Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ White Noise ❯ Track One : So It Begins ( Chapter 1 )

"Yusuke!"

Yusuke winced as soon as he heard the happy voice of the oh-so-peppy grim reaper, Botan coming from behind him as he sauntered down the busy sidewalk. Yusuke groaned and decided to employ the maybe-if-I-ignore-you-you'll-go-away tactic, continuing his trek to school as if he hadn't even heard Botan, staring blankly ahead. He only got a few more steps before he felt an oar connect with the back of his skull and he turned to glare at the grinning grim reaper, who held the offending object in her left hand and a compact communicator in the other while wearing one of his school's female uniform.

"I'm so glad I could get your attention Yusuke!" Botan chirped, grinning as Yusuke glared at her menacingly, rubbing the back of his head. "You have an urgent mission from Koenma." She explained, wasting no time and continuing as if she hadn't been fully aware of Yusuke trying to avoid her entirely.

Yusuke just glanced at Botan. "I just got off a mission, I'm tired, and I'm late for class." He huffed, turning back around and heading back towards the school.

"First off, school is the other way and second, since when did you care about getting to class on time?!" Botan huffed angrily, trotting to keep up with the Spirit Detective.

"Since I was able to use it as an excuse to get out of doing Prince Pamper's dirty work." Yusuke said with a smirk, placing his hands behind his head.

"Yusuke!" Botan cried indignantly, "This could be very serious! A B class demon, whom we suspect might have connections with the demon Black Market, has managed to get into the Ningenkai!”

Yusuke groaned, "What if they don't mean any harm? What if they're just here to get a Happy Meal or something?" He argued weakly.

Botan eyed him with no small level of frustration. "It's more likely they're here to try to snack on a good portion of the human race." After all, the demon Black Market was even less compassionate than their human counterpart and was especially known for their disdain for the human race.

"You don't know that." Yusuke muttered before heaving a sigh of defeat, knowing he wasn't about to get off that easy regardless of how he argued. "Alright, whatever, fine. I'll keep an eye out for this demon of yours, kick its ass, and send it back to the Makai."

"That's the spirit." Botan cheered happily.

"What is it that I'm looking for anyway?" Yusuke huffed.

Botan flipped open the compact, pressing a button and staring at the screen as words came up. "The identity of the demon isn't known for sure, but based on a few eyewitness reports, is suspected to be the demon Eika of the Black Market. What is known for sure is that it's a B class sound demon, so you should be careful to not let it get a word in or it could brain wash you or even hurt you with just the sound of its voice and if you encounter her, definitely don't lie, sound demons have been known to become more violent when lied to as they can't lie themselves. Also, don't talk about anything you wouldn't want the enemy to know to anyone until we catch this demon. They can hear from far distances. Some of the most powerful sound demons are rumored to be able to hear something whispered from 100 miles away." Botan warned, even though Yusuke seemed completely unfazed by all this information

Yusuke shrugged, "Alright, got-," He started only to be interrupted by a familiar voice calling out to him from behind him.

"Hey Urameshi!" Yusuke heard Kuwabara shout and turned around to see the other boy running towards them and waited a few seconds, allowing Kuwabara to catch up.

"Kuwabara we gotta' go catch us some scary demon." Yusuke told him, pumping a fist.

Kuwabara immediately frowned. They had just returned from saving Yukina and while he had been completely on board for a rescue mission (especially for the beautiful Yukina), he saw no reason to get involved in a random capture mission. "No way! I'm not getting involved with any more of that demony stuff." Kuwabara huffed, crossing his arms as the trio resumed their trek down the street.

Yusuke raised a brow but didn't seem too surprised by Kuwabara's answer (after all, if he had a choice he would be taking a break as well). Instead, he shrugged and nonchalantly placed his hands in his pockets. "It'd be a shame if that demon that got into the Ningenkai was after Yukina. I might not be able to find the demon before they do something on my own." Yusuke sighed dramatically, nudging Botan to play along. “After all, she hasn't been able to return to the Land of Ice yet.”

