Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. I do own my characters, who you'll meet shortly, and the story line. I haven't written a fanfiction in something like ten years so give me some grace. There really aren't any spoilers in this, by the way.
"Yusuke? Yusuke, wake up. Yusuke!"
Birds perched with content on a branch above the resting spot of Yusuke Urameshi fled for safety at the startling sound of a slap against human flesh.
Yusuke bolted awake. He yelled a series of profanities before settling his sleepy, irritated eyes on a young woman with shoulder length, chocolate-colored hair. He narrowed in on her unimpressed gaze, hands taut against her hips. Her light brown eyes were nothing short of annoyed.
"What the hell, Keiko?" He barked, rubbing his cheek.
"You've missed three classes already. When are you going to grow up and start being responsible?" Keiko scolded, pointing a disappointed finger in his face.
Yusuke's expression dropped, and his eye twitched a little in annoyance.
"Guy spends his days saving the Earth and he's irresponsible because he doesn't see the point in learning calculus when he has to focus on not getting his head ripped off by demons? A helluva lot of sense that makes."
Yusuke crossed his arms and let out a muffled growl before lifting himself up from the grass. He dusted off his green uniform and ran his hands through his hair. He gently massaged gel into places where the tree trunk had made an unkempt mess of things.
She wouldn't get it, he muttered to himself mentally. If she even knew half of what I have to go through to keep her safe.
He sighed and walked past Keiko, who turned on her heel and marched after him.
"You can't use that excuse forever, Yusuke. Nobody is going to hire you if the only thing you have to your name is 'Spirit Detective.' You can't even tell anyone about that! You know…"
Keiko continued on as Yusuke tuned her out. Keiko was great, but she sure could nag and lecture. Yusuke folded his hands behind his neck as he walked with Keiko to their fourth class of the day. Conveniently, the majority of Yusuke's classes matched up with Keiko's. Or should he say, coincidentally. Keiko's grades were significantly better than Yusuke's. He could never quite understand how they ended up together most of the time, though he was sure that Keiko had something to do with it. Anything to give her a reason to nag him.
"Are you even listening to me, Yusuke?" Keiko interrogated.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah; I'm lazy and never going to live a normal life if I don't learn how to do physics equations, right?" He asked sheepishly. Keiko huffed as they walked up the stairs and turned into their high school.
All he did was blow her off.
The bell rang and Keiko took her seat towards the front of the room, Yusuke filing into his own towards the back. She watched as he stretched out his now long, lean body against the desk and looked out the window.
I just wish he would take me seriously. He can't keep relying on being a Spirit Detective his whole life. It isn't going to be his title to claim forever, she thought, sighing to herself. I just wish he would recognize that there's more to him than how hard he can punch.
"Koenma, sir? We've finished running the analysis you requested."
A young, pale woman with hair the color of ash stood before the junior ruler of the Spirit World, clipboard with data and statistics in hand. She haphazardly tucked a thick lock of her bangs behind her ear, waiting to be acknowledged.
Koenma looked up from the paperwork he had on his desk, which by now had a trail of doodles along the outer rim.
He placed his pen down, looking shiftily at his work. Maybe his dad wouldn't notice that he had defaced Spirit World property?
With one quick toss of his hand, the paperwork slid into the trash can. That was an adventure for another day.
The woman raised her eyebrows at her boss.
What on earth…?
She shook her head. No use in busying herself with Koenma's antics.
"Ah, yes. Perfect, Ayame. What do you have for me?" Koenma asked, folding his hands neatly and expectantly on his desk.
Beside him, a blue ogre in a yellow leopard print kilt quietly pulled the tossed document out of Koenma's trash bin. He sat on the floor with what appeared to be White Out, brushing over the doodles.
Koenma eyed him from the side, as did Ayame, but neither said anything as Ayame addressed Koenma again.
"Sir, we have narrowed down the surges of energy to the continent of North America. More specifically, we have found bursts coming from the Eastern coast of the Unites States," Ayame recounted, lifting one of the papers on her clipboard.
Koenma closed his eyes and sucked in his pacifier. Of course they would be coming from the United States. With Donald Trump leading for the American Republican Party, it didn't come as a surprise that some otherworldly business was going on there.
The country was headed down a terrible path anyway.
