The Spoils of War
Chapter Two
What?
It is said that with the passing of time three things will occur.
One. Things will change. Whether it be for the better or for the worse, as times passes things will succumb to change. That must be accepted.
Two, a present time will fall into memory. As time continues more memories will build up and only the most important will remain. This is how one can accept their lives and what they have to tell their story by. This is also how one can see what kind of lives they lead, whether they be pathetic or adventurous. This also must be accepted.
Three. This is more like a combination of both things. Some people see it as the obvious and care not to state it. I am not one of those people. The two previous are also obvious, but are stated, and I just like the number three. The third is that with the passing of time, memories of some occurrence and/or person will change the path in which one lives. This change is very different from the first change, which mainly suggest age and physical state. This memory is also different for it is so great that it has completely changed the way a person has lived. This must also be accepted, although sometimes it is hard to.
All of the above I agree to and accept. To not do so would be to deny nature and when you deny nature bad things happen. I've seen it happen a thousand times. When you try to deny the very thing that you are apart of you threaten the very nature of your own self and thus put yourself in way of your own destructive tendencies.
But that is my own philosophy and I find that many people are offended by it. Probably because people can't seem to take the truth, but again, my own personal opinion.
The next day passed quickly for four teenagers who were being pulled out of retirement far too early. Ok, so make that three teenagers and one ageless demon, all of which retired far too early anyway. So, they rather lost all sympathy there. Not that they would have much appreciated it anyway.
As the sun set beyond the horizon, the last of its rays found these four in a very familiar temple. They had been there for an hour, waiting.
"And he's late again. Honestly, he's losing his touch." Kuwabara muttered as they sat in silence, waiting for Koenma to appear with their little guide.
"No doubt he's having some problems getting Komori out of her cell. I'm rather surprised she agreed to this in the first place." Kurama commented from his place across from him.
"She was weird. ...Wait, you know her Kurama?!" Yusuke asked, looking over at the fox with a shocked expression. The way he talked about her certainly suggested that he did.
"Only in passing. I've seen her here and there a few times." he replied calmly, his face never changing expression.
"Right. She didn't seem to recognize you though."
"That isn't surprising. Its been many years since then."
"When you were Youko and you had that thief clan right?" Kuwabara asked, also very interested in the subject.
"Correct. I made many enemies then. I suppose she was one of them." The fox replied with a shrug.
"Would you really consider me an enemy? I thought I was more of a rival than anything else." came a familiar female voice from the shadow behind Kuwabara. "And I hardly doubt you can consider six-hundred years as 'knowing someone in passing', even for one your age."
The sudden appearance of the voice caused said teenager to jump and yell shrilly. That noise thus caused Yusuke to curse loudly and snap out of his concentration on Kurama, who remained calmly in his seat.
Kurama chuckled a bit, his cool eyes turning to her as she became fully visible in the room. "Hello again, Komori."
The demoness nodded to him as she took a seat next to Kuwabara. "Hello, fox."
"Where the hell did you come from?!" Yusuke yelled.
"Outside." Komori said simply, "I didn't feel like interrupting your little discussion, so I thought I'd just slip in."
"But...how...where..." came Kuwabara's attempt at a question, his eyes darting between the shadowy corner and where she sat next to him.
"Komori is a shadow demon, Kuwabara. She can use shadows as a transport between places." Kurama explained, "So, Komori, how did you find out it was me?"
"I asked princey boy of course. Since someone interrupted our introductions," her eyes darted over to Yusuke who was still staring at her with a strange look, "I thought I'd ask him afterwards. He slipped up and began to call you Kurama before he gave me your human name. And since I have only known one Kurama, I put two and two together."
"Always were a quick one weren't you?"
"So, you two do know each other." Kuwabara noted as he watched the two talk.
"In passing." they both replied in identical tones, small smiles on both their faces.
"Of course, this time you aren't trying to seduce me." Komori commented.
"Not in public." Kurama countered. "So, Koenma won't be coming?"
"I told him I could take care of things from here. He told me Kuwabara could open a passage for us if I asked nicely." she turned to said teenage with a grin, batting her eyelashes and acting innocent. "You will open a portal for us, won't you Kuwabara-san?"
"Um...yea, sure." he replied, turning slightly red.
"Still using your same tricks then." Hiei sneered from the corner.
