Andrea and Brian's Crazy Cross Over Anime

CH. 4:  THE DARK FOREST AND SOME NEW FRIENDS

           The morning clouds glowed a golden orange as the sun peeked up over the hills. The small stream bubbled cheerfully, accompanied by a chorus of birds. It was a little chilly, but no one minded – they were all still asleep.

           “Puuu.”  Puu blinked sleepily and gave a small yawn.

           Well, he tried to give a small yawn, but something was preventing him from breathing that deeply.  He wiggled out of Keiko’s arms (almost dropping Kurama’s jacket onto the ground) and stood staring at the clearing around him.  He blinked several times. Those big peach things sure looked funny.

           Some he recognized, like the short one up in the tree, and the kind one sitting propped against it.  Then there was the blue haired cheerful one and the green haired quiet one, huddled together for warmth.  And the dumb, orange headed one sprawled out on the grass, drooling.  The blond girl who always hit the dumb one was sitting against a tree as well, her head hung.  Then there was the one who always took care of him, lying beside him.

           But there were many he hadn’t seen until yesterday.  The brown haired girl with a pink vest was curled up really close to a spiky haired guy.  A really long (tall, but Puu was looking at him laying down) one with messy yellowish hair was snoring loudly, a leg and an arm up over a rock and his other arm oddly bent above his head.  A red headed girl and her black haired friend appeared to be being eaten by strange, soft, long, brightly colored demons – but since they didn’t seem disturbed Puu ignored them. 

           Three small humans, with funny hair were resting against one another.  His two friends from the night before were snuggled close to them.  And the blue haired boy who hadn’t moved since sometime yesterday was lying in the exact same position the loud one with messy blond hair had left him in the evening before.

           Puu finally found the person he had been looking for.  He waddled over the short distance between Keiko and Yusuke happily.

           Puu rubbed his head against Yusuke’s face.  Yusuke swung an arm at him lazily, missing him by a mile.

           “Just five more minutes.” He mumbled, turning his head away from the disturbance.

           “Puu?”  Puu nudged at the back of Yusuke’s head.

           Yusuke felt something warm on his neck.  “Keiko, stop that.” He muttered.  “Leave me alone.”

           The warm pressure stopped and he sighed, still sound asleep.

           Puu backed away from Yusuke.  He could feel that the boy was still tired, but it was time to be up!  His ears twitched and he noticed the sound of the stream.  With great effort he flapped his ears, pulling himself unsteadily into the air.  He flew to the little stream.  Collecting water between his ears and his stomach he slowly waddled back over to Yusuke.

           “Yuck!” Yusuke sputtered as a dash of cold water hit his head.  He sat bolt upright, wide awake.

           “ALRIGHT!  WHO DID THAT?!”

           The others began to stir sleepily as his shout echoed through the forest.

           “Puu?” The blue creature eyed Yusuke innocently.  Yusuke looked down at his spirit beast.

           “Oh Puu!” He groaned.  Now he looked around at the others, who were a little miffed (they had been up pretty late the night before after all.)  “Well,” he stood wearily, “We may as well get started.” He eyed Puu disapprovingly, “Since we’re all up.”

           “Puu!  Puuuuuu!”  Puu jumped around happily.

           “What’s he saying?” Meowth asked, puzzled.

           “Meowth!  I though you spoke pokemon!” Jesse said accusingly

            “Yeah, but dis ting ain’t no pokemon.”

           “Ohh!” Jesse hit Meowth, “a lot of help you are.”

           “Jesse?” James perked up.

           “Oh great!” said the author.  “Now you’ve woken James.  You’ll ruin my fic.  Get out!” the author plucked Jesse and Meowth up carefully and tossed them into a notebook labeled ‘Pokemon’. “Much better.” The author nodded in satisfaction.

           When Jesse didn’t respond to James he fell into a depression once again.

           “Drat.  And I was hopin’ I wouldn’t hafta carry him today.” Joey’s face fell.

           “Shut up!” the author commanded.  So he did. (Hee hee.  I’m scary yay! ^__^) 

           “Excuse me?” Kurama interrupted politely, stepping between the author and a very frightened Joey.

           “Um, y-yes.” The author was having trouble breathing. <He is so hot!> (*drool*)

           Kurama noticed, but being a gentleman didn’t comment.  He smiled brightly, “Shouldn’t we be going now?  We do have demons to catch, and I’m afraid you’re blocking our path.  Or I suppose it would be more accurate to say that we need you to write a path.”

           “Oh, right.” The author blushed, “Sorry about that.” Quickly resuming her position at the keyboard she made a quick plot change.

 ***

            “Are we der yet? Dis quy’s gettin’ heavy.” Joey grumbled.

