Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ White Noise ❯ Tuning ( Chapter -1 )

White Noise -noun

A steady, unvarying, unobtrusive sound that can drone out, mask, or obliterate other noise.

Meaningless or distracting commotion, hubbub, or chatter

Aria, who was about 5, sat in the middle of a field of flowers, bordering thick woods, holding a small stuffed bunny and listening to the sounds of angry voices that were steadily drawing closer. The tall grass hid the girl almost completely so she felt there wasn't much cause to worry, plus, if there really was a threat, someone from the tribe would have been sent to retrieve her and deal with the problem. After all, as the “first child” of her tribe's alpha, her safety and overall well-being was constantly being considered. In fact, unless she'd been mistaken, she thought she'd heard her older brother Kiai trying to hide himself in the forest nearby earlier, probably sent to watch over her without bothering her play, which of course was not to be disturbed. It wasn't often that Aria got to go out and play, especially not in the fields boarding the tribe so far away from the tribe's watchful eyes and more importantly, listening ears. In fact, it had been months since Aria had been allowed this far without at least two escorts and weeks since she'd been given time off from being the tribe's “blessed child”. She planned to enjoy this `play time' as much as she could as it might be her last for a while before the rituals of her home that took up most of her life resumed once more.

This made the noise of what sounded to be another child running towards where she was hiding all the more exciting.

Aria's pure white hair was braided into pig tails with bells on the ends and her pale gray eyes looked towards the sounds. But what she found even more interesting than the angry shouts was the sound of frantic footsteps running towards her. Her sound demon ears picked up every breath, every growl, and every heartbeat of the approaching demons. Aria guessed that the people shouting were about 200 yards away and the other person running to be only about 100, drawing closer with every second. Despite the malice in the voices and the fact that they were getting closer, her eyes held nothing more than innocent curiosity. It had been a while since anyone had dared get so close to claimed sound demon territory.

Aria had been allowed to roam that day by her father since he knew how bored she would get at the tribe meeting that was being held. As soon as she had been granted the temporary freedom, she had come to the field that was just outside her tribe's territory because it was there that she could hear the sounds of the Makai clearest, which made her feel powerful and all-knowing like her father who could hear a pin drop on the opposite end of the Makai, not to mention it was the closest she would ever probably get to the outside world. The day she rose to take her father's position would be the day that her metaphorical leash would finally bind her to her tribe forever. Aria had only arrived at the field a few moments before she had begun to hear the angry shouts of a group of demons and she thanked her lucky stars that it was shaping up to be an interesting day. She hated boring days.

'Daddy's not gonna' like these mean people in his territory.' Aria thought, frowning slightly. 'If they come too close, he might actually come to stop them himself.' She shot a quick glance back towards the direction of her home where she could pick her father's throaty laugh out of all the noises that were bombarding her ears from every direction, hoping that he was thoroughly distracted.

"Where's that ungrateful brat!?" She heard one of the approaching voices yell in fury, causing her to wrinkle her nose in distaste and turn her attention back to the approaching matter at hand, already deciding that she didn't like the rough sound of that particular demon's voice.

"He doesn't sound very happy, does he Mister Hoppity?" Aria murmured, looking down at the stuffed rabbit clutched in her arms. After a few seconds, she nodded to the bunny as if it had said something. "Yes, I think you're right. We should probably go hide."

With that, she got to her feet and quickly trotted towards the nearby woods, a playful smile on her face, giggling as she ran. She twirled and danced with every step she took. The bells tied to her ankles, hair and around her wrists jingled with each movement, mixing with her laughter to create a light melody which only seemed to delight the girl more.

Behind her, as she climbed into a tree, the tree almost seeming to bend itself to allow her easier access, she noticed a small boy around her age running desperately across the field, bleeding badly from a cut on his chest. He had dark black hair with a white star burst and was wearing tattered black pants with a white shirt. Aria moved a branch of the tree aside so she could get a better look at him.

