A/N: So, the premise or reincarnation here was something that I was inspired by from Silver Queen who wrote the amazing fanfiction "Dreaming of Sunshine". If you like Self insterts and Naruto, well you should go check it out! I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho (even if I wished I did xD )
Chapter 1
So I guess I COULD say that this is the story how I died. But unfortunately this is no Disney movie where there was a miraculous break through at the end. Although there were times where there were random intervals of bursting out into song but let's not get caught up with the semantics. But death…well, it was scary. And despite what you would think, it wasn't because it was so unknown but because it was so final. Just knowing that everything you love was just going to be finished, no second chances, no take-backseys had a terrifying ring to it.
How did I die?
Asthma attack.
Bet you're disappointed. No exciting death where I died a hero trying to save someone and got shot. It just happened to be the one day I forgot my inhaler, plus a dead cell phone in the middle of the woods on a path I liked to frequent and a surprise attack that I rarely had and it was curtains for me. Sound extreme? Well it's really not. It's actually quite a possibility. All it takes for a trigger, a surprise face full of mold when trying to catch a lizard and it set off the attack. First came the coughing, my bronchioles trying desperately to eradicate the irritant that was not welcome in my air passages. Then came the mucous production, my body trying to stop the mold spores, something that would not be so severe to most people but because my allergies-which are horrible to have especially when you have a breathing issue that is triggered by them- are so bad, it caused a powerful response from my immune system. Then came the constriction.
It was rapid and I was choking, hacking, trying to spit out whatever mucous I could to make room to breathe but with no life-saving albuterol and no phone to call for help, however unlikely I would have been able to speak, there was no chance. It was at least a mile back to the parking lot of the church parking lot that the trail was right next to and the one busy road in town that I could have possibly got help at too far away for me to reach as well. My vision began to darken and my mind began to fall under a heavy sluggish pace, unable to form coherent thoughts and then I lost consciousness.
I vaguely became aware of the darkness engulfing me and then far in the distance, a tiny, tiny pinprick of light. I rushed towards it, chasing after for what seemed an age until at last I was engulfed in brightness, leaving my eyesight blurry. I choked, spitting up thick, gooey fluid. It clung to my lungs, in my throat and was slimy upon my tongue. I hacked again and then at last it was clear.
Air.
Beautiful, glorious air.
I could breathe and I realized I wasn't going to die. I was so close to slipping away, to losing everything that it deeply disturbed me. The thought of the finality hit me and then, I cried. I cried hard. It had been a harrowing experience and I wasn't looking forward to my next asthma attack knowing that this one had brought me so close to death's door. As I began to calm down I noticed something strange. My eyesight was still blurred and I was aware of large hands lifting me up. The terror that had slipped away returned, slamming against me in the form of a rapid heartbeat. Emotionally frayed from my near death encounter, I found myself crying harder again, squirming to get out of this giant's grasp but my limbs would not function properly. And then I heard soft cooing.
'I'm…a baby?!' I thought.
What the hell?! Well that had not been something I had been expecting, let me tell you. But that wasn't the only thing that was strange. After some time, hard to say how long since the grasp of time had been lost on me in my newborn state, but I noticed that everyone spoke Japanese! It was a language I never learned to speak but after spending all of high school and some of college watching anime, it was a tongue I had learned to recognize upon hearing it. What happened? Was I reincarnated? I strangely had a feeling that there would probably have been someone saying "I told you so" if they could see this.
It took years before I began to realize that something wasn't…well, right. If I HAD been reincarnated, well some god up there had a rock over their head the size of North America. Apparently they didn't get the memo about the update in technology because the computers I saw in the stores were dinosaurs. Like the dawn of the computer age, dinosaurs. Hey, Big Guy Upstairs (or Gal, I'm not sexist) you do remember that those guys are extinct right? Right, so you're behind the times, it happens to the best of us, but seriously, what does a girl have to do to get an Ipod around here? No luck? Well just know that it's on my Christmas list, okay boss?
I'd never really been religious before I died but after this whole scenario, I'd be willing to consider a change in faith. Considering that I was still capable of abstract and coherent thought as an infant, it made me wonder if this was how geniuses came into the world. Just reincarnated people that retained their consciousness. Well, I certainly was no genius and being born into a country that did not speak English, that meant I was going to have to learn Japanese. I'd said many times in high school that I wanted to learn but never mustered up the motivation to do it after I learned about the extensive character collection of Kanji. And let me tell you, learning it did suck.
My parents named me Midori. A name I now snicker at since in my era it was the brand name of some melon liqueur that I had never tried. Another strange thing I had noticed was even though I was in Japan, not everyone here was born with dark hair and dark eyes. While my hair had come out black as a raven's feather, my eyes were the only thing that stayed the same from my old body. A vivid green and that was how I was given the name Ito Midori.
Going to school again sucked, though. I mean, I already finished the basic stuff. I was still working on my degree in college when I croaked but I had thought going through grades K-12 was only a one-time thing and I would never have to look back. But I suppose it did help me get up my motivation again. After years of doing minimal studying, my attention span on textbooks and notes had been…well, limited. Something else that was appreciated was that Tou-san, while firm, was happy whenever I came home with A's and B's. Growing up-the first time around- I had parents who, while only wanted what was best for me, always told me that I still needed to make my B's A's. This, over the years, killed my motivation to even maintain that roll of grades and make me feel that my efforts weren't good enough. After all, I tried to make good grades to please them because I had not firmly grasped why it was important.
This time around I did understand the necessity of them and with a diligent but lonely father who had lost his wife(aka my second mother) shortly after my birth, he helped me get motivated. I made good grades and I did better at making decent friends this time around. When I was young, I was so desperate for approval and for someone to like me, I was a push over and would quickly settle for someone who would tolerate me being around but this time I knew better. I made friends, only a few but good ones.
But I did miss my technology. I longed frequently for my PS3 in the corner of my room back home, but knew that it had not even been invented yet. Based on my surroundings, I could only guess that I was sometime in the eighties, despite the fact I had no idea why I would jump BACK in time. None the less, I missed Assassins Creed, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy and all the other games I loved. Lacking the typical distractions and entertainment I usually had, I begged Tou-san to sign me up for martial arts.
Even though there was a code to adhere by, it was nice to know that I could kick ass when I wanted too. I participated in tournaments and once I came in second, though it never happened again and I loved doing it. I even volunteered for plays like I used to the first time I went to school. Things went well, even if I did have to go through the hormonal phase of puberty again. I thought I was just living a normal life, even if I was fifteen again. Tou-san enrolled me in a local private school, wanting me to receive the best education. Meioh academy. The name pricked at my memory but I could not recall where I had heard it from.
Still I dismissed it as nothing and was more than happy to attend the private school Tou-san had picked for me. The school was nice but the uniform was obnoxiously pink-and vaguely familiar. I thought everything was normal. Until I passed by a mob of girls, giggling and vying for someone's attention. I deliberately was going to ignore them since that kind of simpering usually grated on my nerves when I heard one of them call out a familiar name.
"Suiichi-kun~!"
I froze for a moment. It couldn't be. Slowly I turned and looked to see who they were talking too. Flaming red hair, tumbling to his midback, a lean and tall stature and brilliant green eyes like my own. It was Kurama. Kurama. Fucking Kurama, king of thieves, fox demon from Yu Yu Hakusho. Suddenly, things weren't so simple anymore.