Thank You For Waking Me Up (Princess Pittooey and I)

"Trying to help?" Jinji muttered. "Are you joking? You've been a miserable, grumpy bitch ever since this whole thing started, Tsubaki! I don't know why you think you're our fucking mother, but back off, alright? This is something I want to do, I don't need you playing mother over my shoulder all the time, if you're gonna act like this stupid bullshit, then leave."
 
"Would you please stop with the name calling? I'm not one of your little gang friends, I'm your sister. You're right, I don't want to do this, but I do want to make sure you're okay, regardless of whether or not you want me around. So you can get mad at me all you want, but nothing is going to change the fact that I'm going and that's that. Now go back inside, get the meet up plans and then let's go home and pack." Tsubaki told her before texting on her phone. That meant she was done talking about it. Honestly, Jinji was so ungrateful...
 
"Yes, you're my sister," Jinji muttered. "Maybe you need to figure out what that means before you start telling me to do anything, but you won't, so I don't know why I bother even bringing it up," Terrific, even this was going to be ruined by her doting, overbearing, annoying ways. "Whatever you say, let's just get the plans and go."
 
"If I was telling you what to do, I'd tell you that you couldn't go. Now, you go get the address. I have some phone calls to make." Tsubaki said, shooing her away like a mother would. She knew what it meant to be a sister, why was she being so ridiculous? Covering for her, trying to guide her, that's what being a sister was for, right? Right.

Ugh, time to call Tomoko. She was the daughter of the head master, if anyone could get the work for her, she could.
 
If you thought that Keiko just coming along would have been something easy to deal with and, oh...you didn't know Yusuke and Keiko at all. Botan was all smiles regardless, or maybe because she was somewhat stuck in this awkward situation.

"I still don't know why you're going," Yusuke said suspiciously, watching her pack. "C'mon, Keiko, where the hell do you think I'm gonna go? I'm not a Spirit Detective anymore, and you know Genkai's old place!" It was his, or...theirs. Everyone's who had helped her, he didn't like staying there yet. He wanted to, but...it felt odd. Maybe he was still trying to accept that she was gone in his own way. It wasn't like before, at least, she died of old age, peacefully, like she deserved. But it still felt strange going there without her snarky attitude, but...he couldn't ignore that things were changing, and maybe he needed to as well.

He hated change, ugh. Why couldn't he just enjoy life for a while?
 
"I don't know, Yusuke," Keiko sniffed as she continued to pack their things. She knew exactly what he would need, and unlike him she would actually remember everything! "Besides, do I really need a reason to come? What if I just want to be with you, huh? Who's going to prepare meals for those girls when you wear them out? Who's going to prepare meals for you? I'm coming, and that's that!" He was stubborn, but she was more so, and just because he was some big hotshot in Demon and Spirit world did not mean he could tell her what to do.
 
"They're not there to have a hotel service, y'know!" Yusuke grumbled. "They're there for training! I didn't get any special service when Genkai trained me, so why are they, huh? Sheesh," he groused, arms crossing. "I just think you're jealous of them, that's all."

"...um," Botan tried to sidle in awkwardly as Jinji returned, looking as equally sour as Keiko.
 
"Jealous?!" Keiko shrieked before hearing Jinji return. She calmed down, only for the sake of her guest. This wasn't over, though. "I have no idea what you're talking about. But normal people can't function without food at the very least and I'm going to make sure that you don't starve them to death." She wasn't jealous, but she couldn't say that she didn't expect him not to leer at them like a pervert. He was a typical man, after all. That in itself made her upset, so she'd just go with him to remind him that she still existed.
 
"I didn't mean it like that!" he protested quickly, his expression changing. "C'mon! I was just...you know."

"Opening your mouth before you thought it through?" Botan supplied helpfully as he narrowed his eyes at her. Traitor.

"Are you still here?" Yusuke grumbled.

"Yes, I am, it just so happens that I'm supposed to be reporting their progress," Botan sniffed. "So you're just going to have to deal with it, Yusuke!"

"Terrific," Yusuke sighed. "And what do you want, Jinji?"

"Nothing," she muttered. "We'll be back later." Sheesh, what was her problem?
 