           “Oh, shut up Joey!” Tea snapped as she pushed her hair out of her face.  This wilderness thing was just not working for her.  How had she survived Duelist Kingdom?  Oh yeah… Mai.

           “Nyee ”(you know, that funny noise he makes when something freaks him out on the dubbed anime?) Joey pulled away from her.  “Soorry.”

           “Shut up and keep walking fool.” Hiei scowled at him without turning to look at him.

           “Hey, short stuff! I don’t see you helping.” Joey glared at him.  “Maybe you’d like to give this a try!”

           “Hn. Don’t try my patience.”

           “Hey, lighten up bu-ddy!” Takuya started to elbow Hiei but then thought better of it.  Several people glared at him.   He smiled and crossed his arms behind his head.  “The way I see it, we’re all gonna be stuck here together for a long time.  We may as well try to get along.”

           “And how do you suggest we do that?” Misty asked, “they don’t seem to want to get along.” She looked pointedly at Joey and Hiei (Kero, fortunately, was sleeping inside Ash’s backpack so he wasn’t causing trouble.)

           “We could try ignoring each other.” Hiei said darkly.

           “I know!” Keiko smiled, ignoring him, “Why don’t we play a game?!”

           “Oh yes! Of course Keiko, it’s a wonderful idea!” Botan beamed at the other girl.

           “Hooray!” TK smiled, “Can we play ‘I spy’?”

           “What’s that?” Yukina asked.

           “It’s a game where you give a clue about something you see and the others try to guess what the object is.  The one who guesses right gets to give the next clue.” Tea explained.

            “Oh.” Yukina looked uncertain.

           “Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.” Tea assured her.  “Why don’t we let TK start, since he suggested it.”

           “Alright.” Now TK seemed uncertain.  He looked around.  “Um, I spy with my little eye something that is… green!”

           “Grass?” Takuya asked, TK shook his head.

           “A tree!” Tea exclaimed, “maybe that one.” She pointed to a tall tree in front of them.  TK smiled and shook his head again.

           “Yusuke’s face when Keiko’s with another boy!” Botan suggested (more to bother Yusuke than to really guess).

           “Argh, SHUT UP Botan!”  The boy clenched a fist. Everyone laughed.

           “Well, uh, my bag is green.” Ash said.

           “Right!” TK beamed and giggled.  “It’s your back pack.  Your turn.”

           “Um, okay.” Ash scratched his head.  “I spy with my little eye something that is,” he paused searching frantically.

            “Sometime today kid.” Joey muttered.

           “Um, something that is, uh…” he looked down at the ground and an idea came to him, “something that is round!”

           “That rock?” TK asked.

           “A tree knot?” Keiko suggested.

           “Is anyone wearing any jewelry?  Maybe it’s a ring or something.” Tea suggested.

           “The center of my puzzle?” Yami asked.  Ash just made a negative motion.

           “Um, is it somebody’s eye?” Joey asked.  They all looked at him, mildly disgusted, “What!?” He exclaimed defensively, “the colored part is round!”  Only Kuwabara seemed to think this made sense.

           “Give us another clue!” Botan said.

           Ash thought for a moment “Um, okay.  It’s also red.”

           They were stumped.  They had no idea what Ash had chosen.  Hiei was getting impatient.  They had all stopped walking to think.  Finally his irritation overpowered his desire to remain apart from the silly human game.

           “It’s his shoe.” Hiei said. Everyone looked at him in surprise. “He has a red circle on his shoe.” Hiei pointed. They looked at Ash’s feet and then his face.

           “Uh, yeah. He’s right.” Ash was in shock.

           “Hn.” Hiei snorted and resumed walking, “If we’re going to play this ridiculous game, could we at least not stop walking.” Hiei said sharply.

           “Oh, right!” Yusuke exclaimed.  The others quickly scrambled to attention, trotting after the fire demon.  But they were still playing their game.  Though they had to pick a new starter as Hiei refused. 

 ***

           Several pairs of eyes watched the large group’s procession through the forest. They were laughing and swatting at each other.  Cheerfully pointing at various objects and occasionally tugging on their own clothing.  Obviously they were playing some sort of game. 

           “They seem to know their way around.” A girl whispered to her companions.

           “But can we trust them?” one of them asked seriously.  All three considered this for a moment.  But then the girl began to get anxious – the group would soon be out of sight.

           “I think we can trust them.  Maybe they can help us.” She stated firmly, preparing to rise.

           “Sakura, no!” her companion reached for her, but he was too late, she had already stepped out from the bushes.