'Ohhh! Something interesting! An outsider!...But he's heading right this way…does he not know this is our territory?' Aria thought, grinning gleefully, watching as the boy ran towards the woods she was hiding in, stumbling every few steps. She knew that her tribe had told her that outsiders were dangerous and to be feared but this one didn't seem all that intimidating and it had been a while since something had come along that caught her interest, what with how cut off the sound demon society was, which only served to make this event all the more exciting for her. 'I bet he's the one they're after...I wonder what he did.' She leaned forward on the branch to get a better view of the boy as he stumbled into her woods.

The moment he stumbled into the forest, he had entered sound demon territory and Aria could only hope that her father was too enthralled in whatever business he was taking care of to notice the sound of light footsteps entering his territory. Shutting her eyes tight in concentration for a moment, Aria used her youki to muffle the sounds of his steps. She couldn't completely cancel the sound out from the distance since she was young and wasn't powerful enough yet, but she hoped it would be enough to convince her father it was nothing more than a rabbit (though she doubted it) and just to be certain she spoke a tiny plea to her father that floated across the wind to let the outsider be in peace.

Even from the distance, with her sharp hearing, she could hear every ragged breath the subject of her interest took and she could tell he was definitely worse for wear. The boy fell to his hands and knees for a moment where he caught himself, breathing hard, his arms shaking from the strain on his body. His bright red eyes flashed in fear for a moment as one of the voices shouted loudly enough for even the boy's ears to hear. Aria watched in fascination as he shook off the fearful look to replace it with a burning anger. He used his anger and fear to fuel his energy and pushed himself to his feet again, continuing to sprint forward.

By this point, the rest of the demons were only about 50 yards away, searching furiously through the tall flowers and grass of the field. Aria watched with rampant curiosity as the boy finally collapsed and fell unconscious at the base of the tree that she was hiding in. In her mind, that must have been a sign from her ancestors that she should definitely take an active role in the demon child's fate.

She glanced over at the ragged looking demons that were still angrily searching the field, shouting threats, obscenities, and curses as they searched, only further cementing Aria's distaste for the group. Once she was sure that their attention was elsewhere, she looked down at her stuffed rabbit, giving him a stern look. "Now you stay here Mister Hoppity. No funny business.” She commanded setting him down, “Don't move. Do you understand?" She said, shooting a final stern look over her shoulder before hopping down and landing next to the boy lightly, her bells making no noise at all.

She crouched next to him, inspecting his collapsed form with interest as if he were just a specimen for her to examine. Her innocent eyes were knit together in a worried expression as she took in the large cut on his stomach. "Well I can't let the fun stop so soon by you dying. Then things would be boring again." She chirped to the unconscious body, grinning at him. She knelt beside him and wrapped her arms around his torso, trying to lift him off the ground.

She whined and struggled as she hefted him half way into her arms. Once she was satisfied that he was safely in her grasp, pulled him back over the tree she had originally been hiding in and looked up at the branches expectantly. A pout formed on her face as the tree did not move for her as it had the first time. “Down.” She demanded with a huff and the tree seemed to begrudgingly lower itself for her, the demonic forest around her home finally bending to the small girl's will, recognizing that she was a part of the family that often fed the forest sacrifices. From there, she struggled to drag the lifeless body up to where she had been before, out of sight of the rather large and powerful demons in the field.

Ten minutes later and thoroughly out of breath, she laid the boy back against the trunk of the tree, switching him with Mr. Hoppity, whom she'd returned to her grasp with a gleeful hug. Aria then turned her attention back to the boy who lay bleeding next to her. She surveyed him for a second before grinning. Quickly, she got to work tearing off the bottom of her dress and ripping it into strips like she'd seen her tribe's medics do with bandages.