"I see. Do you have any figures on which of the states the surges may be coming from?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows as the ogre not so inconspicuously placed the marked up paperwork back on his desk.
"Idiot!" Koenma barked, bopping the ogre on the head with his little toddler fist.
The ogre grabbed his head.
"But sir! I was only trying to help," he protested, rubbing the top of his head.
"When I want to be helped, I'll ask!" Koenma yelled back, shaking his fists wildly.
The ogre slumped on the floor as a large sweat drop appeared on the back of Ayame's head. She revered her position as assistant to leader of the Spirit World… but sometimes, it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.
She cleared her throat.
"Koenma sir, we are still working on finding out that information; however, we know that it is on the East Coast. Intel believes that it is coming from the northern part of that coast, somewhere above Florida." Ayame flipped through her papers again and shrugged lightly.
"Isn't Florida that absolute bottom of the East Coast?" The Ogre asked aloud.
At this, Koenma fell back in his chair and Ayame gave an embarrassed chuckle.
"Well, yes," she admitted. Koenma sunk further into his seat before regaining his composure.
"Never mind that!" He exclaimed, brushing a small speck of dried White Out off of the paperwork.
"Good work Ayame," Koenma continued. "Keep up the good work and notify me immediately when there is more information. I'd like to be a bit more prepared before calling on Yusuke to assist."
Ayame bowed.
"Yes, sir," she answered dutifully, and turned on her heel to exit the room.
The blue ogre sat picking frays from his kilt before looking up to meet Koenma's glare.
"Sir?"
"Why haven't you called Botan for me yet?" He asked critically.
"But sir, you never asked me to—"
"I shouldn't have to ask, you should just know!"
"But sir, you told me not to help unless you asked!"
"That's absurd," Koenma scoffed, swiveling in his chair. "I would never say such a thing."
The ogre sighed, defeated. His mother was wrong; he did not need to settle down and get married. Who needed to be harassed free of charge when you could be paid for it?
The last bell of the day sounded its alarm.
Yusuke finished scratching a poorly executed doodle of a sheep into his wooden desk. He stretched out his arms, as if welcoming some great reward, and sighed greatly with relief.
Finally! Another day of school down. He couldn't wait until the summer time when Keiko couldn't bitch at him for skipping.
He jimmied out of his seat and, placing a hand on the top of the seat, swung his legs over his desk. He walked across the aisle over to where a large boy in a blue uniform lay snoring loudly.
Yusuke smirked and lightly knuckled the boy on the head.
"Wouuuuuuch! What the heck Urameshi, what gives?" The boy yelled with a startle. He grabbed the back of his head and glared at Yusuke, rubbing his hair tenderly.
"Oh, relax Kuwabara. I barely touched you."
"Speak for yourself. Always sneaking up on people while they're sleeping. You've got no honor!"
"I've got more honor than you do in one tooth!"
"Why I oughtta—"
"Boys!"
Yusuke and Kuwabara stopped, fists full of the others' shirt. Yusuke narrowed his eyes and let go of Kuwabara's uniform first, sheepishly dusting off his pants.
"Gee, Botan; you always have to ruin the fun," he teased, shoving his hands into his pocket.
"Hi Botan!" Kuwabara smiled, enthusiastically waving.
Botan flicked her high pony tail out of her face and placed her hands on her hips, similar in fashion to the way Keiko had when she had scolded Yusuke earlier in the day.
She held out a finger and thumb in their direction.
"You're lucky that you have people like me and Keiko to reign you in, Yusuke."
Yusuke blushed, much to Botan's delight.
"Now wait a minute," Yusuke started.
Botan cut him off.
"No time for nonsense! There's a really big case brewing that Koenma needs you to turn your most urgent attention towards, Yusuke. I've already called Kurama and Hiei and they're waiting at your house for you and Kuwabara to join them."
Yusuke sighed. He mulled over in his head whether or not he should inform Keiko about this case.
He'd promised her earlier in the day that he would go to a stupid park with her later, but if this was so urgent, that would have to wait. Which meant that Keiko would have to wait. Which meant she'd be pissed at him again.
As if reading his mind, Botan added, "Keiko and Shizuru are also there waiting for the two of you."
"Why do you guys always have to involve Keiko?!" Yusuke barked, balling his fists.
