Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ THE WOLVES OF MUSHIYORI CITY ❯ The Character Selection Screen ( Chapter 3 )

CHAPTER 3: THE CHARACTER SELECTION SCREEN

 

 

 

Mitarai woke in Yanagisawa's office to find his hand in a bowl of cool water and that he had wet himself.

He yawned and calmly got up to pour himself a cup of coffee. It was then that he noticed that Yana had also pinned a note to his sweatshirt.

 

Lock up when you leave and be sure to watch those nocturnal emmissions.

 

Once again he found himself regretting his decision to keep Yana on as his comic relief. Though as much as he hated being the target of his friend's immaturity, Yana's broad, slapstick humor was a nice counterpoint to Yu Kaito's subtle and dry humor.

 

Even though he had to admit that waking up soaked in his own urine was hardly a sign of a good day Mitarai was glad that he could go about his other recruitment without Yana or Hannah tagging along. The next psychic on his list wasn't someone who'd rather not see him as Asato was, but someone he'd avoided for the past few years even though most of the time he considered him a friend.

 

Other than being co-conspirators in a plan to rid the world of it's human problem Mitarai and Amanuma had social awkwardness in common as well as a grim view of humanity that stayed with them well beyond the reforming of their past homicidal tendancies.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Mitarai found Amanuma's presence to be too much of a reminder of past misdeeds.

 

They made a pact to meet up every month to talk to eachother the way that only people who carried around the guilt of almost comitting mass murder could. It eventually turned to every other month, then two until contact was severed altogether.

 

Taking a break to change into some non-soiled clothes Mitarai pulled the first hooded sweatshirt from his vast collecton in his closet as well as a fresh pair of blue jeans. He simultaneously cursed Yanagisawa and prayed that Amanuma was attending the same college since last they talked. After much begging he convinced Kaito to use one of his built up personal days to drive him to the small community college on the other side of town.

"Once again I have to protest, Kiyoshi."

Mitarai sighed. "Yeah, yeah. You know, if you don't use your personal days you lose them? I'm doing you a favor. You volunteer to defend the city from demons like it's nothing but God forbid you should use up a personal day. I guess I'm lucky that the coming invasion doesn't fall on a work night. I'd really be screwed then, wouldn't I?"

 

Kaito debated opening his territory and forcing Mitarai to shut up or risk losing his soul by declaring all speech taboo.

"The words personal and day are now taboo, Kiyoshi. By all means, keep complaining about how little time I take off. You'd be a lot quieter without a soul."

"Fine. At least tell me that you will take some vacation time to help me train."

 

Kaito regained some calm as he knew that Mitarai was nervous about meeting Amanuma. Although he knew Mitarai considered him his best friend Kaito knew that there were certain aspect of his personality that he refused to share with him.

Therefore he let a good deal of his friend's attitude slide without declaring any language other than Elvish taboo and forcing Mitarai to break it.

He wanted to say something encouraging but assumed that he'd only be setting Mitarai up for fall when Amanuma would be less than thrilled to see him.

"It would be nice to see Amanuma again. You and Yana are hardly challenging opponents in dominoes."

Mitarai ignored him and turned up the volume on the Parliament Funkadelic cd playing on the car's player.

 

"Community college," Kaito said without bothering to hide his derision when they drove onto campus. "I refuse to believe Amanuma couldn't do better than this. I've only talked to him a handful of times but I know he's capable of more."

"He wanted to stay close to his friends," Mitarai said absently. He then told Kaito to open his territory as any psychic entering it would feel it immediately and hopefully track it to them. "Keep the taboo word something obscure. Klingon or something."

Kaito did as he was told and waited with Mitarai for three hours. A few psychis wandered over to appraise the source of the strange feeling of the area where Kaito opened his territory but found only two unassuming young men. A dark-haired one who kept cleaning his rimless rectangular glasses and a blonde one who kept his hands constantly in the pouch of his brown hooded sweatshirt.

 

Eventually, they split up to ask random students about the whereabouts of Amanuma but the results were as expected.

It didn't dawn on either of them until then that the most likely location of a psychic once known as Game Master was probably in the nearest arcade.

 

"Well, I feel stupid."

Kaito didn't respond due to the fact that he hadn't jumped to the most likely conclusion either. The two psychics drove to and inspected every nearby arcade where Amanuma was usually surrounded by a group of people watching him beat supposedly unbeatable games or humbling cocky teens who professed greater gaming skills.

 

After the third arcade Kaito no longer felt stupid for not thinking of going there first. "How long has it been since you've talked to him, Kiyoshi?"

"Almost two years. I just didn't like the reminder of who I used to be."

"You mean a complete asshole?"

 

Mitarai paused and turned aroud to see a man just into his twenties waving his black mowhawk to the right side of his head. Although the hair caught him off guard Mitarai immediately recognized the Atari Teenage Riot t-shirt he wore as a birthday present years back.

"Amanuma. It's..."

"Awkward to see me? I can imagine. Hey, Kaito. Still slumming it with Mitarai here, eh?"

Kaito only answered with a grunt.

