Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Battle Lord Chronicles: Of Truths and Lies ❯ Out of Body Experiences ( Chapter 22 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any related names or items. Kiara is owned by Yusuke'sSister.

 

Claimer: I do own the plot line, the title, the Kuro Tournament, Kristy, Jason, Jessica, Chris, Bashere, Rhurac, and anything else related to them.

 

"Talking"

'Thinking'

'Telepathy'

 

Thanks so much to BattleStations for editing this chapter for me!

 

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Of Truth & Lies

 

Chapter 22

Out of Body Experiences

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'Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit!' was the only thing going through my mind as I stared at my motionless body in horror. Something must have gone terribly, horribly wrong. 'What am I going to do? I can't die now! Not in the middle of all of this! What about Jay, Chris, and Jessica?'

 

'-ty!'

 

'What about Hiei, Yusuke, Kiara, Suiichi, and even Kuwabara! How the hell am I going to get myself out of this mess!'

 

'-isty! Kristy!'

 

With a jerk, I abruptly realized that someone was mentally calling me. '...Rawl-san?' I asked tentatively, breaking out from my panicked state for a moment.

 

'Yes!' he said, exasperation clear in his voice. I looked over to him just in time to see him roll his eyes. 'Finally! I've been calling you for a while now!'

 

That sentence reminded me of what had just happened and reignited my panic. 'Rawl-san!' I gasp. 'What happened?! What went wrong?! Am I dead?!'

 

Mr. Rawl simply chuckled in reply. 'No, child, everything has gone just as it should have. I suppose I forgot to mention that another of the effects of this technique is that you can "play dead"--and quite literally I might add, considering your body will not breathe and have no pulse. However, you must not stay out of your body for more than 5-10 minutes, otherwise you willdie,' he warned.

 

I grumble slightly under my breath, annoyed at what Mr. Rawl had "forgotten" to tell me, but understanding the gravity of this technique. 'Is there anything else I need to know about it?'

 

'Yes, actually,' Mr. Rawl answers. 'You must never use this technique except as a last resort. The reason for this is because it uses an extreme amount of energy to keep up. In fact, you will probably be exhausted by the time you return to your body.'

 

'But...why? I'm not exerting any energy right now!'

 

'It may not seem likeit, but your body is in fact "feeding" off of your energy as we speak, in order to keep itself alive. That's the only reason why your body didn't die the second you left it, and why you'll be able to return to it eventually. Also, you will feel a slight tug when your body's energy is getting low. Think of it as a sort of automatic warning to return quickly.'

 

I being to nod before remembering that Mr. Rawl can't see me and then reply verbally, 'Okay, I got that. Now, what next?'

 

'Next I'llteach you how to enter another person's body,' says Mr. Rawl. 'This might be a little different--and probably easier--for you, considering the strange way your psychic abilities work. First what you're going to do is come over to me and stare straight into my eyes. Let me know when you've done that, since I can't see you.'

 

I complied, floating over to the older ice youkai--and realizing in the process what a strange feeling floating through the air is--and staring straight into said youkai's chocolate brown eyes as I had been instructed. Offhandedly I also noticed that there were small flecks of light blue floating around within his irises. They're nearly unnoticeable except at this close proximity. I wonder if Chris' eyes are the same way...

 

''Kay, I'm ready,' I say after a moment more of random contemplation.

 

'Good. Now, do you remember how you described to me how you reached out a portion of yourself to enter my mind?'

 

'...Yeah...'

 

'Well now I want you to do the same thing, only with all of yourself instead of just "tendrils". Try it now.'

 

'Mmm,' I replied, processing the information before trying out what Mr. Rawl had explained to me.

 

I feel the familiar feeling of being sucked in and, in the time it takes to blink, find myself once again standing within the halls of Mr. Rawl's mind. However, there's something different this time that I just can't quite put my finger on. It all seems more vivid, more real. I can hear the ice crunching beneath my feet and feel a wind brushing past, biting into my skin.

 

'Rawl-san,' I whisper. I hear my voice echo through the icy halls, even though I hadn't spoken out loud. Mr. Rawl doesn't answer. I shiver, half from the coldness of this gloomy place, half from the prickling feeling running down my spine. Suddenly the shadows and the icicles are much more intimidating, looming over me.

 

Abruptly, I mentally slap myself. What is wrong with me?! I'm a youkai for goodness sake! Not to mention that I'm possibly the first youkai with four elements ever! I'm not going to be scared by some stupid icicles in someone's mind! Was I afraid when a horde of cockroaches infested our kitchen? No! Was I afraid when a serial killer was spotted across the street from our house? No! Was I afraid when a semi-truck was roaring towards me at 60 mph?

 

...Okay, yeah, that incident nearly gave me a heart attack...

 

But that's not the point! I will NOT be afraid of a bunch of stupid inanimate icicles! I will move on and continue my training with this strange, screwed up, terrifying--No! Not terrifying! Not terrifying! Un-terrifying!--technique. I shall prevail!

 

...Okay, enough with the weird motivational speeches, I'm just going to get moving. And so I do just that, walking forward with a new bounce of determination in my step. Not two minutes later I find once again myself standing before a large ice door. I breeze past it, through the Youkai Room, and into the Conscious Room. What shocks me however is that there is another door on the other side of the massive room. The door far too large and imposing for me to have missed it the last time I was here.

 

As I begin to slowly approach the strange door, a thought enters my mind. What if the door's there because I'm fully here right now instead of just a portion of myself? That would certainly make sense, as well as explain what why Mr. Rawl had me leave my own body before coming here.