"Oh, yes! Her tear gems are quite valuable after all. She would be a very big target for any demon that got into the human world." Botan said, nodding solemnly in agreement while trying to keep from laughing.

Kuwabara gasped in horror at this idea and struck one of his 'trademark' poses. "I shall not let a single, awful villain lay a hand on my sweet Yukina!" Kuwabara stated, whipping out his 'warrior of love' headband, gaining himself some strange stares from the people walking by.

Yusuke and Botan shot each other amused glances at how easily Kuwabara was to manipulate and resumed their trek down the street. Kuwabara soon noticed they were moving again and began trotting quickly to keep up, calling out for them to wait for him.

Yusuke looked behind him, confused when he suddenly heard Kuwabara go quiet and his footsteps slow to a stop. “You're brain finally stop working entirely Kuwabara?” Yusuke called out to him with a joking smirk on his face.

“It's nearby.” Kuwabara said, suppressing a shudder as he felt the demon energy wash over him.

“What?” Yusuke asked, not sure if Kuwabara truly meant what Yusuke thought he did. If they honestly found the demon this quickly, this job would be a bit too easy.

“The demon. It's nearby.” Kuwabara stated, keeping his voice down due to the passerbys that might over hear.

"Well it sure didn't take long for this demon to make itself known." Yusuke whispered. "They must really want to get sent back to Makai. Cocky bastard. Right in the open too."

“It's getting closer Urameshi.” Kuwabara muttered.

“I know, I know.” Yusuke grumbled in response.

While the boys looked for the demon, Botan removed the demon compass from the sleeves of her kimono, lifting it up to check for the energy signature of the demon. She immediately got a blip on the compass, the small dot representing the demon heading directly towards the group at a quick pace.

“There!” Yusuke shouted as he finally got a lock on the demon's position, charging towards the direction that he felt the youki energy, preparing himself for a fight and mentally forming a strategy to get the demon away from the crowded street. `The sooner I beat this guy into submission, the sooner it's done.' He thought to himself with a growl, stretching his fist forward through the thick crowd of people, pushing people aside to grab a handful of material and yanking it towards himself, slamming his captive against the brick wall of the building bordering the sidewalk. Around him, people shrieked and yelled seeing Yusuke seemly randomly attack an innocent pedestrian.

Kuwabara and Botan came up right behind him to stand on either side of him and look at his captive.

“Hey! Let go! What's your problem?! Get off! Put me down! You're gonna' rip my clothes~! I just got them. They're my human disguise! I need them!” The girl cried, struggling against Yusuke's hold, not seeming to care who heard her yells. She grabbed at his hand, trying to force his fist open and release his iron grip on the collar of her shirt but couldn't even get him to budge as her feet fought to find purchase against the ground from where she hung a few inches in the air.

Aria, while upset that she had suddenly been accosted by a seemingly random human, didn't feel much fear over the situation. After all, while she may not have been the best fighter, she was still a demon and how much damage could an average human do to a demon in reality? After all, every demon knew that humans were easy pickings.

Also, as well as the annoyance she also felt somewhat excited. She hadn't been in the human world for more than a few hours and already something interesting was happening to her! She could already tell this was going to shape up to be an interesting trip at the least. Hopefully, the human world would be able to keep her entertained during her stay there.

While she struggled to get free, Yusuke struggled to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. 'This is the demon?!...That can't be right.' Yusuke thought in disbelief as he gave the girl in front of him the once over. She couldn't have been any taller than 5'3” and her appearance wasn't exactly what you would call intimidating. Her bright purple hair was streaked with green and blue highlights, and pulled up into a messy bun along with a few small braids and her eyes were colored with artificial contacts to match her hair and had a faraway look to them as if her attention was being torn away by what was going on by some outside distraction that no one else noticed. She wore 3 different necklaces and an assortment of bracelets that jangled every time she moved. Her most noticeable accessories were the bells tied to her ankles, wrists, neck and in her hair. He almost would have been fooled into letting his guard down if he hadn't known that she was demon.

