Adult-FanFiction.org : YuYu Hakusho

Thanks For The Memories	By : AdminRaptor Category: Yuyu Hakusho > Het - Male/Female Views: 2200 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, nor do I make any money from writing fanfiction.

Chapter List
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[A few days later:]
One of the things I learned about Yomi in, even in the short time that I'd known him, was that he sought power.
After the first decade, his senses had heightened so much that he didn't need any help at all exploring great distances on his own. His ability to get around was no longer based on the familiarity of his environment. His senses would only continue to become more sensitive to his surroundings. Accordingly, he became a much better fighter. I actually had to work my ass off to hit him and dodge his strikes.
Sometimes other demons would underestimate his abilities, their focus solely on his being blind, and both of us drew great satisfaction from Yomi proving their assumptions incorrect, to put it nicely. To put it bluntly, he kicked their asses. Word had begun to spread about a blind demon who could fend for himself. Some demons hated him for his abilities. Others came to fear him. A third group of demons saw him as the leader he was capable of becoming. He gained a number of allies, friends, and enemies.
At first, I had teased him about gaining power. His determination, however, shocked me and I went from teasing him to cheering him on. I'd even travel with him to nearby villages so that he could continue to prove himself as both a leader and a fighter. We were heading home from one of those villages, in fact, the first time Yomi saved my life.
[...]
"People are disappearing?" I stopped walking.
Yomi stopped too. He looked like he was concentrating, so I waited. After a few seconds, he nodded. "Yes. That's what they're saying, anyway. Humans and demons." Two demons had walked by us, looking worried. I barely caught any of the conversation, but Yomi had heard what they were saying, and continued to hear them even despite a considerable distance between us and them. I waited to see if there was more information until he shook his head. "I can't hear them anymore."
"Did they at least say where the people were disappearing from?" We began to walk again.
"No."
We continued on in silence. It wasn't by any means unusual for a demon to attack both humans and demons. It happened all the time. Demon World was a dangerous place before Raizen, Yomi, and Mukuro took power. Even afterward, it was still often pretty dangerous. There were all sorts of wars between different groups of demons. Sure, there were human wars too. After all, this was the time before the barrier between human world and demon world was set up. However, human wars hardly impacted demons, except to reduce our food supply.
Yomi and I were on our way back home from another village. The village we'd visited consisted of both humans and demons, which was a fairly rare sight considering that demons eat humans. Humans tend to flee when demons come near, as you might expect, so you can probably see why places with both humans and demons living in "harmony" rarely existed. But I must clarify: the humans and demons in those villages didn't exactly live in "harmony". It was more like "conditional peace." The humans would tend to offer the demons their criminals, and in exchange for not having to work for their food, the demons would let the humans live, and sometimes even protect them, so long as they remained useful. At least, that was how the particular village that we had just left worked. I could only speculate that other villages that contained both human and demon inhabitants worked in a similar fashion.
We were traveling through the mountains that surrounded the villages nearest the hut, the mountain route being shorter than any other route to get home since it went straight through the mountain and not around it. The path going around the mountain was the official path, and by official, I mean that that was the one that the humans (and most demons) used to travel due to the nature of the mountain path. It was more risky. There were countless drop-offs, little to grab on to if you fell, and the ground was rough and uneven. I couldn't tell you the number of times I nearly fell off of one of the paths. You'd figure I'd die sooner or later. And indeed, I nearly did.
The path had begun to narrow, eventually becoming so thin that it forced Yomi and I to walk single-file. There was a river below us, the water moving swiftly. It was quiet other than the sound of the river and the sound our feet made hitting the dirt path. Combine that with the cool, crisp air of the mountain, and I would have described it as peaceful, really.
"It's kinda nice up here." I pointed out.
Yomi had been walking ahead of me, and he stopped, causing me to nearly bump into him since I was paying too much attention to the scenery. He lifted his head to face the sky, and I looked up too to see if he'd heard anything up there.
"Yes. It is nice." He finally said. "The sun balances out with the coolness down here. It's perfect. Not too hot. Not too cold."
I had to admit that when Yomi would describe his surroundings, I would gain a new appreciation for them. Sometimes I would catch myself wondering if I might be a little bit jealous of Yomi's blindness. What, I would wonder, must it be like to experience, rather than simply see, one's surroundings? Yomi, though blind, would notice so much about the environment that I wouldn't even think about.
We stood there for a few moments in silence, appreciating the serenity. Then deciding that it was time to continue, Yomi turned and continued walking and I followed.
Suddenly, something came from behind, wrapped around my ankle, and tugged my foot out from under me. I landed hard on my chest and stomach, my jaw slamming into the ground just as hard. Stunned, I didn't even have time to think as I found myself being pulled quickly over the edge. There was nothing for me to grab onto or to even slow myself down; Yomi spun and dived toward me, grabbing my wrist as I went over. The thing was still pulling and Yomi braced himself against the edge of the path, placing one hand flat on the ground to steady himself in an attempt not to be pulled over with me. I couldn't tell if I shrieked due to the pain of being pulled from both ends or the terror I felt. Probably both.
