Peeking Through A Window
In the back alleys and abandoned pathways of Japan, there lay many delinquents. Street punks, toughs, and other shady folk. So many of them are young people trying to prove themselves and find their place in the world. They all have one thing in common.
They all go down to Urameshi’s fist.
Kazuma Kuwabara, who is currently sprawled out across the ground, is no exception to this rule.
”Th-that was a cheap shot and you know it Urameshi!” the orange haired teenager shouted, slowly getting up and nursing his newly forming swollen eye. Despite having become comrades in arms against demon plots after Yusuke’s case with Rando. The two would still find themselves getting into scuffles, brawls, and general altercations that two stubborn, bull-headed teenage boys that talk with their fists often do.
Yusuke Urameshi looked back, raising his eyebrows, a playful smirk rising across his face.
”Oh hey, you’re still conscious?” he was almost impressed, if there wasn’t a gigantic mountain of snark and pride in the way.
Kuwabara only fumed more at the remark, causing Yusuke to let out a smirk as his one-sided rival rushed to his feet holding one arm on his shoulder as he started winding up and walking forwards”
Okubo started to try and hold Kuwabara back, before Sawamura stopped him “You know he isn’t gonna listen…” he huffed out.
”I mean, he’s lost hundreds of times at this point…” Okubo sighed “but if there’s anyone that could take Urameshi down…” He decided to let the unsaid words speak louder.
Kuwabara swung a wild haymaker on his right, careening into Yusuke, who raised, letting it slide off of his forearm. The two traded strikes, Yusuke slinging his own right arm down, right into Kuwabara’s gut while the boy’s fist was overextended. Kuwabara let out a heaving gasp, but quickly grit his teeth, grabbing onto Yusuke’s shoulder with his reached out arm, a fistful of green uniform in his hands as his other arm mirroring this motion, as he slammed his forehead into Urameshi’s, letting go as he made contact.
Kuwabara grinned to himself, as he watched his frenemy stumble back, “Just because you’re some kinda big shot spirit whatever doesn’t mean that I’m gonna take it any easier on you!”
The punched punk stammered a bit in slight panic, ”Hey hey hey! Can it loudmouth! You want the whole block to know about all that?!” Yusuke looked more mad than before, his words punctuated by his fists. ”SHUT. THE. HELL. UP.” Letting his knuckles absolutely crash into Kuwabara, over, and over, and over again. A flurry of punches turning into a flesh colored blur. Ending it with a sickening thud as he found purchase right under Kuwabara’s chin. Kuwabara was launched up into the air, and he just didn’t stop.
Something made a horrible, wretched screech, followed immediately by the sound of a crash, as Yusuke found himself sprinkled in smatterings of glass shards. His arms instinctively going up to prevent him from any fatal injuries.
”The hell was—“
Yusuke didn’t get to finish his sentence, before he saw Kuwabara come crashing down, along with a red-headed girl he’d never seen before that landed directly on top of him.
*****
Kuwabara found himself sailing through the air, his eyes swollen, it made it hard to see, but there was something with wings. Kuwabara, who was in a particularly dazed state, simply mumbled incoherent words, slurring them together, but it sounded like he said “Watch out there big birdie” before his acceleration betrayed his intentions, slamming him into something that had no feathers. He felt something break against his body, not bones, something made out of a material that, given the circumstances, didn’t seem relevant to discern. Suddenly he felt someone’s weight shift against him, a body.
A voice that seemed to get further and further away screeched. The sound hit his ears, and he felt a familiar sensation in his gut. it felt like… Like a demon was nearby! He snapped his eyes open only to see some sort of flying imp reaching out a hand, and to realize the body that was against him didn’t seem like a demon. Then again, Rando didn’t seem like one either. The red-haired girl seemed to panic and struggle slightly, more out of confusion than anything else. It was odd how that flying guy seemed to get further away but he didn’t seem to be moving up or flapping his wings much.
Kuwabara was swiftly and painfully introduced to the ground, and judging by how he was lying there, it seemed like they were about to have a long, long conversation.
*****
“CLOSE YER DAMN EYES, I AIN’T GONNA SAY IT A THIRD TIME!!” Yusuke shouted at Kuwabara’s friends, who after watching their toughest friend once again handily lose, finally followed his words, before Urameshi whipped his head up, and fired off a spirit gun at the demon, as light beamed from his fingers, the redhead gasped, and the demon was done for as it careened into the dirt next to her. She started frantically attempting to wriggle out of Kuwabara’s half-conscious hold. “The hell is that thing!?”
Urameshi blinked, he blinked a couple more times.
”You… can see that??”
”Can i s— wh— OF COURSE I can see that!! I ain’t blind!”
Okubo took a peak in between his fingers, and found the girl gesturing at thin air, his face morphed into profound confusion.