 

Breathing in deeply one last time, I reach out and grip the handle and slowly pull the door--which is surprisingly heavy--open. Once it is fully open I'm faced with a pitch black doorway. None of the strange artificial light lit up the doorway--if anything it seems to suck the light in, making the area even darker. I take another deep breathe and take a step into the unknown darkness.

 

...

 

"HOLY SHIT!!!"

 

(A/N: (grins) I so feel like just ending the chapter here, but that'd be too short and I want to get to the tournament in just a few more chapters. Besides, I'm not that cruel...(coughs inconspicuously))

 

I'm standing in the middle of a lighted room (though how it could be lighted without me seeing through the doorway is completely beyond me), but that's not what's shocking me the most. No, what has truly caught my attention the most was the large TV-like screen in the front of the room. The view it was showing at the moment was my dead-looking body.

 

I gape at the screen. '...That...' I murmur out loud. '...That must be what Mr. Rawl is seeing through his owns eyes...'

 

Abruptly I notice that there's an office chair sitting in front of the screen...And in the chair is Mr. Rawl!

 

'Mr. Rawl!' I cry out in relief, running over to him. 'Thank Kami! When I lost mental contact with you I didn't know what to think!' Strangely enough however, Mr. Rawl doesn't answer me. He doesn't even acknowledge me. 'Hello?' I call out, waving a hand in front of his face. 'Anybody home?' He doesn't even blink. '...Well crap...'

 

I sigh, letting my face rest in my hands. Isn't this turning out to be a just wonderful experience? I sigh again and put one hand on the office chair, leaning slightly on it. It turns out that office chairs with unresponsive people in them are not the steadiest things however, and the chair immediately went sliding, sending Mr. Rawl sprawling out of it and onto the floor. His head meets the floor with a resounding crack and the large screen in front of me goes black

 

I stand frozen in wide-eyed shock for a moment, my hand suspended in mid air where the chair arm had been not seconds before. 'Ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck!'

 

Quickly I snap out of my shock however, and rush over to Mr. Rawl's side. 'Mr. Rawl!' I cry out, shaking him gently. 'Are you okay!' The older ice youkai doesn't respond and his eyes are closed. He still has a pulse however and so seems to just be unconscious. I sigh in relief.

 

I blink slightly and turn to the now dark screen. Is that showing that Mr. Rawls unconscious in the outside world as well? Well, this is supposed to be his true consciousness, so is this what controls him? Is this room his true...mind? Abruptly me eyes light up with an idea. I'm supposed to be learning how to take over people, right? So I might as well attempt to do just that.

 

I quickly, yet carefully, drag Mr. Rawls body across the room and lean it against the wall. I then go over and pick up the chair and drag over to where it originally was in front of the large screen. I go to sit down in the chair, but pause.

 

'Is this really such a good idea?' I think. 'What if this does something bad or harmful?' I pause for another moment before abruptly throwing all caution out the window. "Ah, what the heck.' And thus I immediately plop down into the chair.

 

The second I'm sitting I suddenly feel drawn into something. Before I can even blink, I'm suddenly drawn into the real world. The thing is...I'm still staring at my own body.

 

"...Weird..." I say out loud and abruptly freeze. That hadn't been my own voice! It was deep and masculine, and sounded just like...Mr. Rawl! I gasp and bring a hand up to my face, only to stop in mid air. Yep, that was definitely Mr. Rawls hand. "...Weird..." I repeat, waving my hand in front of my face. Slowly--almost carefully--I stand up, testing out my new body. It felt really weird. It was like a new pair of shoes; you're familiar with the basic feeling--since all shoes feel at least generally the same--but there was a completely different and new feeling as well. I know that it'd probably take me a while to get used to my new body...but, then, it wasn't like I was going to be staying like this for very long.

 

Abruptly, just as I'm walking around, getting used to suddenly being over six feet tall, as compared to my meager 5 foot 1, a strange feeling comes over me. It felt like something was tugging at my soul. My eyes quickly widen; this must be what Mr. Rawl had been talking about before. I have a brief moment of panic, wondering how the hell I'm supposed to get back into Mr. Rawl and back into my body. What would happen if my body runs out of energy before I'm able to return!

 

It is then that there is suddenly another tug on my soul, but this one is much sharper than all of the others--more like a rough jerk. Before I even have time to blink in surprise I abruptly find myself floating in the air again, outside of Mr. Rawl's body. I sigh in relief, shaking my nonexistent head of the strangeness of this whole situation, and quickly head back into my own body.

 

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A few minutes later Mr. Rawl and I are walking back down the hallway to the Rawls' living room and, true to Mr. Rawl's words, I was exhausted. Who knew that the mind arts would take so much energy! The whole Astro-projection thing had apparently gone the way it was supposed to though, and Mr. Rawl had returned to consciousness about the same time that I had. He still wasn't quite sure as to why we lost mental contact once I got to his true subconscious, but he had figured that something similar would happen so neither of us were really worried.

 

As we walked into the living room I am surprised to see that while Chris, Touya, and Jin are all sitting around and talking amiably--well at least Chris and Jin were; Touya was just kind of staring at the wall--perhaps he'd fallen asleep with his eyes open or something?--my brother Jason was no where to be seen. I immediately question Chris about this.

 

"Dunno," Chris answers with a shrug. "He left a while ago in his car. He didn't say where he was going."

 

'That bastard!' I think, my eye twitching. 'He left me!' I immediately start grumbling under my breath. He probably considers this to be a part of my "training" or something. I quickly push my irritation down, however, and bid goodbye to everyone, assuring Mr. Rawl that I would return in a week to continue my psychic training with him like we'd agreed. I then hurriedly walked out of the house and start down the street; it was already getting pretty late and, since it was still winter, it would be getting pretty cold soon. It was very fortunate that it was still an hour or so until sunset.