"Shut up Urameshi; she would've found out anyway, otherwise she would've been pissed that you ditched her for another case," Kuwabara countered, waving him off. "Besides, at least you don't have your older sister tagging along."
Yusuke scowled as Kuwabara and Botan turned to exit the building.
He scoffed and walked after them.
I wonder what it is this time.
"Damn it!" Yusuke growled, kicking Kurama's left shoe as he stubbed his toe on its heel. He muttered to himself about the numerous pairs of shoes littering his hallway as Kuwabara and Botan slipped off their own shoes and walked past him.
Yusuke grumbled along after them, calling out to the group.
"We're in your room, Yusuke," a soft, masculine voice called out.
The trio arrived together at Yusuke's room and surveyed the group. The team had already made themselves comfortable, sitting cross legged in a circle by his bed. Atsuko, Yusuke's mother, and Keiko had already gone the lengths of playing hostess by equipping each member with a steaming cup of tea.
Keiko smiled in Yusuke's direction. Their eyes locked but he looked away quickly. He didn't want to find out in that moment if she was mad or not that they might not get to go to the park.
Shizuru gave a half-hearted wave.
"A family reunion, how nice!" Botan chirped, plopping herself down next to Shizuru.
"It hasn't been that long since everyone invaded my room, Botan," Yusuke offered, taking his own seat next to Keiko.
Well, she didn't scoot away. That's a good sign, right? Yusuke thought to himself, dropping his shoulders that had hunched with subconscious tension.
"I suppose two weeks is a long time, considering how much time we usually spend together," the original voice calling them into Yusuke's room offered with a smile. Kurama pushed his red bangs out of his face and scooted over to allow Kuwabara space into the circle.
"Yeah, hey Kurama, how are you doing?" Kuwabara asked with a smile, patting him on the back.
Before Kurama got a chance to respond, Kuwabara began snickering.
"Gee, Hiei, I've never seen you look so dainty with a cup of tea in your hands! Kurama must be wearing you down," he giggled, making poor attempts to stifle his glee with his hands.
Hiei glared daggers before taking a nonchalant sip of green tea.
"Laugh all that you want, human. I could kill you with the handle of this cup if I wanted to," he retorted without looking up.
He placed his cup back into the dish. This would be the last time he indulged in humoring Kurama.
"Now, boys! Let's get down to business and flirt later," Botan interjected, slamming a briefcase on the floor. She intentionally ignored the dual glares that she was receiving to either side of her in the circle and continued opening the briefcase.
"Yeah, Botan, let's have it already," Yusuke protested, yawning. Boring. This was boring.
"I'm so glad you asked, Yusuke," a computerized Koenma quipped from the briefcase. The team turned their attention to the screen.
"Welcome back, team! It's nice to see you all in one place. Now, Yusuke, I have a very big case for you to work on." Koenma folded his hands atop his desk.
"I'm sure I don't have to remind you all that when the tunnel connecting the Demon World to the human world nearly caused the end of humans as we know it. You were all there and know what happened to humans who were exposed.
What you don't know, and what I didn't know until very recently, was that the citizens of Mushiyori City may not have been the only ones affected by the exposure."
"What the hell do you mean, they weren't the only ones?" Yusuke demanded.
"But how, Koenma? The tunnel was being built directly underneath their city," Kurama asked.
"You see," Koenma began, "there was a few groups of tourists during this time. We simply know that these were humans, and they most likely left Mushiyori City without much thought to what they were experiencing. They probably weren't even sure what it was that was going on with them."
"That doesn't explain why you think we need to be bothered with a bunch of humans, Koenma," Hiei retorted.
Koenma nodded.
He disappeared from the screen and a digital outline of the United States popped up on the screen. Everyone's eyes followed as an arrow jumped onto the screen, highlighting what appeared to be somewhere in between New York and New Jersey.
"We have been getting spirit surges in this general area of New York City. They don't last long enough for us to pinpoint their exact whereabouts, but we have readings on three distinct patterns of spirit energy spiking. This is leading us to believe that at least three members who were touring Mushiyuri City reacted to the tunnel opening, but that because they're only human, it took a while for their powers to be strong enough for us to read on a macro scale."
Yusuke nodded and chewed on his cuticle. Keiko smacked his hand away.
"Okay, so who are these guys, anyway?" He asked, side eyeing Keiko.
"Well… we don't know."
