Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. If I did, I would be working on a tablet computer, not a secondhand one from school.
Summary: In a fight with a minor demon, Kurama is touched by a human and flees shortly after. When the SDF enters the fray, it seems our favorite fox is in trouble—but what is the Spider's Web? Rated T for blood, violence, paranoid delusions, and talk about demons.
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Chapter 1
Yusuke stared at the teacher dully. Boo-ring, he yawned to himself. I should ditch. Hey, and with my Mazoku DNA, I could. He hadn't actually tried vanishing from under a teacher's nose, but how hard could it be?
The sense of someone watching drew his attention to a brown-haired girl in the row behind him. "Of course," he grumbled softly, not even realizing he'd spoken aloud or in Makaigo. "Keiko will stop me, and if she can't, she'll make me wish I hadn't tried it." Still, it would almost be worth it to get out of school.
Yusuke glanced over at Kuwabara. The orange-haired boy looked almost as bored as Yusuke felt. Yusuke was sure he would soon die of boredom. School seemed doubly pointless after having people tell him that his destiny was in Makai. Yusuke sighed and slouched in his chair. Reikai had asked him to come back as Tantei when they finally realized that there wasn't a human alive who could handle the S-class demons that kept trying to break through. There were even rumors of a demon who could slice the barrier from the Makai side, making the task of ensuring that Ningenkai had a protector infinitely more important than the grudge Enma held against Yusuke.
Yusuke sighed. He'd rather be fighting an S-class than be here.
As if on cue, the communicator in his bag rang.
"Urameshi?" Iwamoto demanded. "What was that?"
Crap, Yusuke thought. Now he's gonna try and stop me. Why'd I have to pick today to come to school? "Well, uh…"
Keiko raised her hand. "Sir, that's Yusuke's cell phone. I heard Kuwabara this morning—he doesn't have a cell phone, but his family is waiting for news in a family emergency, so he gave them Yusuke's cell number and asked him to leave it on. Sorry, I knew they wouldn't tell you, so I was going to, but I forgot."
Iwamoto didn't look like he was buying it. The communicator kept ringing.
"Sorry, teach, but this is important. Gotta take it," Yusuke said, standing and dragging Kuwabara outside.
To their surprise, it was Koenma who was at the communicator. He was in his toddler form and more than a little panicky. "Yusuke! Kuwabara! You need to get her NOW! Get to the park. We've opened a portal. It's an emergency!"
"Wait, hold up, kid," Yusuke said, more confused than usual. "What's going on? Should we get Kurama and Hiei?"
"You've got no chance of finding Hiei in time! One of you go get Kurama, the other one, GET HERE!" Koenma sounded like he was on a sugar and adrenaline high.
Yusuke and Kuwabara looked at each other. "I'll go to Kurama's school, you get to the park," Yusuke decided. Kuwabara nodded and both boys took off.
---
"Man, I'd forgotten how rich private schools are," Yusuke commented, staring up at the building. "Hope he didn't decide to skip today." Yusuke walked up to the steps and went in.
"C'mon, where d'you look for a superbrain?" Yusuke asked himself. Fortunately, a passing student teacher noticed that he looked lost.
"Hello, can I help you?" she asked, taking in every detail of his street-punk appearance.
"Uh, yeah." Yusuke looked the woman over in turn, then decided to just get on with what he'd come for. She looked like she might be gullible enough to help him. "I'm Minamino Shuichi's cousin, Urameshi Yusuke. Could you tell him that I'm here? It's important."
"Shuichi's cousin? Really? But, your hair…"
"I dye it," Yusuke lied. "Could you tell him? It's about his uncle. He's been waiting for news."
"Oh… of course." The woman walked off purposefully toward a nearby classroom. A few moments later, a red-haired boy emerged.
"I will never understand why any school would make the boys wear pink instead of the girls," Yusuke said with a grin. "Hey, Kurama."
Kurama didn't smile. "Why are you here?" he demanded.
Yusuke sighed. "Business, huh? Apparently there's some major trouble. Kuwabara's already headed to Reikai."
Kurama hesitated, looking back over his shoulder, then nodded. "Let's go."