 

"It's been a bitch avoiding you two. I see you at my school, at all my arcades. I thought I'd get this over with before you guys popped out of my mailbox or something. What's up? Spirit Detective stuff or this a social call. Wait, I forgot. You don't do those any more."

Amanuma pondered leaving in a haze of swearing and obscene gestures but instead found the nearest bench and sat down. Kaito sat at the other end and Mitarai with some trepidation sat between the two other psychics.

 

"I guess you wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. You haven't hooked up with another guy trying to kill everyone have you?"

"No, but the situation is similiar. The kekkai barrier's coming down in a few weeks and I need your help. This time we can actually save the city from demons."

Amanuma brushed his hair out of his face once again and sighed. "Yeah, what the hell? You owe me, though. I always did have trouble staying mad at you, you prick. We're stationed at Yu's place, right?"

"Yes," Mitarai answered.

Kaito tried his best to remain silent so as not to jeapordize Amanuma's tenuous agreement to join them.

"My place? I said I'd help, I didn't say I'd-"

"Come on, Yu," Amanuma pleaded. "You can't expect us to operate out of Mitarai's can you? He doesn't have cable. Spirit world doesn't pay him enough."

Both Amanuma and Mitarai's gazes forced Kaito to agree despite his misgivings about having so many peole at his house. He had to admit that as the only one with a house with a yard he was the ideal one to house the team as they trained.

"Just remember to take your shoes off before you enter."

 

Mitarai managed to suspend his awe at such an easy encounter to give a day and time to meet before Amanuma walked off.

It wasn't until he was almost down the block when he realized things had gone so smoothly only because he was being toyed with.

He ran down the block where Amanuma was leaning against the front door of the arcade.

"So, who figured it out first? You or Kaito? Nevermind. You didn't really expect me to jump at the chance to put myself on the line just because you asked, right?"

"No, I just assumed that you'd betray me at the last minute just to make things really awkward. I know I'm not a very good friend but this is important."

 

Amanuma reached into the pocket of his black jeans and pulled out two tokens for the arcade behind him.

"You really are too fucking clueless, aren't you? You just needed to say one thing to get me to join. Here's a hint: it has nothing to do with protecting the city. Come on in, you have one chance to convince me."

 

Upon entering the arcade Amanuma gestured to the games after handing Mitarai his tokens. "Pick one. If you can beat my high score on any machine I'll come with you. I'll even promise not to leave you hanging at the end like I should. I swear. Gamers honor. Just be sure to play like your life depends on it. Because it does."

Amanuma opened his territory which allowed him to displace the current reality to that of a game.

"I learned a new trick since last we talked. Now I can impose a punishment of my choosing for losing. Lose and you'll die. No pressure, though."

 

Mitarai slowly walked around the arcade in order to find a game in which he had even a remote chance of surviving by beating Amanuma's high score. He settled on darts.

"I meant video game."

"Sorry. You said to pick one. I don't see your high score up there, though."

 

Amanuma plucked his token from Mitarai's hand and placed it into the darts game and picked up his five darts and stood behind the painted line where he was to throw from.

"I always had a theory that your talent for video games wouldn't extend to other games, Game Master."

 

Amanuma threw his five darts quickly in succession and ended up with two bullseyes.

"Try to trip me up at a game of hand/eye coordination. Real clever, Sea Man. You must have put a whole half second into such a dumbass plan. Just fail to beat my score and die already."

 

Mitarai threw his first dart and only succeeded in missing the board entirely. He suddenly saw his chance of beating Amanuma's score of 150 disintegrate along with his life. He silently prayed that Amanuma was only trying to scare him about his new ability to penalize those who lose against him.

He took a deep breath and tried to think of a way out of his current predicatment. His psychic powers seemed all but useless until he noticed the sharp tip of the dart and used it to prick his index finger.

He then placed the bloody dart in his mouth where his blood and saliva mixed to form and small moisture creature Mitarai could control.

He let go of the dart and concentrated on leviting it as he did his other monsters made from water.

To his surprise it worked.

Having complete control of the dart gave him the edge he needed to tie Amanuma's score with three darts, each time repeating the process of rubbing his blood and saliva on the tip of the dart and controlling it's direction.

 

He held his last dart in front of Amanuma's face. "All I need to do is hit any number. Call it a draw. I don't want you to die."

Amanuma wanted to respond with an insult but reigned in his mouth once again. He extinguished his territory and Mitarai absently threw his last dart at the board and missed.

 

"I don't get you. Most of the time you're a good guy but you can be the most selfish prick I've ever met. Stilll, a promise is a promise so I'll help. Just don't think this means we're friends again. See you in a few days at Yu's place."

 

Mitarai wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and tried to maintain his composure when he walked back to Kaito who looked uncommonly mystified.

"What happened?"
"I almost died playing darts. No, I dont want to talk about it. Amanuma's in. How many do we have so far?"

"Five. You, me, Hannah, Yana and Amanuma."

"We could use another. I'll do it in the morning, though. I'm going to sleep."

"It's only three in the afternoon."

"I know."