'Wha-Why does my chest hurt?' Hearing the sounds of ripping fabric, Hiei began to slowly return to consciousness with a groan. He forced one eye open to see some stranger, tearing up fabric. Immediately, his survival instincts kicked in and he grabbed frantically at the katana strapped to his waist and faster than Aria could blink and held the blade to her throat, his breath coming out in ragged gasps as he struggled to keep the blade up while also trying to keep his balance to stay on the branch. He glared over at her as he scrambled to his feet and piece together where he was from the memories his still sleep fogged mind was offering up.

Aria didn't seem fazed in the slightest and merely paused in her ripping to grin over at Hiei. "That's a weird way to say 'thank you'." She giggled, "Oh, and be careful that you don't fall. That would hurt. And it was really hard getting you up here." She told him, still grinning.

Hiei just growled and held the blade closer to the girl's throat, thinking that she might be a servant or slave girl of one of the bandits who were chasing him. Not removing his eyes from Aria, his hand flew up to where his tear gem was still hanging from his neck. The fact that it was still safely around his neck relieved him slightly, but only slightly.

"What's your name?" He demanded, fighting back any signs of pain.

Hearing him speak for the first time, Aria giggled delightedly, deciding that she liked this one's voice much more than the other demons in the field. "My name's Aria! I don't have a last name because my tribe is one whole family so we don't get last names. But if I had a last name, I would like it to start with a 'B'. That's my favorite! That's because my favorite color starts with b. It's blue. What's your name?!" She said, almost bursting with enthusiasm and a large smile on her face.

'What a weird girl.' Hiei thought to himself, with a small inner sigh of exhaustion. Hiei glared at her but put his sword away. Not really because he didn't see her as a threat but more because blood loss was making him tired and he would rather put his sword away than seem weak by dropping it. The moment he moved, the pain from his chest caused his vision to swim and he stumbled forward, trying to keep his balance.

"Don't want to tell me your name, huh?" Aria interjected into the silence while the boy across from her struggled to remain conscious. "Do all outsiders not like to give their names? Do all outsiders not have names at all!?” She cried, suddenly coming to the realization that maybe only those in her own tribe had names at all. After all, she had never actually met anyone outside her tribe before.

Hiei shot her a look as if she were stupid. “Of course I have a name. And it's no business of yours.” He bit out through gritted teeth.

Aria looked taken a back for only a moment and then the wide smile returned. “That's OK. I don't mind. I'll just give you a name instead. I think I'll call you....." Aria paused as her 5 year-old mind struggled to come up with an appropriate name before a wide grin split her face. "Ishkabibbles!" She laughed, grinning at him.

Hiei glared at her as he struggled to get words out through the pain, wanting to tell her that she should be killed for having called him such a ridiculous name, his 6 year old pride hurt at the name which his mind could only describe as "cutesy", which Hiei would not tolerate for himself. After choking on his own breath for a few moments, deeming speech too much of a hassle, he just settled on glaring at her instead.

"You should sit down so I can help you." Aria said, seeming unfazed by his glare.

"I don't need anyone's help." Hiei ground out, baring his fangs at her angrily and his red eyes flashing in both pain and annoyance.

Aria wrinkled her nose in frustration. He was lying. Sound demons, from the moment they are born can call a lie when they hear it. The sound of one would grate on their ears like nails on a chalkboard. "Lying isn't very good. People won't want to help you if you lie like that." Aria said, frowning.

Hiei just huffed indignantly, plopping back down and crossing his arms. "I am not lying. Why would I want anyone's help, especially yours?" He huffed, still sulking slightly from the nickname she had given him. He was not an 'Ishkabibbles' darn it!

"You are too lying!" The young girl argued stubbornly. "Now sit still!"

He shot a glare at her in warning, as if to say she would be in trouble if she came any closer, but Aria didn't seem to notice as she got up from her spot and nimbly crossed the branch, makeshift bandages in tow.

"Off!" Hiei cried scooching away from Aria, who sat next to him and began to try and bandage up his chest.

"Stop moving!" Aria whined, "I ripped up my favorite dress so the very least you can do is sit still."

"Make me!" Hiei snarled, struggling to get away until all the moving caused him to disrupt one of his broken ribs. Hiei had to bite down on his tongue to keep from yelling out in pain and was momentarily sedated by the pain.