Yusuke wasn’t quite so mad at her irritation as much as he was caught off guard by her awareness, “Well yeah ‘s just… Most people can’t?”
her face quickly was one that screamed ‘is this guy a fuckin idiot?’ via expression alone.
*****
Kuwabara slowly came to, still bleary eyed, but he felt something writhing against him, and looked down to see a redheaded girl. His eyes bugged open, and for a second he admired her appearance, relishing that he had a cute girl in his arms, but nearly instantly upon seeing that she was not voluntarily in this position, he let go.
”g-geeze I’m real sorry about that” Kuwabara said in a hushed tone, as sheepish as he was out of it.
He watched as the girl leapt out of his arms, bouncing with a flip, using him as a springboard while he groaned.
She landed, and with a sigh began eyeing down the group of punks. She had this look on her face, like she was trying to process everything around her. She gave Kuwabara the stink eye in particular.
“Kuwabara” Yusuke huffed, “tell your buds to shove it, or go with them somewhere else, I don’t care which. I think this just turned into business.”
Kuwabara gave a small, knowing nod, feeling conflicted about the idea of leaving without his friends, but needing to make sure this lady doesn’t hurt his rival. If anyone is gonna take Urameshi down, it's gotta be him.
The blue-clad punk patted himself off as he had finally finished that lengthy chat with terra firma, back on two legs. “Sorry guys, I gotta jet, but we’re totally goin’ to the arcade tomorrow!.” Kuwabara flashed a small, stoic smile, which only accentuated his various bruises and swellings that Urameshi dealt him.
”Yeah, that’s uh, probably for the best” Okubo chimed in, wondering if there had been some kind of underground gas leak making Yusuke and this random lady see things, or perhaps they just hit their heads too hard finally, but whatever it was, Kuwabara could clearly use the rest before they all hang out.
*****
Ranma simply looked back, and forth. Confused, trying to figure out the situation before he piped up again
”Someone better start explainin’! Because I’ve seen a lotta…“ he paused, a bit of nervousness hitting him, as he almost gabbed about his curse this early on, “a lotta— y’know, weird stuff! And if you know ki that definitely means—“
Yusuke clasped his hand over Ranma’s mouth “WELL YOU ALL BEST BE ON YOUR WAY.” Yusuke shouted at the group, as much tact and subtly as a monster truck commercial, “BYE NOW! BYE! GOODBYE.”
Ranma fumed at being held again, especially at being silenced. As friends of this Kuwabara guy walked off, exhaustion and injuries finally overtook the orange-haired punk. Finding rest in the paved dirt. As Yusuke looked over his shoulder at his frenemy being whisked away by Mr Sandman, Ranma saw an opportunity. Quick on his feet, Ranma’s hands snatched onto his uniform, throwing the green-clothed punk over his shoulder. Releasing himself from the forced silence as Urameshi hit the pavement.
*KRAK*
”THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?” two voices shouted in unison, both equally perplexed at the other’s reaction, though Ranma didn’t know why he was the one freaking out about it.
“I threw ya because ya grappled me, you clown!”
”I had ta get ya to hush because not just everyone’s gotta know about spirit energy! Sure as hell makes my job a lot harder if a buncha blockheads are running around trying to shoot beams outta their hands at each other. They can't see it but they sure as hell could know about it!”
He did suppose that very few people knew how to properly use ki. Hell, his old man never got around to teaching a technique quite like that. Ki projection, sure, using it to heal battle wounds or projecting your battle aura, yeah. But if there were techniques quite like this, he was frankly shocked his old man hadn’t strapped him down with some torturous inane training ritual to have him master it. The thought that this guy had learned ki manipulation like this, just some random street-tough, was frankly insulting to him. But he also had to admit, as much as he loathed to do, ever, that if such a technique was capable of being learned by anyone. It would probably only make his ever stressful and complicated chaos of his day-to-day life even more of a mess.
”Well ya didn’t hafta grab my mouth like that!”
”Well maybe if you’d stop running it I wouldn’t have to shut it so fast!”
*****
“What I was TRYIN’ to say” the girl huffed in front of Yusuke, “Was that if you know ki, it means I need to get pops to hurry up and stop slacking.”
”Spirit Energy” a new voice rang out, softly correcting the girl. All heads turned to this new source, not even realizing he had shown up, was Kurama.
”Although I suppose ki isn’t exactly terribly inaccurate either” he continued.
”Kurama!? The hell you doin’ here?” Yusuke yelled, underlying the question, his tone betrayed him, happy to see the man whose mother he helped the last time they met. More genuinely confused than anything.
Kurama simply pointed at the scene. “I believe those remnants of glass were what I was looking for, but that doesn’t matter all that much now that it’s gone. Nothing more that can be done.” the fox boy turned to Yusuke, a slight smirk growing on his otherwise calm and reserved face, “I take it the demon that had it in possession is gone now?”