---
When Yusuke and Kurama got to Reikai, there was one more person than they'd expected to find.
"Mitarai!" Yusuke half-shouted. "What're you doing here?"
The blond looked as though he hadn't gotten any sleep recently. "It's Demon's Door Cave," he answered wearily. "The tunnel. Someone's reopened it."
Koenma looked at the three. "This is serious," he said unnecessarily. "The barrier is getting weaker. When an A- or S-class demon tries to get through, the barrier can draw some energy from that demon, but when a B- or C-class demon gets through, they catch some of the energy. It's like when you walk through a spider web and get some of the thread on you."
Yusuke wondered if he was the only one who'd noticed Mitarai flinch when Koenma mentioned spider webs.
Koenma kept talking. "It's so little energy that it doesn't often make a difference, but with hundreds of demons crossing already, the barrier is getting weaker in a specific point. If it reaches a critical thinness, the rest of the barrier will spread itself over the weak point, but in a few days, at this rate…"
He left it up to their imagination what would happen.
"So what, doesn't Enma just send his goons down there before that happens?" Yusuke demanded.
"The SDF is already at work trying to close the hole. However, every demon that gets out and past them is harder for the humans to kill than the last one."
"So you want us to do… what?" Yusuke demanded. "Just kill the demons that get through?"
"Essentially, yes. But there's an added twist…"
Mitarai spoke up. "Elder Toguro is dead. And not by a demon attack, or by Kurama's tree. There's some kind of curse that covered his body." His right hand almost unconsciously touched his left when he said "curse."
Koenma nodded. "So, the SDF's main purpose there is to find all carriers of the curse and make sure that it is purged from their bodies. Your job is to kill the demons and make sure they don't kill any humans."
Yusuke nodded. "So, are we going?"
Koenma gestured, and a portal opened in the air. "That will take you right to Mushiyori City."
---
The air in the city was thick with demons. By the time the Tantei team reached the area, the fatalities were sky-high—in some cases, as the demons threw their victims aside, literally.
Yusuke didn't even think. The first demon attacker he saw was demolished.
Kuwabara was equally impulsive, manifesting his sword and attacking any demon he didn't know.
Before Kurama could even think of doing anything of the kind, someone ran from a demon, slipping and stumbling. He seized Kurama's arm, his eyes wild.
"Help me!" he screamed. "Help me!"
Kurama saw the demon behind him, a brute of a soul-stealer with six-inch fangs and claws almost as long. He tried to pull his arm free, but the man held on desperately. He seemed insane. Kurama began to notice the sensation his arm was getting at the point of contact. A point of discomfort, no more than a pinprick, was spreading into lines of something like heat and cold being traced into a distinct pattern. When the sensation stopped, the man suddenly stumbled back and ran on.
Kurama stared, then turned his attention back to the demon. He pulled a rose from his hair and had just begun to create his whip when the beast was destroyed from behind.
Kuwabara and Yusuke stood there. "You okay, Kurama?" Yusuke asked. "You weren't attacking."
Kurama's mind was stuck on one thought. I'm a demon, he kept reminding himself. They're fighting demons. They'll kill me when they're done with the rest. "I'm fine," he said aloud. "There was someone… he wouldn't let go. No… it was more like…" he couldn't let go, he finished silently. He looked at Yusuke and Kuwabara. When they nodded reluctantly and turned away, he took his chance and ran.
None of them noticed that Mitarai had left long before.
---
Mitarai found the man in an alley. "What was that?" he demanded in Makaigo.
The man shivered, trembled, and didn't answer.
"Don't you know what you just did?" the blond asked. "You just forced the Spider's Web onto another, one who has no wish to join our cause."
The man whimpered as Mitarai pulled out a knife and cut his palm, letting the blood spill onto a nearby puddle.
Mitarai opened his territory. As his water beast devoured the man, he turned away. "I knew it," he said in a disgusted tone. "He never wished to give himself up. To become a demon."
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Aah, I am so evil. Hee hee. Please don't hate me or think Kurama and Mitarai are ooc. It goes with the storyline, and will be explained in the next chapter—which I will try to get up by the end of tomorrow if I get two positive reviews by then.