           “You should know better Li.” Julian smiled cheerfully as he too stepped out onto the path.  “There’s no stopping Sakura when she thinks she’s right.  I think it’s a family trait.” He paused thoughtfully, considering his best friend, Sakura’s older brother. He nodded, “Yes, definitely.” He pushed his glasses back up on his nose.

           Li resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he followed after them.  He couldn’t very well leave them alone out here.  Who knew what would happen.

           He hurried to catch up to his companions, who were already rushing to catch up to our cast.

 ***

           “I spy with my little eye something that is shiny.” Kurama’s eyes sparkled with mischief.  This was his fifth or sixth turn, and this was a good one.  He glanced sideways at Shizeru.

           “My pokeballs!” Ash exclaimed.

           “Nope, try again.” Kurama smiled.

            “Is it my bracelet?” Tea asked.

           “Hey, we should’ve guessed that on the round one!” Kuwabara sounded upset.

           “Not that it would have helped, moron.” Yusuke snickered, “That wasn’t the answer.”

           “But it’s still round!” Kuwabara insisted.  Yusuke sighed and rolled his eyes.

           “No, it isn’t the bracelet.” Kurama stated easily.

           “How about the screen on my PET.” Lan suggested hopefully.

           “Wrong again.”

           They fell into silence for a moment, all considering the people around them.  Due to the fact that they were in constant motion (something Hiei had insisted upon) they had finally decided only to choose objects connected to the people in the group, or at some distance ahead of them.

           “Any ideas?” Kurama asked, “How about you Shizeru?” He noticed her eyes hadn’t left the object since he had given his clue.  “Or were you busy?” his voice held an innocence that his eyes betrayed.  He was enjoying this.  The truth was, her eyes hadn’t left the owner of the object since they had woken up that morning.

           “Uh.” Shizeru seemed dazed, “What? I’m not even playing.”

           “But you’re staring right at it.” Kurama said.

           Shizeru flushed slightly and darted her eyes away, “Um.”

           “So what is it?” Tea asked.

           “Yeah, come on.  That’s not fair, withholding information like that.” Lan said.

           Shizeru just stood there.

           “Please, Shizeru, I want to know.”  Yukina pleaded, her innocent eyes wide.

           Shizeru tried to ignore her, but she couldn’t.  She let out a sigh, “It’s his buckle.” She nodded at Yami, trying to sound casual.

           “His… buckle?” Keiko asked.

           Shizeru nodded, “The silver buckle on his neck.” She said, struggling to keep from blushing again.  Why had she been staring at him?  Stupid red headed fox boy!

           “Oh, I get it!” Kuwabara grinned goofily, “But why were you staring at him, Shizeru?” Shizeru glared at him, and suddenly he remembered the night before.  “Oh!” he started laughing.

           “Shut up!” Shizeru snapped before turning and walking away.

           “Wait? Why was she staring at Yami?” Tea’s arms were crossed and her eyes flashed dangerously, “Somebody had better answer me!”  Yami gave a half smile and approached Shizeru. 

           “I believe under the rules of the game you must give the next clue.” He stated quietly, his deep voice sending shivers down her spine.

           “Uh, I pass.” She waved a hand, trying to seem uninterested in… well, everything.

           “I see.” He shrugged, “Suit yourself.”  He slowed his steps, allowing her to move away from him.  He turned to his best friend (or maybe that’s Yugi’s best friend, whatever.) “Joey, why don’t you give the next clue?” 

           “Okay, sure.” Joey grinned, he had been waiting for this chance, he had a really good one. “I spy with my little eye something that is-”

           “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Kuwabara’s yell interrupted him.

           “Hey!” Joey glared at Kuwabara, “It’s my turn! So shut up and let me give the clue already!”

           But he didn’t because at that moment they all saw the thing that had made Kuwabara scream.  It was a girl dressed in pink.

           Yusuke started laughing, “Hey man, scared of a little girl?” Kuwabara was shaking.  Yusuke noticed and walked over to him.  “Hey man, it’s just a kid. What is with you?”

           “She’s g-glowing Yusuke.” Kuwabara stuttered. 

           “Glowing?” Yusuke asked skeptically.  Kuwabara only nodded. “This wouldn’t be like when Puu was glowing now would it?”

           “But Puu was glowing.” Ash pointed out.  Yusuke ignored him.

           Kurama focused his attention on the girl in front of them.  “I do detect a faint pink aura.” He stated calmly.

           “WHAT!?” Yusuke exploded.  “Is she one of the demons?”

           “Demons?” Tea’s eyes widened. She stepped closer to Yugi, err, Yami.  She had almost forgotten about demons.

           “She may be a demon, but she isn’t one of the vandals I’m certain.” Kurama said firmly.