”Demon?” The girl seemed perplexed, but not all that surprised. “That’s a new one.”
Yusuke rubbed the back of his head with a hand, ”Well that saves me the trouble of explainin’ that part.”
“Oh, she’ll understand it in time. Although— it’s rather rude to talk about someone rather than to them.” Kurama turned his head to the pigtailed girl, “My name is Shuichi Minamino to those who don’t know about these sorts of things, and Kurama to those who do. I would appreciate having a name for whoever the window seemed to bring here?”
*****
Okay, this is all just a little much. The last thing he knew he was experiencing what was supposed to be a peaceful day at the Tendo dojo, a rarity considering what his life had turned into. Before he knew it, he was falling from the sky, and in that Kuwabara guy’s unwanted bear hug, and now they were talking about demons or something? He supposed if curses, dragons, and ki were possible, so were demons. These demon hunter guys just had a different name for ki, whatever. All of this was so bizarre, and this guy mentioned something about a window bringing him here? And then… And then… A name.
“I’m R-…”
Shit.
Should he just be honest? say I’m ’Ranma Saotome, and I have a curse to look like this’ and find some hot water to show them? He’d transformed plenty of times, but he should keep his cards close to his chest. This was a whole different sort he was with. if they were some kinda demon hunters, they might think his curse made him a demon or somethin’. Or might try and hunt him down too, not that he really thought he couldn’t take them, just that he should make things easier on himself. Yeah, it’d just be easier for him to be a girl-. His stomach began to ache at the concept. F-For now anyways. Just for safety. Besides, they were starting to stare.
”Ranko, Ranko… Ranko Saotome.”
He couldn’t help himself, his pride in the Saotome style of anything-goes martial arts made him unable to resist using his family name. He started sweating, already aware that this was going to cause trouble later on, but in too deep now to change it.
Kurama had a small reserved smile as ’Ranko’ finished saying his name. “A pleasure.”
“What’s this window stuff about?” He changed topics quickly, both curious, and trying to steer everyone else away from thinking too hard about his name, hoping they’d forget it.
*****
Yusuke put his hands on the back of his head, “Yeah, I actually ain’t up to speed on this either.”
”That’s to be expected. I’m only aware of it because I worked with Hiei. He mentioned that someone else was planning a heist of an artifact from spirit world.”
“And that’d be the window, huh?”
“Indeed.” Kurama’s voice was calm and calculating, but a twinge of warmth as he regarded Yusuke, “He was hoping to use the thief’s timing to his advantage. He-” He corrected himself, remembering that he was not exempt from this crime. “We had struck at the same time as him.”
”Got a name?” Yusuke piped up again, his voice hungry for a fight.
“Hiei is scant with details, even more so than most demons. It’s unlikely even he knew exactly who it was.”
Yusuke clicked his tongue, disappointed, “Great, more work.”
Yusuke watched the girl start to flounder slightly, waving her arms in front of her, a very loud yet silent ‘no’ being apparent, “Hang on hang on hang on! You’re sayin’ your source is a demon? Where do ya even find one’a those!?”
Oh this should be good Yusuke smirked, “Yeah, tell her Kurama” He couldn’t help but snicker.
“It’s quite alright, I understand her confusion.” His small smile turned into more of a coy grin, “It’s not every day you meet one face to face after all”
Both of them watched Ranko sit there, flabbergasted. “W-Wait… YOU’RE a demon?!”
”Reborn into the shape of a human.” Kurama added, adding some additional flavor and context for her to digest.
Ranko just squinted in confusion for a brief moment, before shrugging, her demeanor turning placid, “Yeah, okay.”
Yusuke raised his eyebrows, “Figure you woulda been a little more surprised.”
This time it was her turn to laugh, though it came out more like a scoff, “Trust me, I’ve seen weirder. ‘Sides, ain’t like anyone else seems to know what’s going on with this whole ‘window’ thing, or who you guys are, or how I got here. There’s worse things to trust. I’d believe a demon quicker than that panda. And in a heartbeat compared to his teacher.” The girl seemed to shudder at the thought.
Kurama folded his arms sinking deeper into his thoughts, “About that window, it’s original name is the gateway window, it’s purpose, to pull an individual with a high potential for spirit energy. Regardless of where, or who. It’s likely the demon was going to use it in an attempt to recruit some sort of army of psychics, or perhaps just looking for a fresh source of food. Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter much now. Considering its current state, it would be more likely to be used for arts and crafts than anything else.”
Kurama stepped between the two, “How about we take this conversation somewhere else, a little less public? Botan should be filled in on this new development, if I’m not mistaken, spirit detective.” He said those words with a playfully wry smile.