Yusuke fell backwards, and the rest of the group hung their heads.
"What do you mean, you don't know? Isn't this your freakin' job?" Yusuke barked, flinging himself upwards and pointing a finger in the toddler's face.
"Please keep your dirty fingers off of my nice, shiny screen," Koenma said coolly before answering.
"Like I said, the surges come in so sporadically that it's hard to track and pinpoint exact people."
"It's very unusual that the spirit energy isn't producing consistent energy," Botan offered.
"Right," Koenma continued. "Which is why I need you all to go investigate." The outline of the United States reappeared on the screen.
"While we shouldn't have anything to worry about, we can't take any chances with this spirit energy being so far from our general surveillance and Spirit Detective team. We don't know if these humans are dangerous –" Hiei scoffed at this "—and working with a higher class demon that might have escaped from the tunnel all that time ago. It's your job to locate the members, discern their powers, and uncover their true motives. We need to know who they are and who they're working for, if anyone."
"So we just go on a wild goose chase, is that it?" Yusuke asked. Keiko leaned in, still finding herself looking at a blank screen. She wished there was a translator app for this.
"If that's how you want to view it, then sure. Once you're in New York, though, it should be relatively easy for you all to pick up on hints of spirit energy. But I need you all to leave for this immediately. Botan, in the briefcase you'll find plane tickets that leave tomorrow at 6:00 AM sharp. Please distribute them accordingly before Yusuke has time to make up an excuse as to why he cannot get up that early. Pack for two weeks, team. BYE!"
With that, Koenma beeped off the screen.
Yusuke blinked before growling and shaking the brief case.
"What the hell! You can't just expect us to drop everything and…" Yusuke continued barking at the briefcase.
"Wow, surges of spirit energy, huh? I didn't think anywhere else had that on earth," Kuwabara commented aloud.
"Indeed, it's very peculiar," Kurama conceded, looking troubled.
"Shizuru, what's going on?" Keiko asked, leaning away from the angry boy and towards her friend.
"There's some unknown spirit energy popping up in New York. Looks like we're taking a trip to the U.S." she offered, exhaling deeply out of the open window.
"What do you mean we?" Yusuke asked, honing in on their conversation.
"You're staying here," he said to Keiko, pointing an accusatory finger. Keiko's face went from confused to indignant in a moment.
"You're telling me what to do? Who's going to take care of Poo for you anyway, Yusuke? You're sure not going to, and poor little Poo is going to be distraught and alone!" she challenged.
"She offers a good point," Kurama acknowledged, to which Kuwabara and Botan nodded.
"Besides," Keiko continued. "You're skipping out on your promise to go to the park and there are plenty of parks in New York!"
Yusuke grimaced. Him and his big mouth.
"Besides!" Botan chimed in. "There's a ticket for her right here."
"Oh, great. Well you better keep him quiet on the plane so nobody thinks he's some stupid dog," Yusuke responded, defeated. Keiko smiled and snatched her ticket from Botan before Yusuke could do anything about it.
"I think it's best if everyone heads home to pack and rest up before we need to leave," Kurama proposed, standing up to leave. The others nodded and followed suit, filing out of Yusuke's room to prepare for the early flight.
Keiko hesitated at the door, and turned around, letting Poo down.
"Hey, Yusuke?" She asked. He looked up and cocked his head to the side.
Keiko looked down nervously.
"If you need me to wake you up so we're not late, just let me know, okay?"
Yusuke smiled lightly.
"I don't think I'm getting there if you don't."
"Okay," she said, smiling. "I'll be here at 5:00 AM sharp!"
With that, Keiko darted out of the room. Yusuke flopped on his bed and looked at the clock. It was already 5:00 PM. He groaned and rolled over. He just wanted to sleep.
A brief knock at the door caused him to roll back over and look up, propping himself up by his elbow. It was Kuwabara.
"I'm coming back here in two hours to help you pack, Urameshi," he commanded, pointing an accusatory finger in Yusuke's direction.
"I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself, ass."
"Whatever you want to tell yourself, Urameshi. We both know you wait 'til the last minute for everything and we aren't going to miss a plane because of you!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
Stupid 6:00 AM plane, Yusuke groaned to himself, slamming his pillow over his head.
Feel free to review. Thanks for reading! Slowly scratching off the rust.