That one moment was all Aria needed and she immediately moved in to begin to bandage Hiei's chest and the small cut on his head. She hummed as she sat next to him and, as much as Hiei wanted to lash out at the girl, both the humming and blood loss were dulling his sharp demeanor. He was just too tired to be difficult and the drunken members of the gang of bandits he was in hadn't gotten his tear gem, that was the important thing, Hiei reasoned, allowing the other girl to begin to bandage the cut on his chest. Plus, even he realized that the bleeding needed to be stopped. 'Oh well. It's not like anyone can see, so no one will be able to tease me for this.' Hiei thought sluggishly as Aria finished bandaging his chest and moved to his head. 'She seems too weird to be any real trouble anyway.'

Aria almost laughed as the boy calmed down as she hummed, immensely proud of herself that the sedation sound demon trick that her father had taught her had worked. Even Kiai, her oldest brother hadn't mastered that one!

"I bet he's hiding in this forest!" One of the demon's searching through the field hissed, his silted eyes scanning the woods for signs of life as his snake-like tail swung behind him.

"If you want that brat's necklace that bad, then go!" A dog demon growled, coming up to stand next to his ally at the edge of the woods. "I'll come back in the morning to get your corpses. That's sound demon territory," he huffed, taking a deep swig from the bottle he was holding.

"If they didn't grab the little bastard already, they probably aren't listening right now." Another of the group reasoned, also sounding completely drunk. "I say we go in."

"Sound demons are always listening, you idiots." The dog demon growled. "I'm going back." He said with a wave of his hand, turning back to go the way he'd come. "The brat'll get hungry and come crawling back soon any way."

"Pfft! Let him leave, that means more for us when we sell that gem."

"Yeah," Another agreed, "So what are we waiting for?" He cried with a blood thirsty smile, before taking his first step into the forest, waiting a few seconds, and then, turned back towards the others. “See?! Nothing happened!” With that, he continued in now followed by his comrades.

"When I find that brat, I'm gonna' beat him into next week for being so troublesome." One of the demons growled as he stepped into the forest.

Hiei was shocked back to attention by the sounds of his pursuers coming from directly below him. His head snapped down to see the three bandits walking just a few feet away from the base of the tree he sat in. His breathing picked up and he immediately began to try and struggle out of Aria's grasp to climb higher into the tree and away from the demons pursuing him.

"Hey! Stop!" Aria cried, not bothering to keep her voice down. She grabbed hold of Hiei, trying to keep him in place as she attempted to continue to bandage his head.

"Quiet." Hiei hissed, glaring at her, "They'll find me!" He continued to try and break free from her grasp, which would have normally been easy for him, but since he was trying to do it quietly and also because he was weaker from blood loss, it seemed much harder than it really should have been. 'Is this girl trying to get me found?!' Hiei thought frantically, shooting the three demons below him a fearful glance, surprised to see that they showed no indication of having heard the girl.

"No, they won't~." Aria sang, rolling her eyes as if she found his fears absolutely ridiculous.

"What the hell are you talking about!? Be quiet! They'll hear you." Hiei whispered desperately, trying to keep his voice down and shooting nervous glances between the bandits and the smiling face of the girl across from him. 'The moment they're out of hearing range, I'll kill her!' Hiei thought angrily.

Aria just giggled and grinned. "Nu-uh."

"Shut up!" He growled, raising his voice as loud as he felt safe. 'This girl is either an enemy or insane.' He thought angrily.

"I can prove that I'm right! After all, sound demons can't lie." Aria exclaimed excitedly, "See. Watch Ishkabibbles."

Hiei shot her a confused/angry look, but it quickly turned to panic when he saw her draw a deep breath into her small body. 'No, no, no, no, no. She wouldn't! She can't! No. No!' Hiei choked on a yell, just barely managing to stop himself from shouting at her just in time, realizing that would be just as bad as whatever she was planning.