Definitely both.
I looked down at my ankle. It was a tentacle of some sort that was wrapped around it. It was extending out of the water. The demon underneath the water that was connected to the tentacle almost looked like a person, if you ignored the fact that he had tentacles for arms, that is. Another one came shooting out of the water, wrapping itself around my waist, pulling me down harder. Looking back up at Yomi, I saw him straining and grunting against the pull. But he couldn't hold onto me forever, not if he didn't want to come toppling off the ledge with me. And that was only a matter of time. All it would take was one more tentacle pulling on me.
I convinced myself that if I was going to die, I would at least try to give Yomi a chance to live. I swallowed, and, voice shaking, I told him to let go of me.
He refused, but I was sure that even he realized that his refusal wasn't going to amount to much if this kept up. After a few more moments of struggle, Yomi trying to keep me from being dragged under the surface of the water, and me kicking and thrashing against the demon's tentacles, the battle ended. Yomi lost.
My wrist slipped from Yomi's grasp and the next thing I knew, I couldn't breathe. I was underwater.
I did everything I could to pry myself away from the grip. I was panicking, and the tentacles were hard to grasp. Because of my panic, I wasn't thinking clearly enough to even use my own powers. It was that mistake on my part that perhaps played the most significant role in nearly ending my life. I heard a splash next to me but I was paying too much attention to trying to get away from the monster's grip to see who it was. Out of nowhere, the grip loosened, and I swam up to the surface, desperately in need of air.
I was so close to salvation, I could see the surface getting closer and closer to me, but I didn't make it. I had to have been mere inches from the surface of the water when I was once again pulled down by one of the tentacles. I didn't fight it this time, though. I couldn't. It was too late. I had no oxygen. And the surface became farther and farther away.
Some demons possess the ability to breathe underwater. Some demons even have the ability to hold their breaths for an extended period of time. I wasn't (and still am not) special in this regard. My tolerance for a lack of oxygen might be greater than a human's, but it would still take a considerably short time for me to drown or suffocate. In this case, I knew, I just knew, I was going to die.
Seconds seemed to pass like hours. I continued to sink, but it was slower than it had been before. I could feel the tension of the grip on me fluxuating. It was because Yomi was attempting to kill it. Opening my eyes, I caught a glimpse of Yomi fighting this thing and the strangest thought occurred to me.
Here I was dying, and when I saw Yomi fighting the demon that would cause my death, all I could do, for a split second, was wonder how it was that Yomi was able to battle underwater, considering his speed was reduced and his senses would have been dulled. There was also the added fact that he'd only be able to fight so long as he could tolerate the lack of oxygen (and it turned out that he held a much higher threshold in that regard than I did). Still, I'd be damned if he wasn't trying to fight this thing despite all of that. Even underwater, he was surprisingly quick, punching this slightly humanoid-like monster in the face quicker than I would have thought possible, considering the resistance of the water.
Darkness started to creep into my vision. I saw a bright green blast of energy coming from one of Yomi's hands and making direct and full contact with the other demon's face. The tentacle around me went slack. Despite the fact that I was so close to drowning, I wasn't panicking, though I also didn't swim toward the surface either. I felt detached from my body, in a sense. It was almost peaceful. The last thing I saw was Yomi turning and swimming toward me. The last thing I felt was Yomi grabbing my wrist and the silk-like water surrounding me.
[...]
I don't know how long I was unconscious, but I do know that it was long enough that Yomi was panicking. At least, he appeared as though he'd been panicking.
We didn't have or know about CPR at that time, so what could Yomi have done that managed to bring me back to consciousness? Simple. He punched me in the gut. Multiple times. Coughing, choking, and sputtering up water, I curled into a ball, holding my stomach. My sudden gasp for air was loud and harsh. I also ended up coughing so much, and so hard, that I vomited until nothing was left. An optimist might joke that at least I knew there was nothing left inside of me, inside of my lungs, or my stomach, but I'm glad such a person wasn't there at the time because if someone had said something like that to me then, I would have murdered them.
Once I finally stopped struggling with the dry-heaving and coughing, I sat still, with my eyes closed, for a few moments to compose myself. Yomi had held my hair as I retched and rubbed my back as I coughed. Afterward, he had put his hands on my upper arms, holding them lightly, as if he were trying to steady me. I appreciated it. The silence was nice, at least until I heard the water flowing.
My eyes snapped open and I turned. I shouldn't have been surprised that we were so close to the river, as it would have made no sense to walk away from it before trying to prevent someone from dying. Still, I didn't want to be anywhere near it anymore. I didn't even say anything. I just got up and ran away from it as fast as I could. I didn't stop running until I got home. I didn't know or care then whether or not Yomi followed me. He did. He arrived not long after I had gotten there. I was nearly hysterical, the realization that I could have died fully dawning on me. I could have died. I almost died. I almost drowned.