And there was no denying that that was what she was. Even if he couldn't sense the youki energy coming from the girl, her pointed ears, small fangs, and white tribal markings that stretched across her skin, even stretching up to her face marked as different from the regular humans walking around them.

“Yusuke!” Kuwabara cried in indignation, “What are you doing to that girl!?”

“She's a demon Kuwabara.” Botan whispered, making sure none of the crowd could hear her.

"Yusuke!" Kuwabara shouted again.

Finally, becoming aware of all the stares he was getting, Yusuke dropped the girl back down to the ground, but kept a firm hold on her wrist.

"Haha!" Yusuke laughed loudly with a fake grin, "I'm sorry! I've mistaken you for someone else. Here let me buy you coffee to make it up to you." He declared, dragging the demon girl along behind him, keeping the wide, fake grin on his face even as the crowds dispersed.

"Hey! You're lying! Let me go!" The girl cried in sudden indignation, still struggling to break her wrist free from his grasp, her jewelry and bells jangling loudly as she fought against him, bringing even more unwanted attention to the group. She wasn't so much alarmed at the idea that she was now being taken somewhere against her will but angry that he would lie to her. If he showed any threat of somehow making her unhappy she would find a way to escape no matter what, even though she'd been told not to use her youki in front of the humans.

"You're in a lot of trouble, so I'd suggest you play along." Yusuke hissed at her sternly as Kuwabara and Botan caught up with him.

“Nooo! That's lying!” She argued, trying to plant her feet and pull her wrist free but yet was still unable to stop Yusuke from dragging her along behind him, the girl obviously lacking when it came to physical strength (or just not trying that hard).

“Why are you here?” Yusuke asked her once they entered a quiet back street.

“No, I can't tell you! That's a secret! Let me go!” She cried, still struggling to get free, her efforts growing more determined as she was starting to become alarmed. This man might seek to make her unhappy, and she couldn't allow that. Her own happiness was her top priority.

“Yusuke let her go! It is ungentlemanly to handle a delicate lady so roughly!” Kuwabara argued.

“She might run Kuwabara. It's best that we let Yusuke handle this.” Botan said.

Yusuke looked at the girl who was still struggling to break free, inspecting her curiously before making a decision. “Hey!” He said loudly, getting the group's attention and making Aria pause in her frantic attempt to get away. “Botan,” He said, looking over at Botan. “You said she can't lie before right?” He asked.

Botan gave him a confused look. “Yes. I believe that's what the report said. Why?”

Instead of explaining himself, Yusuke looked back down to the demon girl. “If I promise to let you go, will you promise to not run?” He asked.

“Yusuke!” Botan protested, but Yusuke silenced her with a wave of the hand.

“Botan, you said she was a high B. I may be strong, but I'm pretty sure it would be a bit harder to hold her if she were actually trying. Also you said she couldn't lie. So either I got the wrong demon, or she's not really out to do any harm. Either way, letting her off a leash should be fine.” He explained before turning back to the girl. “So do you promise?” He repeated, looking down at the small girl.

“Should I have a reason to run from you?” Aria asked him suspiciously, her ears perking up to listen for a potential lie, her eyes becoming a bit more lucid as she focused on the situation more.

Yusuke considered her question. “I won't hurt you unless you run.” Yusuke finally answered.

Aria cracked a smile, whether it was from relief or from finding the notion of him trying to hurt her amusing was up for interpretation, but she could hear in his voice that what he said was true and that he didn't seem to want to make her unhappy. “Fine, then won't run.” She agreed.

“OK then.” He said releasing his grip.

She stumbled backwards a few steps once he let go before regaining her balance, but as promised didn't run and straightened up to face Yusuke, Kuwabara and Botan. “Well? What do you want?” She asked, with an expectant but otherwise, peaceful expression, dusting herself off. Now that the panic was gone, her eyes resumed darting about, never truly resting on one spot for more than a moment as she tried to take in everything.