Aria finished drawing in a deep breath and she let out a loud scream that, to Hiei, seemed to go on for hours. Hiei held his breath, listening to the echo of her shout ricochet off of the tree trunks before finally fading off into the distance.

'She's insane! It's over. I'm done for. I'm out-numbered, over-powered, tired, injured, and this crazy girl just did me in.....Well at the very least, if I'm going to die, I'm taking her with me.' Hiei thought resolutely, whipping his katana out with a furious snarl, preparing to cut off the girl's head.

Just as Hiei was preparing to swing his blade, she turned to him and gave him a wide grin while pointing down towards the ground below. "Told you!" She laughed, causing Hiei to momentarily pause and glance down.

He was positively floored.

Down on the forest floor, the three drunken members of the group of bandits Hiei lived with were searching through the brush as if they hadn't heard a thing. Hiei knew they were drunk, but he didn't think they were that drunk. He frowned in confusion, watching as they searched the forest underbrush, just waiting for reality to set in and the greedy bandits to look up and see him. He waited and watched for a few more seconds but that reality never came.

They hadn't heard a thing.

“I'm a sound demon!” Aria giggled, pointing to herself as if proud of that fact.

Now satisfied that it was safe to yell, he whipped around as fast as his injured body would allow to glare at Aria. "Why the hell'd you do that!?"

"Because you didn't believe me." Aria stated simply, confused as to why he was getting so mad.

Hiei struggled to find an appropriately angry response but his 6 year old vocabulary just wasn't cutting it. "You....You're insane!"

Aria just grinned at him as he collapsed back down into his sitting position against the tree trunk. "So why are they after you?" She asked with an expectant grin on her face.

Hiei shot her a look that told her he wasn't about to answer her, but that didn't in any way damper Aria's good mood.

Trying just to ignore her, the young fire apparition closed his eyes.

"Hey Ishkabibbles?" He heard her say and cracked open an eye to see Aria staring down at the ground.

"Hm?" Hiei hummed, though he still scowled from the use of the idiotic nickname.

"How good are your three peoples' sense of smell?" She asked him, looking up at him with concern.

...Smell? Wha-?..."Oh Shit!"

He grabbed the girl's wrist and leaped up a few branches, dragging her along behind him, even though he was still weak, adrenalin fueling his actions.

"Mister Hoppity!" Aria shrieked, trying to grab her bunny before Hiei dragged her higher into the tree but missing it by a few inches. "Heeyy-mmph!!!"

Aria struggled against Hiei who, despite his size and blood loss, held her firmly against the trunk of the tree with his hand against her mouth and his other pinning her to the tree.

Slowly, he removed his hand from her shoulder and pressed it to his lips in the universal sign for 'shut up' and then took his other hand away from her mouth.

Aria looked at him, with her lip jutting out slightly as she pouted but then shot a fearful glance back down to Mister Hoppity who was hanging off the branch of the tree, seeming as if he could fall at any moment. "Mister Hoppity..." She whined weakly.

Hiei, ignoring the girl, looked down from his perch in the tree, glaring at the three demons. 'How, at a time like this can she possibly be worrying about a toy?!' Hiei thought, 'Doesn't she realize that if they find me, they'll just kill her too?'

Below the two, the snake demon searched around the base of the tree they hid in and Hiei held his breath. He could see the snake demon's tongue flicking in and out as he searched for Hiei's scent. Hiei tried not be scared, not to sweat, not to breath, not to think. The snake demon could probably smell all of those.

Beside him, Aria just watched and listened. She could hear the snake demon's sniffing the air but what she was more focused on was the sound of his heartbeat. It was weird and labored, causing Aria to become curious (not that that was uncommon) as to if something was wrong with the bandit. The demon groaned and flopped down at the base of the tree, and Aria was now almost certain he was sick. But then she noticed her brother Kiai hiding away behind one of the trees and grinned; now almost sure that her brother had something to do with it. Looked like there would be three more offerings for the demon forest that day.