           “Nah, she’s not bad.  She kinda feels… good.” Kuwabara affirmed.

           “I am good.” The girl smiled, “and I’m not a demon.  I’m a human.  And I was wondering if you could help us.  You see, I don’t think this is my world.”

           “Us?” Kurama searched for the others she was referring to.

           “Yes, my friends and I.”  She turned around and seemed to notice for the first time that her friends were not with her.  She didn’t seem upset though. “Come on Li!” she called cheerfully.

           A sullen boy in a green shirt and kakis came out, followed by a tall teen with gray hair.

           “Ahh! They’ve got magic too!” Kuwabara exclaimed.

           “Hmm, and it’s definitely not spirit energy.” Kurama mused.  "It appears the girl is correct.  They are not in their own world.  It appears their plight is similar to that of our new friends.” He indicated the large group.

           “WHAT?!” Yusuke was not happy. “MORE!?”

           “Geez, calm down buddy.” Takuya opened one eye lazily to look at him.

           Yusuke growled.

            “I guess this means they’re coming too, huh?” Tea asked.

           Kurama nodded, “They’ll have to.” He turned to the new comers and smiled, “Welcome to our um…” he looked around, “expedition.  I’m Kurama, and the other introductions will have to wait.”

           “Why?” Li’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

           “Because we have to save the sacred forest from de-ooof.” Kuwabara held his recently elbowed stomach, “Hey, sis, what’d ya do that for?”

           “Can it, dummy.”

           Botan stepped nervously between their new charges and the Kuwabara siblings, “Ahhaha, what he means is that we’re searching for a way to send everyone home.  So you should come with us.”

           Sakura smiled brightly at Li, who frowned, “See! I knew they were nice.  I knew they would help us.  It’s too bad those other people didn’t want to come with us.”

           Yusuke turned around slowly, “Other people.” He closed his eyes, hoping to make it all go away.

           “Yes.” Sakura nodded.

           “How many other people?” He asked, grinding out each word, slowly.

           “Well,” she paused, thinking (she looked kinda cute when she did that), “There was a red headed man, and an older girl and a boy about my age with him.  And then there was another man.  He seemed very unhappy.”

           “So, four others.” Kurama looked at Yusuke, an almost apologetic look in his eyes, “You do realize of course-”

           “I know, I know.” Yusuke interrupted him, “We’ll have to find them and take them with us.” He turned to Sakura, “Where did you leave them?”  She pointed off to the left.

           “They were going to follow the river in the hopes of finding a town.” She said.

           “Do you remember which direction they were going to follow?” Kurama asked, “Upstream or down?”

           Sakura looked confused. 

           “Upstream.” Li supplied, seeing Sakura’s embarrassment.

           “Well, at least we shouldn’t have to back track.” Yusuke said grumpily, they were already headed upstream.

           “Hn.  And we’ll catch up to them easily.” Hiei was annoyed (so what else is new?)

           “That depends on when they started, and from where.” Yami stated.

           Kurama turned to Sakura once more, “How long have you been here, and how far have you traveled?” he asked inquisitively.

          “We’ve been here three days and we’ve been traveling downstream.”

          Yusuke groaned.

          “Uh, is that bad?” Kuwabara asked dumbly.

          Even Joey rolled his eyes, “Yeah, moron.  That means dey got several days head start.  Extra ‘cuz they started out further ahead of us den here.”

          “No.” Li shook his head, “We didn’t split up until yesterday.  And they weren’t moving very fast.”

          “So how far ahead do you think they are?” Tea asked wearily, wondering how fast she would have to walk.

          Li considered, “Maybe a day if we’re fast.”

          “Alright!” Ash was pleased with the prospect of picking up the pace.  TK and Takuya groaned.  It seemed they were destined to spend their lives running around strange places – even in this new world.

          “Then let’s hurry.” Hiei darted forward, the others followed behind.

          “You know,” Kurama came up beside Yusuke.  “A day ahead, considering they started half a day ago, would put their point of origin on the outskirts of the sacred forest.  And they have been here several days.” He mused.

          “What’s your point?” Yusuke eyed him in irritation.

          Kurama gave a low chuckle, “If we’re fortunate we may find no demons at all.  This could all have been a misunderstanding.”

          Yusuke brightened slightly at this thought, “I hope so.” He said.

          “Excuse me?” Julian’s voice sounded politely from the back. “Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.”

    ~~~~

[A/N: The soft things Puu saw 'eating' Ash and Misty were their sleeping bags in case you missed that.]

More PUU!

Yep, just for you.  And Li and Julian too! But that was for me.

Kuwabara is stupid.  Why are so many people in this fic stupid?

Oh, shut up!