"I, Kazuma Kuwabara, apologize whole-heartedly for the brutish way this savage has treated you miss!” Kuwabara said, rushing up to take her hands, before receiving a punch to the head from Yusuke while the girl giggled.

“Who are you?” Yusuke asked the girl while still glaring at Kuwabara.

“That didn't really answer my question but oh well.” The girl said, obviously not too bothered by it. “I am myself.” She responded with a slightly confused expression, as if it had been completely obvious.

“Yes but what's your name?” Yusuke growled in aggravation, having a sinking feeling that today was going to be a long day despite how easily he seemed to have captured the girl.

She giggled. “My name's Aria today.” She said with a grin. “I might change it tomorrow. I'm not sure yet.” She stated, mater-of-factly, as if it were normal for everyone to change their names day to day.

Yusuke let out a sigh of aggravation, not even bothering to pursue asking what she had meant by `today' but it seemed he didn't have to as Botan piped up, reading from the information the compact was giving her. “Her name is Aria. Age is 16 years old. A once member and short time leader of the Senritsu tribe. Reasons for her abandoning that tribe are unknown. She is a B class sound demon. Special abilities unknown if any. She is known to have her hand in the demon Black Market under the name `Eika the Truth-teller' but nothing has ever been pegged on her directly so no charges were placed. Responsible for the Kaichou Massacre two years back that killed 32 demons and 1 of Spirit World's employees and a warrant was placed for her arrest but later charges of murder were changed to manslaughter and soon after were dropped entirely. Otherwise, a spotless record.”

“33.” Aria interjected.

“What?” Botan asked, looking up from her information.

“It's 33 demons in the Kaichou Massacre.” Aria corrected her, smiling pleasantly, seemingly pleased to be able to help. She was more than happy to reveal the truth and correct falsehood whenever she could, even on such a morbid topic.

"Oh..." Botan muttered, a little nervous about how easily the girl could talk about such a bloody event, putting away her compact.

"But this is hardly fair," Aria whined, "Now you know a lot about me and I know almost nothing about you." She said, crossing her arms and pouting.

"Fine. I'm Yusuke and this is Botan.” He said, pointing over at the blue-haired, grim reaper who gave her a nervous wave, still feeling uneasy around a B class demon with nothing keeping it in check and stopping it from killing her. “And since Kuwabara has already introduced himself, would you mind telling me what you're doing in the human world now?" Yusuke asked.

Ignoring his question, Aria looked at him curiously, her mouth turned down in concentration. “Yusuke?....Hm...wait....where have I heard that name before?” She muttered, wracking her brain for the name, “Hm...Yusuke, Yusuke, Yusu-Ah! That's it! Now I remember!” She said, snapping her fingers and grinning widely. “You're the one that killed Suzaku.” She exclaimed, grinning at Yusuke, seemingly proud of herself for having remembered.

Yusuke didn't know what to make of the situation. He wasn't quite sure how famous the Saint Beasts had been in the Makai but he didn't think he'd gotten famous enough to be regularly recognized by name. “You knew Suzaku?” He asked, becoming a bit more wary of the girl.

“Kinda'!” Aria said in confirmation, still grinning. “I never met him though.”

“How?”

Aria's smile got wider and she giggled to herself. “He was well known around my part of the Makai.” She said, grinning.

“Um…Okay. Yusuke said, raising an eyebrow but choosing to not press the subject, before he could say any more the girl spoke up again.

“Was it hard killing Suzaku?” Aria asked with a wide grin, curiosity evident on her face.

“Um, kinda?” Yusuke responded with a confused expression, not sure how the situation seemed to have gotten turned on him. “But back to the matter at hand, do you realize that you are breaking the law right now and I have been told to arrest you?”

“Uh-huh!” Aria said, grinning widely. “I heard you.”

"So maybe if you could explain to me why you're here, you might get a lighter sentence." Yusuke explained, trying to reason with girl.

