Chapter 12
Hospital Bed Crawl
the hush sound

In the backseat of a car, in the corner of a room
In the shadows where I hide from you
And the violently alone I feel

"You're gonna be our spy," Urameshi told Amai. "If you can manage, that is."

Amai blinked dully, the words swimming around in her head but not making a single bit of sense.

"Who am I spying on and what do you wanna know? What are you gonna do?"

The three boys exchanged looks that ranged from 'just freaking say it' to 'I dunno' and 'well, we can always erase her brain'. Amai bristled at the voiceless exchange. She'd never really spied on anyone before, and she didn't even know Mii and Goton so how could she spy on them? Before they could explain further, Amai shrugged.

"Don't wanna." she put her hands in her hoodie pocket.

They seemed rather surprised.

"Why not?" Kuwabara inquired, ever the calm voice.

She shrugged again. "I'm not a sneaky person. Besides, it seems pretty underhanded to spy on people. Double besides, I can only reason that you'd want me to spy on Goton and Mii and I don't even know them. I don't want to know them, and I don't think I could even find them. They just kind of find me, unfortunately."

Yusuke stared at her. "We don't want you to just spy on those two. We want you to spy on your boyfriend."

Amai choked. "Toru?! Trust me, he's not even remotely like Goton or Mii. Toru is good . Really."

They gave her doubtful looks so she clenched her fists and barked, "Really!"

"Well, you only see Goton and Mii when you're with him!" Kuwabara pointed out.

"Does yer lad know these other two?" Jin asked, tilting his head as he observed.

She let out a frustrated sigh and sunk her head into her hands. Then she growled and threw her hands up in the air. "Toru knows them but he isn't like them. Toru said they're fighting for the same ideas but just… differently."

Urameshi scoffed. "Yeah, okay. Except they're kidnapping specific people for specific purposes… and killing the ones who won't do what they ask."

Amai opened her mouth but she didn't have a retort in store. He was literally repeating her words back to her. Her head hurt as she thought it through. She scrunched up her face angrily and shook her head, grinding her teeth together.

"No!" she said, more loudly than she'd wanted. "I mean- yes! But… but.."

She held her head in her hands and took some deep breaths to calm down. Toru wasn't like the others, Toru was kind and good. But did have a prepossessing ability to nudge her in the right direction, like he knew exactly what to say so she'd smile and kiss him and follow him around. Damn, they'd only been on two dates, both of which ended with a murder or kidnapping, and she was still looking forward to seeing him the next day.

One could tell by the glum look on her face that she was coming to a similar conclusion to the one Kuwabara and Urameshi had come to. Still, it didn't sit right with her. Yes, Goton and Mii were kidnapping and killing these people and goodness knew how many others were working with them. But Toru was good, and she had to keep believing that.

"I…" she shrugged and stood up. "I gotta get home. It's a school night, and a 20 minute bike ride."

"Will you do it?" Urameshi asked, standing up when she did.

Amai narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know."

Kuwabara stood as well, more casually though. "It's better than a no,"

Looking at him gratefully, Amai was startled when Jin spoke up, having forgotten he was there. He'd been very quiet.

"Did those two humans - Mii or Goton or whatever- did they have any sorta powers? Like yer own?" he asked.

Amai raised her eyebrows. "Could they block small objects with their minds? No, I don't think so. I never saw them doing anything… well, of course they're totally abnormal, but nothing more crazy than kidnapping people and carrying around corpses."

Urameshi and Kuwabara gave him a matching, questioning look and Jin shrugged.

"When Ah saw her first, she was bein' attacked by a queer little plant. Touya an' I had been followin' a strange sorta presence around the town, but it was strongest where we found her."

Jin was explaining it to Urameshi and Kuwabara, but Amai still felt frustrated at being referred to as a "her" when she was in the room with them.

"A plant person? Like Kurama?" Kuwabara wondered aloud.