"Is everything alright with you and your sister, Jinji? Can you guys find your way back here on your own?" Keiko's demeanor went from one hundred to zero, but it didn't seem fake. She was genuinely worried, they both seemed so upset when they left in the first place.

She wasn't sure what it was like to have a sibling, but it seemed kind of...complicated.
 
"Everything is fine, Keiko, thank you," Jinji murmured honestly. "Just my sister acting like my mother, like usual. Stuck up whore," she muttered, turning to leave.

"...So, they have some baggage," Botan said in a faint whisper. "A lot of baggage, actually."

"...No kidding," Yusuke sighed. "...Okay, maybe I will need your help on this one, Keiko." He wasn't...real great at the bonding thing with girls, not that he couldn't, but Keiko was always the more personable one. If it wasn't fighting, he was something of a stump.
 
"Yeah, sure thing." Keiko answered as she watched Jinji leave. That was...more than a little harsh. The two definitely had their differences and Yusuke wouldn't be able to help them with that. Keiko wasn't even sure if she could help them, unless she understood the problem. For that to happen, she'd have to talk to them both...probably separately. "Anyways, glad to see that you finally accepted me coming on this little trip with you. Honestly, you're unbelievable."
 
"What? Why?" Yusuke muttered. "Why is that unbelievable? You're the one who always gets in a hot mess about me getting involved with this stuff," he sighed. "So why would I want you to be screaming at me over this?"
 
"I don't get into a hot mess about this this stuff, just when you don't include me in it....you were going to be gone for what? A couple of months? If that's the case, I want to be there too. You really don't understand girls, do you?" Keiko asked before shaking her head. "I'm not coming to scream at you, not unless you give me a reason to."
 
"Which could be often!" Botan added with a playful grin.

"Thank you, Botan," Yusuke said sharply. "Your commentary is always appreciated." Great, he was outnumbered...four girls, one of them who seemed to want to suck the life out of him, another who enjoyed watching it, and two sisters who seemed to be at each other's throat.

What in the hell did he get into?
 
They didn't even walk home together. Jinji went at her own pace, and Tsubaki just lagged behind. She could tell that she was mad at her, the problem was she didn't understand why. To Tsubaki, she was doing nothing wrong. She didn't feel like she was acting like a parent, was it really so wrong to want to protect her younger siblings?

She didn't want to think about it, so she just drowned it out with music. By the time she got home, everything she needed for school had already been delivered neatly to her doorstep by Tomoko...she didn't even ask why she needed to take a few months off, she just did what was asked of her. She knew Rei and Haruhi would not give her the same treatment and did not look forward to her phone being blown up when they found out.

Explaining everything to her mother took a while, but eventually she was given the okay. She would have had a much more difficult time convincing her if it wasn't for the fact that they were going together. They won a getaway trip, something that would provide a "spiritual cleansing" to make them grow into better people. Sometimes Tsubaki felt bad for the load of crap she spoon fed her mother.

But Jinji wanted to do this, and that was the best way to explain it. Once she was done packing she went to go see if Jinji had left already. Most of her luggage was academic books, she would need a lot of them...
 
The trip to Genkai's place was...an awkward experience in sibling tension. Yusuke had no real connection with anything like that, but neither of them seemed happy about something, which made him wonder just how much they actually wanted to do this. He supposed he'd find out the hard way, as he wasn't getting anything from Botan about it. They were vulgar in ways that made Yusuke think of the good ol' days of beating up punks and throwing out words that you didn't really care what the implications were. He was better than that these days.

...Mostly. Mostly better. They traveled on foot, because this was supposed to be a strengthening exercise in general, and...maybe he just wanted Keiko to be a little sour for a while, since she insisted on coming along, even if her help was appreciated. You didn't really need an understanding of spiritual senses to feel that Genkai's place was...different. The forest felt different, everything felt different. To Jinji, it pulled her out of her sour mood almost immediately as she glanced around. There was something...peaceful about this place, but not. The forest was just...odd, and she was honestly expecting some humble little shack and not a mansion of sorts.

"Wow, it looks just like I remember!" Botan complimented with a smile. "The good old days, eh, Yusuke?"