"Nope," Aria stated giggling. “I already told you it was a secret.” She laughed, as if his request had been nothing more than a joke. “Is it true that you work for the Spirit World?” Aria asked with a smile.

“Yes. Now can we stay focused on the matter at hand?” Yusuke huffed in aggravation, resisting the urge to start yelling, which he knew would draw attention to the group on the back street. "Well, whatever your secret reason for being here, you're going to have to go back to the Makai immediately." He growled, trying to keep his temper in check.

“Why?” Aria asked with a perplexed expression, her head tilted to the side.

“What do you mean `why'?” Yusuke asked incredulously, “Because you can't stay here! You have to go back.” He snapped.

“Yeah, but how come?” Aria asked, truly perplexed.

“Because demons aren't allowed in the human world as humans have to stay unaware of the presence of demons.” Botan interjected, seeing that Yusuke was getting nowhere and losing his temper.

“Oh. I can try to keep a secret.” Aria attempted, though she knew it probably would work. Sound demons weren't exactly known for their ability to conceal the truth. Especially when it was staring people in the face like the fact that Aria wasn't really human with her pointed ears, odd tribal markings covering her body, and the air of being somewhat `different' that just surrounded her that humans seemed to be able to sense on an instinctual level.

“I'm sorry, but we can't take that chance.” Botan responded. “You'll have to go home.”

Aria seemed to think over what Botan had just told her before coming to a conclusion, a small smile breaking across her face. "Can't do that," Aria sang, dancing around him and past Kuwabara and Botan, walking back out onto the main street, obviously thinking that her business with the group was done.

"Hey! Wait!" Yusuke yelled, no longer caring about the people who might hear as he tried to grab at the girl who easily skipped out of his range laughing as if this were nothing more than a game. "You said you wouldn't run away!" He shouted after her.

"I'm not running!" Aria shouted over her shoulder, laughing. "Now come on, you have to buy me coffee!"

"I don't have to do anything!" Yusuke barked angrily.

Aria stopped skipping to turn her head and look at Yusuke. "But you said you would." She huffed, as if confused by the idea that he would have been lying to her.

"I was just saying that to get you away from the crowd." Yusuke explained with a look of frustration.

"But you still said you would and if you don't, that would mean you were lying.” Aria said, her bottom lip jutting out.

“I was lying.” Yusuke said causing Aria to frown.

It was at this point that Kuwabara decided it was the right time to catch up to the two. "If it is coffee you want, than I will buy you some!" He declared, trying to seem heroic (and failing horribly).

"No. It has to be him." Aria said stubbornly with a pout.

Kuwabara looked perplexed but Botan stood on her toes and whispered in Yusuke's ear for him to just play along and that this way they could just get the sound demon to stay with them until they could get her to the Spirit World. Yusuke grumbled something about how Botan had better repay him which made Aria chuckle.

Regardless of how out of the loop both Yusuke and Kuwabara felt, they both grudgingly began to walk towards the nearby coffee shop.

"Follow us." Yusuke huffed, already pulling out his wallet, wishing his last five a sad farewell.

"Alright!" Aria chirped, skipping after him while fingering one of her bells. “What's coffee anyway?” She asked.

Yusuke ground his teeth and swore Botan would be paying him back twice as much. “You'll find out when we get there. Now just come on.”

”You wanna race there?!” Aria asked excitedly, already starting to trot faster in anticipation with a wide smile on her face.

Yusuke looked over at her with a confused expression at her offer. “No thanks.” He finally answered, still walking at a calm pace.

“Aw.” Aria whined, her pace slowing again, and her shoulder slumping. “Are coffee houses fun?” She asked, perking back up again as if she had never been disappointed, her mood flowing flawlessly.

“You'll find out in a few minutes when we arrive.” Yusuke ground out, already growing tired of this job.

“Alright. If you say so,” Aria said happily, a smile on her face in anticipation. She liked surprises.