardly, I frowned; who was she?

And yet. . . their ki's were awfully similar. And they were both small, red- eyed demons. And he did not look at her like a lover.

Hmm.

Then I caught Trunks and Mirai both giving her nearly overwhelmed looks of admiration, and had to hide a smile.

Our time here was going to prove interesting.

Genkai stepped forward and introduced herself and the girl, whose name was Yukina. She looked at us expectantly.

We all gave her little half-bows, as was proper. "We're seeking your guidance," Trunks announced.

"Come in then," she invited.

_________ _________

Fast forward again, to the end of our explanations and pleas for help, to Genkai's considering, puzzled look. "Well," she said at last, "this is going to require some thinking."

Some of the others sighed.

She shrugged. "Why don't you stay here at the temple for awhile? Maybe we can do some research. And you two!" This was directed at Mirai and Hiei. "You're gonna stay, as well."

"Good," I murmured so no one could hear. I smiled coaxingly and leaned forward to put a hand on Mirai's knee and one on Hiei's arm. "I'd like to watch you spar," I said out loud. "You're both experts, aren't you? It would be so exciting!"

Of course they agreed.

"After that can we eat dinner?" Goten whined.

_________ __________

At one end of the yard, Goten and Trunks were sparring. Marron sat nearby, watching. On the porch, Pan was getting a bit of coaching from Genkai. And at the other corner of the yard, Yukina and I watched Mirai and Hiei.

Yukina was fascinated by Mirai's transformation. I gave her a summary on Saiyans as Mirai and Hiei faced off. Then they began.

They moved too fast for normal human eyes to follow, but I'd been training under Daddy most of my life (not counting a short period in early adolescence when I'd sworn off fighting because it wasn't feminine. That whole incident with Bebi and the evil Shenlong convinced me that was a huge mistake).

Swords clashed as they moved back and forth in a dangerous, elegant dance. And they were both experts, I hadn't just been flattering them. I felt a strange warm glow begin at the bottoms of my toes and spread up to the crown of my head. I realized I had quite definitely developed An Interest.

I turned my smile to Yukina. "Do you have a boyfriend?" I asked her point- blank.

She blushed. "There's a boy that calls sometimes," she confessed sweetly and innocently.

"Oh?" I encouraged.

"His name's Kuwabara." She looked down, all naïve maiden. "Sometimes he brings me flowers."

"Love is wonderful, isn't it?"

"Oh, I'm not in love!" she denied, looking back up at me. "Not yet."

Interesting. "What about Hiei?"

At that her look sharpened. She had realized my Interest. "Hiei is just wonderful!" she gushed. "He needs a woman! He's just like a brother to me. I'd so like to see him happy!"

We evaluated each other, and we concluded we were friends. "Allies, then?" I asked her.

She nodded, no longer looking at all demure or innocent. "How can I help?"

"Two ways. You can tell me about him. And you can keep my overly protective brothers distracted. Especially Mirai."

"I can do that." She looked gleeful, as if she very much enjoyed having a secret. And as if she truly did want to see her "brother" happy. Good.

I started planning my campaign.

For the first time in my life, I thought I might have met a man who could maybe match my father.

__________ ___________

And meanwhile, unbeknownst to us, one human and one demon were still very much alive, and also about to make new friends. . .