Reiki Aura (Psychic Academy/Yu Yu Hakusho)

[bissek]

I had posted this shortly before the site went down for maintenance. Since it didn't reappear with the site, I'm reposting the idea.

The latest plot bunny I'm putting up for adoption is a Psychic Academy/Yu Yu Hakusho crossbreed. In terms of storyline, the starting point is the beginning of the Psychic Academy story (Manga - the anime is just a pared down version of the first third of the manga), and after the 'Spirit World Treasures' subarc of YYH. This requires a little juggling to make Yusuke and Kurama roughly the same age as Ai, but that isn't too major a change.

The Natural Abilities Advancement Center is Japan's facility for training the nation's parapsychic youths in the use of their abilities. In order to ensure that all of the nation's psychics are identified and trained, everyone in the country is tested for Aura abilities at birth, and at regular intervals during their school years. However, some people slip through the cracks. Some people manage to hide their abilities for years. And some don't awaken their abilities until something forcibly triggers them.


News reaches the center of a boy who somehow managed to come back from the dead. When they arrange for the boy, one Urameshi Yusuke, to be tested, it is found that the boy has developed an as yet unclassified Aura ability. He is transferred to the Center, and there is much rejoicing at his former school (except perhaps for Keiko and Kuwabara).

At about the same time, Minamino Shiori returns home after her long stay at the hospital (The Center may or may not have looked into her miraculous recovery from a fatal illness - there wouldn't have been anything to find there). Once at home, she sees her son Suichi tending some of the plants and notices that all he does to make them grow - which they do to a visible degree - is touch them. She realizes that her son is an unrecognized psychic and calls the Center.

The Center is surprised to discover an Aura User with the ability to influence organic matter (All documented Aura specialties involve either energy or inorganic matter. Professor Watabe, the only organic Aura User - specializing in plants - gained his ability by having a synthetic Auracode implanted in him). They are even more surprised to learn that he can't remember a time when he couldn't control plants, and that he'd successfully hidden his powers for years while training himself (The Center's theory does give Kurama an explanation for his powers that is far more palatable to his mother than the truth). Suichi is also transferred to the Center, to the lamentations of his fangirls.

And so the rookie Spirit Detective and the kitsune in human form end up entering the Center at the same time as a boy named Shiomi Ai, younger brother of the legendary Steel Aura Master Zerodyme Kyuupra (birth name Shiomi Yuu) does.

Yusuke and Kurama have to learn the various Aura abilities being taught (Kurama may have mastered his specialty, but he wouldn't know some of the generic tricks being taught), find a way to cope with the bullies in class A (Yusuke could flatten any of them with the Rei Gun, but he only has one shot a day at this point), and find a way to keep their extracurricular activities secret (Kurama gets roped in as part of his parole arrangement for stealing the Forlorn Hope). But while they are dealing with that, two threats are coming.

The first threat comes from Professor Watabe, chief researcher of the international Aura Development Center and estranged father of center student Mew Baurra (her real name is a major spoiler). He is attempting to gather all the Auracodes (Discrete pieces of information that precisely describe the abilities of an Aura. Most Aura Users answer to the first two parts of their Auracode instead of their names to everyone except relatives and close friends) in the world so that he can complete a device that will grant him control over all the Auracodes, and with them the Aura Users that have them. The Center has three people with unique Aura specialties that he hasn't studied yet - Ai (Light), Kurama (Plants), and Yusuke (?). He wants to get a hold of the owners of the owners of those Auras - as well as his daughter/ex-guinea pig - and doesn't care what he has to do to get them, or what he has to do to complete his studies once he has them.

The other threat comes from the demon Rando. Over the centuries, he has studied under 99 psychics, learned the secrets of their powers, and then used those powers to go on killing sprees - starting with his latest teacher. He learns of the device that Watabe is secretly creating and realizes that he can use the device to learn all the secrets of all the Aura Users in the world. With that, he can go on a killing spree that will last for eternity...

Items of note: Kuwabara wasn't tapped for the Center because his powers didn't become noticable until the Genkai's Heir subarc, which isn't happening. However, as a highly respected psychic, Genkai might turn up anyway. Hiei showing up? Almost certainly. He has parole to work off, and no redeeming circumstances or heroic actions like Kurama does. Fitting Yukina in is a little trickier. Perhaps she manages to escape Torukane and is found by someone at the center after she uses her ice abilities?

Auras in PA can affect physical objects, but can only damage the Aura of a living object. Severe damage to an Aura can lead to unconsciousness or death. This seems to match with Yusuke's first use of the Rei Gun, where he knocked down a teacher, but didn't actually hurt him. However, I'd day that Aura attacks have a different affect on demons, which explains why using the Rei Gun on the soul-eating oni the next day was lethal. Under most circumstances, to kill with an Aura, you must do it indirectly (An Aura flame hitting a gas tank will cause a real explosion. The flames from that can kill). Kurama's Rose Whip is a physical object infused with an Aura, rather than a physical manifestation of an Aura, so it can kill directly. The only Aura in PA capable of killing directly is the Darkness Aura, wielded by secondary villain Tokimetsu.

This story is not intended with pairings in mind. However, half the story of PA centers around the fact that Ai and Mew can't be paired with anyone other than each other without extreme awkwardness in the long run.