"So listen up for a plant power guy, okay?" Urameshi ordered, wagging a finger at Amai.

Clearly affronted, Amai puffed up her chest and snapped at him. "Don't tell me what to do!"

She turned around and walked to the front door, angrily slipping on her sandals and bowing jerkily to Kuwabara's sister, who had walked out of her bedroom at precisely that moment. Moments later she was hopping on her bicycle and using that anger to fuel her feet as she sped home.

Amai was back in bed before she knew it and somehow she managed to conk out.

When Amai woke up the next morning, she was weary and bedraggled and was certain she still smelled fish everywhere.

She was late but wasn't overly worried about staying on schedule. Her thoughts were elsewhere, even as she tugged on her soccer uniform and a hoodie and tossed her uniform into her backpack with her textbooks. She couldn't afford to think of the rumpled mess it would be later. Besides, there were drying machines at school.

Once more, Amai found herself jogging to school in order to arrive to morning practice on time. It was crisp outside, with a few black clouds lingering overhead. Amai didn't really care- maybe a cold rain shower would clear up her head some.

During the morning warm up, she learned what had happened to the dead boy she'd seen a few nights before. The team was listening to a popular radio station which fizzled out as lightning flashed outside. Keito went to find the station again but it picked up the news first.

"The boy's body was fshhht-"

The channel was changed. Amai sat up straight, her hair whipping with her head as she turned to Keito.

"Wait, go back!" she yelped as if she'd been stung. She blushed as her team looked at her. "I want to hear that news story. Please."

"- tied to the swingset. The medical examiner said that he was dead before he was tied there, and that because there was no blood on the scene of the crime, the murder must have occurred elsewhere. Nakahara Toshi was 10 years old and top of his class at Toki Elementary School. His parents said he had always loved playing with his friends and swimming. Toshi held the region's record for holding his breath under water and the 100 meter crawl, even beating members of the high school's swim team."

Amai's shoulders drooped. He'd probably had some sort of affinity with water, and that's why Goton and Mii had taken him. She wasn't sure how that could be useful, but maybe that didn't matter to them. She could ask Toru…

"-ai. Amai!"

She jumped, widening her eyes and nearly falling backwards.

"Practice is over, space case." Keito was peering worriedly at her friend. "Game was cancelled, by the way, because of the storm. It's supposed to last all day."

Amai nodded and prepared for the long, torturous day at school. At least she wouldn't have to see Toru, since he hadn't set up another date with her. She had some time to think.

The day did pass, as days often do, and Amai later found herself waiting outside Shino High School, hoping for the rain to slow down a little bit before she walked home. She had tugged on her hoodie to stave off the cold air, but her legs were cold beneath her skirt and her nose was beginning to run.

Toru had texted her during lunch asking if they could meet that night, but Amai evaded the invitation saying she'd caught a cold because of the strange fish tank incident. He also tried calling her after school, but Amai said she had to run and would call him when she got home.

Amai's brain was clouded with indecision. She believed Toru was good at heart, but (though she didn't want to admit it) Urameshi and Kuwabara had made a sound argument. It was suspicious that Toru knew Goton and Mii, and it that they were working towards the same goal. The difference was that Toru didn't kill people for whatever their goal was, and Goton and Mii definitely did.

Her nose dripped and she quickly rubbed it with her hoodie sleeve before she realized how gross that was. She wished it had been her turn for the ipod so she could stop thinking about complicated things. Amai peeked her head out from under the awning and decided to start walking. It wasn't going to get any better, but it could get worse.

She was rounding a corner a few blocks from Shino High when a huge peal of thunder shook the ground. Amai squeaked, startled, and stopped to look up at the sky. Lightning shocked the sky moments later. Amai had forgotten to count the seconds in between the two but her gut said it was close. A hand clapped onto her shoulder and she screamed, spinning around so fast her feet slipped on the watery sidewalk. Amai fell with a splash, water and mud smattering across her face. Blinking her eyes clear, Amai growled angrily.