'Is he...sleeping?!' The young Hiei thought incredulously as he stared down at the snake demon. Almost as soon as the thought entered his head, snoring erupted from the collapsed demon and Hiei's suspicions were confirmed. The snake demon had collapsed in a drunken stupor at the base of the tree and upon further inspection, Hiei found that the other two demons had as well!

He couldn't believe his luck, completely unaware that it had actually been a few members of the sound demon tribe that had sung the three demons to sleep. 'Another day, another group of drunken demons outsmarted.' Hiei thought smugly with a somewhat relieved smirk, only to be shocked out of his thoughts by a rustling noise beside him.

"What are you doing!?" Hiei hissed, as he saw the girl next to him trying to shimmy back down to the branch they had been on.

"Mister Hoppity," Aria whined, not taking her eyes off the stuffed rabbit a few branches down.

Hiei just growled, rolling his eyes and jumped down and grabbed the rabbit before jumping back up to where Aria was still trying to struggle down. "Here!" He huffed, holding out the rabbit. "Now will you stop acting like such an idiot?"

"Mister Hoppity!" Aria squealed and rushed forward to grab Hiei in a tight hug, causing him to shout in shock and struggle backwards, thinking that it was some form of attack.

Ignoring the now blushing and glaring Hiei, Aria let him go to grab the bunny from his grasp and hugging it tightly with a wide grin.

Hiei just rolled his eyes, but seeing the girl hugging the rabbit reminded him of his own safety blanket and he absentmindedly fingered his necklace that he had been working so hard to protect, growing tired now that the threat seemed to have been eliminated.

"Do you like that necklace or something?"

Hiei snapped back into reality. "Huh? What?"

“That necklace. It's pretty. Why do you wear it? Back at my home, only the women wear stuff like that. Do guy outsiders wear women things?" Aria stated innocently.

Hiei growled and grasped the tear gem even tighter in his hand. "I wear it because I want to!"

Aria calmly accepted that answer, not too concerned. "Okay." She hummed, swinging her feet just a bit to make the bells on her ankles jingle.

Hiei regarded the girl carefully before sitting down. "Why are you helping me?" He asked, for the first time speaking to her civilly while letting his legs hang off the branch and swing beneath him.

"Because I think you're interesting." She said, giggling. "And I was right! You're very interesting Ishkabibbles! And also you have a nice voice."

“A nice voice?” Hiei ground out. Did she not realize he could slit her throat with very little effort and not even a second thought? She was going to ignore that because…he had a nice voice?

“Yep. In fact, I think it's one of my favorites I've ever heard so far!” Aria said, happily, not catching the negative tone in Hiei's voice, or at least not acknowledging it.

Hiei growled, turning his head to hide a blush. "My name's not Ishkabibbles.” He snapped, “And glad I can serve as your entertainment." He grumbled sarcastically.

Aria laughed. "Well, if you dislike it so much, tell me your real name and I might stop calling you Ishkabibbles."

Hiei paused, weighing the pros and cons of giving out his name before finally making his decision to tell her, if only to get her to stop calling him Ishkabibbles. "It's...Hiei," He muttered, crossing his arms. He really didn't feel like arguing with her as he was starting to have to struggle just to remain conscious.

"Hm...I like that name." Aria said grinning. "I've decided. You're going to be my friend." Aria stated resolutely.

Hiei rolled his eyes. "You can't just decide something like that." He said, gritting his teeth as he continued to battle to remain awake.

"Yea-huh. Because I've decided." Aria said stubbornly, crossing her arms. "So it doesn't matter. You're gonna' be my friend no matter what."

'No matter what?' Hiei repeated mentally to himself, trying to find some logic in what the girl was saying. 'Does she even know what she's talking about? What a strange gi-' Before Hiei could finish his train of thought, the blood loss and day's excitement finally caught up to him and he fell out of consciousness and into the darkness of sleep. The last thing he heard was the girl laughing and the sound of bells.