Raizen decided to make an appearance right before Yomi got there. I was an absolute mess at that point. Raizen arrived with Kokou, but immediately left her side and came to mine when he saw me.
"Whoa, Rein. What happened?" He gently pulled my hands away from my face, where they had come to rest. I was too upset to respond. I just hugged his neck, trying as hard as I could not to have a full-blown panic attack. And that is when Yomi finally arrived. Shocked at first, I'm sure, Raizen wrapped his arms around me tightly, and I buried my face in his shoulder.
"What the fuck happened to her?" Raizen screamed to Yomi. "What the fuck did you do to her?"
"I didn't do anything to her!"
"Oh, really? Then why is she hugging me? She doesn't hug people. I've never seen her hug anyone, even when she's upset. I've fucked her countless times, and now, oh now she hugs me. Something happened. She's terrified. What. The. Fuck. Happened?" He was pissed.
"The only thing I did to her was save her life!" Yomi yelled back. "If it wasn't for me, she'd be dead!" There was that word. Dead.
"I knew she should never have helped you! I knew it!" He was being a bit irrational, but I couldn't say if I wouldn't have been either, if I had arrived and saw a friend in the near-catatonic state in which I'd been. I didn't want them to fight, but I wasn't exactly in the sort of mental state to speak sensibly. Besides, they'd probably fight regardless of what I said, and one of them would probably die as a result. That thought, that fear, shot through my body and my mind.
And that's when the panic attack started. I felt like I couldn't breathe, and that only further reminded me of how I'd felt when I was panicking and trying not to drown. My breaths were coming in hard gasps, and no matter how many breaths I took, it felt like I had no oxygen within me. My chest hurt. It felt like someone was crushing it, squeezing my heart. Each beat hurt. I felt like I was just going to go ahead and die, pure fear and adrenaline coursing through my veins. I moved my arms toward my chest and my legs trembled.
Raizen shot me a worried look and grabbed my upper arms, shaking me lightly. He said something that didn't register to me, then shook me again, a little bit rougher that time around.
"Rein. Rein. Look at me. Look." He grabbed my jaw with one hand, directing my head to face him. "Everything's going to be fine." His gaze shifted to where Yomi was standing. "Especially after I kill that son of a bitch."
Yomi responded with a growl. "I'd like to see you fucking try."
It was Kokou who spoke up next:
"Stop. Both of you. Neither of you are helping." Walking over to me, she grabbed the corked gourd that was tied around her waist and uncorked it. "Drink," she instructed. I did. It turned out to be sake. Both Yomi and Raizen protested this new development as I coughed from the burn of alcohol.
"What?" Kokou asked. "Neither of you were doing anything, and if this helps her calm down, then why the fuck not?"
The sensation of the burning itself was enough to snap me out of my panic attack. The feeling came back, though, when I took a step back from Raizen and he moved past me over to where Yomi was. Instead of gasping for air, though, this time I just sobbed, loud and hard. Kokou, this stranger I barely even knew or I barely even talked to over the past two decades, held me as I sank to my knees.
"Please!" I begged, the word breaking into pieces as I continued to sob. "Please don't fight! Please!"
Yomi and Raizen were giving each other the most hate-filled looks that they could muster. After a moment, during which the tension was palpable, the two broke their expressions and crossed their arms, neither of them wanting to acknowledge the other. They walked over to where Kokou and I sat. Kokou and Yomi talked about what had happened, and while Raizen may have realized that he'd been wrongfully upset with Yomi, he didn't say anything about it.
It took some time for my sobs to die down. Part of the reason that I calmed was probably that the alcohol was finally starting to kick in and my thoughts were slowing down. Kokou tried to pull me up to a standing position, but I wasn't yet ready for that. I hugged my knees instead. She asked me if it was okay if she and Raizen left, and I nodded. I didn't really want Raizen to leave, but I didn't want there to be further risk of the two men fighting. It was then that I finally stood and squeezed Raizen's neck in a hug once again. He made a promise that he would be back to see me soon. I nodded again, and they left. I watched them walk away until I couldn't see them anymore through the trees.
I jumped when Yomi put a hand on my shoulder.
"Are you okay?"
I turned to face him. "Define 'okay'." That got a small chuckle out of him. Before he could say anything else, I closed the short gap between us, and threw my arms around his torso. His arms were around me almost as fast. I could feel the tears coming again.
"I could've died." I said.
"I know."
"I thought I was going to."
"Me too."
"I should have fought harder. I… I didn't think…" I looked up at him and added, "Thank you… For coming after me… You saved my life."
"You don't need to thank me."
"I do, though. You had no reason-"
"No reason?" He asked as though he were offended.
"You could have left me behind. You wouldn't have had to put your own life at risk, I mean."
He looked conflicted, as if he couldn't decide whether or not he was going to say anything else. After a moment, he let out a breath and said, "...I had a reason," and before I could ask what it was, he held my chin up and his lips met mine.
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Thanks For The Memories