"What the hell are you doing?" she shook her hands at the laughing ginger standing over her.

Still laughing, Jin grabbed her clenched fists and pulled her back to her feet. Amai wrenched her hands away and tried to wipe the mud from her face. The rain was helping a little with the cleanup, but it was not helping with her temper.

"It's not funny, you know." Amai shouted at him before turning around and trudging back down the sidewalk towards home.

"Aw, don' be so mad," Jin caught up with her easily, his bare feet slapping against the pavement.

At a second glance, Amai saw that he was wearing different clothes than he had been the night before. It wasn't something she would have considered unordinary, except that his previous outfit was white harem pants and a few strips of cloth across his chest. Today it seemed like something he might have borrowed from Urameshi or Kuwabara, as it only mostly fit.

She kept walking, trying to ignore his loud footsteps. After another block or two, she ducked under the awning of a family owned grocery store. The store owners were moving some of their stock inside the store and waved at Amai and Jin.

With a quick wave, Amai turned to Jin with a severely grumpy face. She wasn't sure where to begin; she had so many questions and all of them seemed to be jumbling together. After a long moment of glaring on her part and confused looks on Jin's, she chose a question.

"Why are you following me?"

"Oh, is that all?" Jin shrugged. "Urameshi said I oughta, since ye seem to be attractin' trouble of all sorts."

"That's stupid," Amai snapped. "I'm not doing anything. Just because trouble happened to me three days in a row, doesn't mean I attract trouble."

Jin shrugged again and watched as she swiftly turned around and began marching towards home again. It wasn't long before he had caught up with her once more.

Amai steadfastly ignored him until she spotted her home's peeling picket fence. She called to him over her shoulder.

"This is my stop. No trouble in my own home, I promise." Amai told him in a rather snippy tone. "So you can stop following me."

"Not followin' really," Jin peeked up at the sky. "Jus' keepin' an eye on ye."

Amai had already passed the picket fence and was walking up the path, trying to ignore the strange red haired boy. Keeping an eye on her, huh? Was she untrustworthy or something?

"Tell your bosses that I'm not gonna do anything stupid and to leave me alone. Why should I follow their orders anyway?"

Jin seemed to consider this, but changed the subject abruptly. If Amai had been watching closely, she would have seen his ears wiggling.

"Can Ah come in? I wanna see another human house-"

"No." Amai turned tail and slammed her front door behind her.

It wasn't that she was typically rude to other people. It was just that she was feeling a bit overwhelmed. After all, as she'd said herself, she had experienced some crazy things. More crazy things (in the past three days) than more people experienced in their whole lives. In fact, Amai was willing to bet that 99% of the world never experienced these weird things. (Thinking of Kuwabara and Urameshi, she changed her percentage to 95%. )

She spun around and faced the front door for a moment before stooping to kick off her shoes. Glancing up once more, Amai yelped and nearly fell over. Jin's head was peering through the window to the side of the front door.

Rushing forward and whipping the door open, Amai snarled. "Go awa-"

"Aw, don' be such a badger." Jin squeezed in past her and into her house. "Woah, much different from Urameshi's. Kuwabara's too."

"Did you just call me a badger?" Amai whirled around in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean? Badger…"

She was insulted despite not really knowing why. Jin had started walking down the hallway like he owned the place and Amai quickly jumped forward to grab his arm, her wet socks sliding on the wood flooring.

"I said you couldn't come in!" Amai tugged hard on his limb but he kept walking. She slid along behind him fruitlessly.

Jin peeked around a doorway and Amai came to a stop with him. Amai jumped in front of him and into the adjacent room. Her little sister was in the room, playing with Legos on the carpet.

"Sissy!" the preschooler squealed, waving.

"Hey, Maiko." Amai greeted, pushing her shoulder into Jin's chest to make him move backwards. He was unfortunately sturdy.

Maiko leaned over her lego house and peered past Amai as best she could. "You bring home a friend?"