"Uh huh," he said flatly, at least being polite enough to carry Keiko's things. Almost as if Keiko had trained him a little. "The days of almost dying, yup, sure do miss those." Except he sort of did, a lot. But, he wouldn't say that in front of Keiko.
 
Keiko really wasn't too happy with walking up the steep dirt road, but she had little choice and she refused to let Yusuke have the satisfaction of seeing her visibly struggling with walking. At least he had the decency to carry her things for her, and she had a lot. She knew it wouldn't bother him though, not in the very least. "Well, it's beautiful and I'm sure I can fully appreciate it when we're there." Keiko replied as she looked around in awe. It was the first time she had ever been up here really. Even if she was really tired, she did like seeing nature. She glanced at Tsubaki, who seemed to be focused on one foot in front of the other...or she was focused on whatever music she was listening to. It was so loud Keiko could hear it clearly...she was obviously not hearing a word anyone was saying.
 
"Get used to that," Jinji added, for once, not sounding completely angry and bitter. "She prefers the music over everything else, except for bothering me."

"You two are a hot mess, you know that?" Yusuke sighed. Like he had room to talk, but one mess to another, right? "Tsubaki'll be first, then."
 
"First for what?" Keiko asked curiously as she looked at him.

It's not like Tsubaki was purposely ignoring them, but she didn't dress the part for this mountain climbing activity they were doing. Why hadn't she worn sneakers? She was seriously thinking about stopping just so she could change outfits, but the other part of her just wanted to keep going so that she could get there faster. The only thing that was distracting her from how uncomfortable she was, was the music blaring in her ears and even that was starting to become ineffective.

Her backpack wasn't helping...she didn't imagine that she had to carry her books up this far into the stupid woods.
 
"Training," Yusuke smirked. "Jinji's got the potential, I can see it...but Tsubaki's going to need a little coaxing to get it out right."

"What?" Jinji said, brow raised. "If I have the potential, why am I going last? She doesn't even want to be here!"

"Then she'll be a broken mess when I'm finished," Yusuke shrugged. "If she doesn't want to be here, she pays the consequences, not my problem."
 
"I thought you were going to train them both at the same time." Keiko told him as they continued on. This wasn't...this wasn't the best way to go about things, especially when the two had issues. Jinji was obviously not happy about it and might assume Yusuke was picking a favorite...or she would assume that considering she was a teenaged girl and was probably at that catty age.

"Did someone say my name?" Tsubaki asked as she paused her music for the moment. Her tone of voice screamed a sort of disinterest that Keiko was actually genuinely worried about her. If what Yusuke said was true, anyway.
 
"Yup," Yusuke said. "Take off your headphones, girl, you and I are starting immediately," he smirked. "You guys came here to train, and that's what I'm doing."

"Yusuke, we don't have time for you to be doing this," Botan frowned. "Please, can't you just-"

"Hey," he said flatly. "I'm training them how I was trained, Botan. If you want me to do what I got blackmailed into doing, then butt out," he grumbled. "Jinji, you're not going to be sitting around, I got something for you to do, too."

Well, that was slightly better...
 
Now? He wanted to start training now? She wasn't entirely happy about that, but she did as he asked. It was mainly because she did feel obligated to actually train, even though she tagged along for the single purpose of looking out for Jinji. She sighed and took her headphones off. Not because he asked, but because they were her nicest pair and she didn't want to ruin them. "Fine. Let me change my shoes first..." She mumbled as she slipped her luggage off and started to open her backpack.

"Botan, how would you like some tea while we watch Yusuke pretend to be a teacher?" Keiko asked Botan cheerily with a smile. This would be entertaining.
 
"I would love to, Keiko," Botan giggled as Yusuke's expression flattened like a bug on the road, glancing at Keiko sourly. Women. Honestly.

"...What am I going to be doing?" Jinji asked hopefully.

"Ah, yes," Yusuke grinned. "We'll do this the old fashioned way...although I have a pretty good idea who is the stronger one," she said, tilting his head toward...what literally appeared to be an arcade. Jinji's eyes lit up like nothing else. What? Was he serious?
 
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