Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Three Sacred Gems ❯ Chapter 4: Mental Turmoil and Awakenings ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

*Cold... insecurity... pain... sorrow.* She woke in a foreign world of darkness and chaos with rubble at her feet. A path appeared before her and, with no other options aside from standing still, she walked along it. 'Where am I? Wait, my voice is gone,' she tried to say, thoroughly alarmed when no words came out. Cries of sorrow seemed to carry on the cold wind that blew through the branches of dead trees. 'Am I alone?' She gazed at the ground despondently and thought, 'Maybe they forgot and let me die.' She forced herself to trudge on. "Please wake up…" Raising her head, Kelley’s confused blue-green eyes searched the darkness overhead for the speaker. 'Was that just the wind or is that...? No, couldn’t be…' Once more, she lowered her head, this time severely in doubt. "Come on," the voice prompted. "You can't die on us..." Kelley listened hard, hoping more words would come. 'There it is again; I hear her but I can't see her…' She quickened her pace and long looked up after something cold and wet hit her skin. It began to pour. 'Great,' she thought sarcastically before taking another look around. 'Where are the voices coming from?' Wandering aimlessly along the path, she tried searching for some sort of shelter, hoping against the odds that the voice would come again–this time from a perceptible point she could reach–but it did not.

A light breeze found its way into the small room through a stylish window with white-lace curtains, rustling the hair of its less-than-cheerful occupants. On a high, hospital-like bed rested the human girl known by her teammates as “Kel” or “Kelley”. Pearl sat in an uncomfortable wooden chair, her chin tucked into the circle of her arms, which rested on the edge of the same bed–a position from which she hadn’t moved for a while now, almost as still as Kelley herself. Chrystal stood impatiently beside the couch at the other end of the room where Aloria slept on a gaudy red floral couch that looked vastly out of place. Agitated that there was no change in Pearl, who had refused food and rest, watched her with rapt attention. Yuta entered with a tray of food for Pearl since the others had already eaten and set it on the bedside table on Pearl’s left, where it would likely grow cold and hard. Placing a light hand on Pearl’s shoulder, Yuta asked gently, “How is she? Has she woken up at all?” Pearl closed her eyes and shook her head in the negative. Yuta tilted her head down and to the left in a silent sigh, a gesture neither human nor demonic–simply Yuta.

“You should at least drink something,” Yuta soothed. “When Kelley wakes up you wouldn’t want to show her such a face, would you?” Pearl said nothing for a few moments and it almost seemed as though she would not answer, but then she nodded, almost absentmindedly. Elated for even the chance that she may accept something to drink, Yuta exited back into the hall and closed the door quietly behind her, planning to get one of Pearl’s favorite drinks, hopeful that it would further convince her. Yusuke touched her elbow to get her attention and Yuta looked at him, a rueful smile showing she was apologetic–Yusuke and the others waited outside now for news of improvement ever since Kuwabaka tried to touch Kelley and Pearl almost took his arm off. Botan had been less lucky, for Pearl had feared she was there to take Kelley’s soul. It had been nothing short of an experience. Yusuke dropped his hand and placed both arms behind his head, trying to appear casual, but his question came out in a quiet voice though even a yell was not likely to wake the sleeping girl. “How is she?” Yuta shook her head with a woeful expression, and Yusuke understood there had been no improvement. It had been a week to the day since Kelley had been in a coma, so Yusuke could sympathize with the girl’s worry. Yuta continued down the hall to find the drink and just as she turned the corner, Chrystal exited with a slight huff, not believe Pearl would accept the drink in the end until Kelley had awoken and thoroughly annoyed with the fact.

Finding shelter, she decided to wait out the rain, but it just wouldn’t stop. 'At this rate I’ll never get home, oh well... I need to get back,' she thought to herself, straying from the shelter in order to continue on the path. Pearl raised her head, now fully awake and aware, as Kelley twitched for the first time since she’d been there and quickly leaned back over to talk her into awakening. "Come on... you’re almost awake," she persuaded. Kelley turned her head toward the voice both so foreign and familiar. 'There it is again…' She ran off of the path towards the voice. Kelley stirred and opened her eyes to find an extremely thin, malnourished and worried Pearl over her. She appeared to be in a hospital of some sort and it hurt to move, so she stayed still to avoid extreme pain and potential reopening of wounds. Pearl quickly stood, knocking her chair backwards and startling Aloria into wakefulness, and then ran out of the room to find Chrystal and Yuta. Yusuke, closest to the door, jumped back a bit and bumped into Kurama in his surprise. The screams the issued from inside were of no comfort until the words could be clearly made out as, “She’s awake! Kelley’s awake!!”

Chrystal didn’t wait for Pearl to speak and winded around her into the room to see the miracle for herself. Pearl directed her question to the startled Yusuke, who was closest, “Where’s Yuta?” Yusuke pointed down the hall and Pearl took off into that direction. When she rounded the corner she collided with Yuta, but that could not halt her progress. She steadied herself quickly and grabbed Yuta’s wrist, jerking her back into a fully standing position for only a second before they were both running toward Kelley’s door. Yuta was surprised for only a moment, for the next they were inside with the others and she saw Kelley’s open eyes. ‘She’s awake,’ was the nearly unanimous thought, laced heavily with a combination of relief and elation. Pearl let go of Yuta, who set the canned drink on the table alongside the still-fresh food.