"No!" Amai replied hastily, using both her arms now to push Jin away from the room. "He's leaving!"

"Okay, bye Amai's friend!" Maiko immediately went back to building.

Amai grunted as she continued to push Jin unrelentingly down the hallway and back toward the front door.

"You- can't- come- in- here!" Amai panted. Jin refused to walk so she was simply pushing him, with great effort. "Go tell Urameshi and Kuwabara to leave me alone!"

They made it to the front door again and Amai, dropping her hands hastily, swung the door open.

"Amai! Perfect timing!" a voice called from the sidewalk.

Amai struggled to contain a yell and slammed the door shut. Jin was looking at her warily.

"This is literally the worst day of my life," Amai pulled at her hair some, grabbed Jin's wrist, and dragged him through the house.

"Oi!" Jin yelped as he was jerked forward. "Who was at yer door? Yer actin' rather weird."

"Weird!" Amai retorted. "That's rich, coming from a crazy ginger flying alien."

The doorbell rang and Amai skidded to a stop at the back door. It led to the Nagori family's small backyard which was currently extremely muddy thanks to all the rain. The poor flowers and veggies were likely drowning.

"Toru's outside!" Amai told Jin, sliding open the back door. "So you have to go! Now!"

"The lad ye been seein'?" Jin inquired, not moving. "The one yer not wantin' to spy on?"

"Yeah, that's the one." Amai replied exasperatedly. "So, goodbye! Thanks for checking in and tell the two dummies I say hello."

Jin gave her another wary look. He seemed to be wondering about Toru's intentions. Either that or he was gauging Amai's amount of crazy (which was strangely high today). Jin shrugged.

"Have it yer way, lass." he said stepping onto the back porch. "But next time, I want a tour of yer whole house!"

"No," Amai intoned grimly.

Jin laughed and stepped into the rain, which was so thick that Amai could barely see through it. It was no wonder, then, that she didn't see him leap on top of the house and into the sky. To her, it seemed he'd only disappeared.

"Sissy!" came Maiko's voice. "You have another friend here!"

Amai ran to the front of the house, nearly sliding into the staircase leading upstairs. Looking completely wild, Amai skidded to a halt in front of Toru and Maiko.

"Maiko, you know you're not supposed to answer the door!" Amai said warningly.

"He said he's your boyfriend." Maiko said dubiously, as if such a thing were utterly impossible.

"Maiko…" Amai warned, and the little girl jumped a little and rushed back to her legos. "Sorry, Toru! … So, my boyfriend, huh?"

"I thought that was obvious," he swooped in for a light kiss but paused. "You're not terribly contagious, are you?"

"Huh?" Amai gaped until she remembered she'd told him she was sick. "Oh! Oh. No. Better already, I think."

"Good," Toru kissed her sweetly, leaving Amai in a heavenly ooey-gooey state. "Can't have my girlfriend sick, not when we have so much to do…"

Amai giggled and smiled dazedly. "Right. So much to do… Oh! Right! We have serious business to discuss!"

While she looked around her and tried to think of a good place to have a private discussion, she missed Toru's surprised look. His eyebrows quickly knitted together in consternation. Amai had spun in a full circle now before deciding.

"Maiko's home which means Ichigo is home which means one of my older siblings is also home. So, that just leaves the kitchen, for now."

Toru's face was composed and teasing as he commented. "Don't you have a room, here?"

Amai blushed, "It's a super-huge mess!"

"Aw, come on." Toru took her hands in his. "I want to see your room."

Something about the way he said that reminded her of Jin wanting a tour of the house and she bristled.

"No tours!" Amai said with certainty and pulled him towards the kitchen.

She pushed him into one of the old wooden chairs at the equally old wooden table before busying herself with making a pot of tea and grabbing the associated tea essentials. As she turned on the stove top, she began talking.

"Toru, I need to know more. Like, I need to know everything. I don't get it." Amai was seriously close to pouting as she spoke. "I have about ten thousands whys and why nots. Does everyone have … powers?"

Amai emphasized the word and raised her shoulders a little, as if preemptively protecting herself from the answer. Toru stared at her for a long moment. More than anything he seemed nervous, which was unusual. He regained his poise and answered thoughtfully.

"It's familial," he replied. "Genetic. It skips generations - or can, rather- and can be latent your whole life."

"So," Amai tried to summarize in layman's terms. "Lots of people can have powers and never know about it. So it's hard to know who has them and who doesn't."

Toru nodded, "Unless your power is to see other peoples' powers."

"Very 'Inception'." Amai noted. "So I have this power thing. And you-"

Amai paused abruptly. She had wanted to ask what his power was but suddenly felt that such a question was altogether too personal. She bit her lip and changed subjects, looking away from Toru's tepid gaze.

"So Goton and Mii have powers." when Toru nodded, she continued. "And you're all… looking for other people with powers."

"In a manner of speaking, yes." Toru looked at the tea pot as it began to whistle. As Amai hastened to prepare the tea, he went further. "Amai, there is great evil out there. We- people with these powers, like you and I - we have to stop that evil. It's our duty. In fact, it's an honor to fight for the cause."

Amai thought over this. She was suddenly so tired. The rain was draining her energy and the last ten minutes had been so frantic and harried that Amai would much rather be napping than discussing the greater good with Toru.

"Yeah, we're superheroes like you said at the aquarium." Amai smiled a little, setting down the teacup in front of Toru and sitting cross legged in a chair beside him. She held her own teacup in her hands, too warm in her palms. "Goton and Mii fight evil too, huh?"

Now it was Toru's turn to bristle. He couldn't keep the frustration out of his voice as he told Amai that those two were renegades. They didn't like following orders.

"They flagrantly disobey rules and needlessly kill. I sometimes wonder if they're really any help at all, but Hashira-dono holds them in high esteem." Toru squeezed his cup so hard, Amai was worried it would break.

"Hashira-dono?" Amai inquired, catching onto the new name. "That's … a strange name."

"Pseudonym, more like." Toru replied before he seemed startled by something. He turned his fierce gaze back to Amai and said in a strained voice. "Forget I said that."

"Okay," Amai said, blinking. "I don't like Goton and Mii."

Toru stared at Amai blankly a moment before snorting and agreeing. "Me neither. Our job is to find others like us, others with powers, and learn how to fight that great evil together."

"Clarify for me a little," Amai said with a yawn. She took a moment to drink her tea but it only made her sleepier. "What is this great evil?"

An inward struggle seemed to be occurring in Toru's mind. His teeth ground together some as he stared into Amai's brown eyes. She blinked dully and Toru nodded to himself.

"There are many bad things out there that we don't understand." he said. "But above all, our job is to kill evil things. Our job is to kill demons."

In an alleyway downtown, there's a lurker making rounds
keeping tracks and keeping tabs on you
and he likes the taste of blood, and he loves the way you love
and that's just what he wants from you

Hey all! This is kind of a long chapter D: I hope you guys are still enjoying this- I feel like my brain is exploding (I just made a timeline for this fanfiction hahaha, because I was lost). If you guys see anything that needs fixing or you have a question, please please let me know and it'll help me iron out the kinks!

Lunarwanderer1420 - thank you for always being so positive and supportive! I love it and super-appreciate it! I hope this makes up for how long it takes for me to write these thingies 3333 the best = u

Kyrie Fae - I AM TOO SILLY GARBAGE HOW DARE U 3 More Jin is FOREVER good 3 alwaysalways 3

Thank you for reading! Please like, share, review, whatever. But mostly, please keep reading! I really appreciate it :)

(to tide you over, check out my tumblr evereverafterly (personal) nichebooks (books, durr) deereyedlittledoe (rp blog) etc :)

ok thx bye love uuuuu 3 -pb