'My head,' Kelley thought as she tried to stop the pain, both from the beating and now the screaming. She looked to Aloria and said in a weak voice, "Shut the fuck up, Aloria, I think the whole place can hear you." She then let her head drop back to rest where it had been before and Aloria fell silent. "What the hell is going on here and why are you all screaming like that?" She watched as Pearl shoved an ugly idiot out of her seat and pulled it up to sit beside her bed. "What the hell happened to you, you look like a damn skeleton?" Kelley directed her question to Pearl as she attempted, and failed, to sit up, which resulted in her falling back on the bed. "Don’t ask," Pearl said, not in the least amused, and looked away from her. Yuta placed a cool hand on Kelley’s forehead and smoothed back some of her hair. "You should eat some of that," Yuta said to Pearl, nodding at the tray of food and the drink before turning her attentions back to Kelley. Withdrawing her hand, Yuta addressed her in a soft, compassionate tone. "Everyone is just glad you're awake now… You must be ravenous. Do you think you can eat?" Kelley had, after all, been asleep for a week–the most they’d been able to get her to swallow was a few sips of watered-down food, but at least she looked healthier than Pearl in that respect. "Are you kidding?" Kelley asked in shear disbelief before continuing, "I could eat a cow!" Pearl set would have been her food in front of Kelley and walked off for a bit to see if there was other food to bring her as well.

Kuwabaka took the short time Pearl was away to run up, almost falling on top of Kelley and knocking off her food. Kelley herself nearly fell off the bed trying to get away from him, but Yuta was there to ensure she didn’t, looking concerned and somewhat perplexed at Kuwabra’s actions. Kuwabra said like the dumbass he is, "You’re hot! Will u go out with me?" Just as Chrystal was about to hurt him for asking such a dumb question, Pearl walked in with more food, which she threw down in order to free her hands so that she could slam Kuwabara against the wall. She held him by his neck and literally growled a threat at him, "I’ll kick your ass if you ever bug her again with such idiotic questions!" Pearl tossed him out of her way like he was nothing.

Yuta finished cleaning the food that had spilled on Kelley–most from her lap and a few specks from her hair–just as Kuwabara landed on his ass near the door. “I’ll bring you something to eat,” Yuta crooned apologetically, distressed that Kelley should have to awaken to such scenes. Yuta smiled the smile that said she’d do more than just that–meaning she’d add in something extra for Kelley that wasn’t being offered here for patients to make up for the drama. "Ok," Kelley said before taking a look around the room. Pearl left, walking on Kuwabaka, while Aloria hung about, feeling ashamed about their situation. Yusuke had turned his attentions on Kelley, asking her about how she’d ended up in the Netherworld and what Yakumo stole from her. Kuwabaka recovered slowly while Hiei, who was sitting on the windowsill, was internally amused at what had happened to Kuwabaka. Kurama stood silently to one side of the room, a quiet observer to the many scenes playing out before him.

Pearl reentered the room as Kelley began to explain about being knocked out and waking up in chains–she also went on to talk about the torture and everything else. Kurama finally spoke up to ask, "What was taken that was so important?" Koenma was revealed from behind Pearl when she took her seat, and he looked at Kurama levelly to answer, "The very life and energy of spirit world." At those words, each of the boys had their own reaction: Kuwabara shot up, Hiei nearly fell off the windowsill, Yusuke’s eyes were wide with astonishment, and Kurama was shocked to silence. "What?!" Yusuke screamed disbelievingly, looking first at Koenma then Kelley. Kuwabara's mouth fell open a few minutes before asking, again without thinking, "How can a girl hold so much power!?" Finally, Chrystal spoke up in a calm voice, "Me and Yuta hold items of the same power, just different worlds." This time Hiei did fall, Kuwabara’s mouth hit the floor, Yusuke’s eyes could b compared to beach balls, and Kurama was actually surprised that they could still have the items for so long, figuring that they would have been stolen already.

Kelley turned and looked at Koenma before looking away. "It was taken and destroyed... I don’t have it now." Koenma shook his head. "You still have it, you just didn’t realize it," he said knowingly, earning him questioning looks from everyone in the room. "That is something you girls never figured out," Koenma said with a smirk. "After the items pick their owners, they stay connected. It has become your soul." Kelley fell off the bed, not expecting that answer, and Pearl choked on her own drink. Kuwabaka passed out and Chrystal almost fell over while Aloria half expected the answer, having felt it the whole time. "So that’s where it was, I should have known," she said. The guys looked at her in shock, except Hiei who was pulling himself off the floor yet again. Pearl was helping Kelley back to her bed and asked, "You knew?" Aloria nodded. "Of course. The immense power should have told you that it’s bonded." Chrystal and Kelley looked at her and said, obviously annoyed, "I’ve heard enough circles in that death trap of a school I went to, tell me in normal terms." Yusuke laughed at their comment. Pearl looked at them both before answering, "Your power level grew over your limit, so we should have noticed." The guys looked at each other. "My head hurts," Kelley stated emphatically. "I’m going back to sleep, so get out." She rolled over as everyone made his or her way out, and Yuta left the others to see about making the arrangements for Kelley’s food.