The demoness' blue eyes turned to him. "Well hello to you too Hiei. I thought I recognized that spikey hair or yours." she smiled a bit, not faltering as he glared at her. Instead she turned to Kurama. "I suppose he still hates me then?"
Kurama glanced toward the fire demon with an unreadable look. "I suppose he does."
"Well I suppose he has good reason." she shrugged.
"If it weren't for you we wouldn't be in this predicament." Hiei hissed, his hand at the hilt of his sword.
"Hiei." Kurama warned in a stern voice. Komori ducked behind Kuwabara, who was supporting a look of confusion.
"Ok, so what exactly is going on with you three?" Yusuke asked in slight irritation.
"Nothing." two of them replied while the other "hn"ed and continued to glare at the only female present. She was still using Kuwabara as a shield, leaving the teenager to break into a severe cold sweat as he began rethinking his purpose in life and questioning the existence of any being higher than King Enma.
"Riiiiight. So what exactly is this predicament we are in?" Yusuke asked again, looking between the three of them. Well four if you count Komori's body guard.
"Oh its nothing bad!" Komori said cheerfully, coming out from behind Kuwabara. "We just have to zip into Makai, grab a few items and take them back to Koenma. Simple as that."
Yusuke just stared at her.
"What?" she asked innocently.
"Simple as that? Lady, you don't know the toddler. Nothing is that simple if he is involved."
"Of course I know princey boy. I've worked for him for a millennia. It's just that when you've worked for him as long as I have you find ways to make your job seem a lot simple. Things tend to go by easier that way." she grinned.
There was a stunned silence.
"A millennia?! How did you not die?!" Yusuke yelled out.
"Well, seeing as I'm already dead, there was no risk involved."
"You mean you've been working for him this entire time?" Kurama asked a little more quietly, his eyes as wide as Yusuke's. Komori nodded to him, smiling.
"So, you're a ghost?" Kuwabara asked, backing away a bit.
"Yup! We'll to help you guys out Koenma gave me my body back. So, now I guess I'm the living dead." she threw her head back and laughed. The four just stared at her like the idiot she was.
Noticing the silence her laughed turned into a coughing fit. "Yea, I didn't think it was funny either." she muttered. "So, should we get going?"
"Wait, you never told us what we are doing." Yusuke said.
"Oh, so you want more of an explanation then? Well we are going to go steal a few items from some people, all of who are mostly harmless. Then run them up to Koenma then go about our lives I suppose, or living out the rest of eternity, depending on your current state of being."
"Why kind of items?"
"Oh just a few knickknacks. Nothing of great importance."
"Then why does Koenma want them?"
"To give to you as Christmas presents." Komori grinned.
"Mostly harmless?" Kurama questioned with amusement before Yusuke could strangle her for not giving him a direct answer.
"Yes, well, as far as I remember. Besides, I doubt they'd attack us." she stated off handedly.
"Doubt that could get us killed." Hiei spat from the corner. "Last I remember, you were accused of murder, bat."
"Hiei!" Kurama yelled, setting the demon with a glare of his own, his eyes flashing gold.
On the other side of the room Komori went rigid before turning to Hiei with blank eyes and shrugging "Well if that's what you think." Pushing herself to her feet she began to head outside. "We should get going." she said as she made her way for the door.
"Wait! Are you going to tell us about this damn circle thing or not?!" Yusuke yelled at her.
"Oh, so you remember it's a circle. That's great!" Komori cheered from her place frozen in front of the door.
"I'm not completely stupid! So are you going to tell us about it?"
Komori looked up towards the ceiling, as if pondering her answer. After several minutes of silence, Yusuke grew impatient, which (as you will come to find out later) isn't hard to become with Komori.
"WELL?!"
"Naa, I think I'm just going to let you guys think about it for a little while." she grinned, disappearing through the floor before a well aimed Spirit Gun cut through the space she has previously occupied.
There was a silence amongst the boys while Yusuke continued to fume in his firing position. Kuwabara was trying to restrain Yusuke from destroying the house while Hiei brooded and Kurama laughed silently with amusment.
"Well, I think that went over well."
Outside Komori was flittering around impatiently as she waited for her heard of boylings to follow her out. They are no better than a group of thieves. She thought to herself as she perched on the edge of the roof. After only a few seconds, she'd had enough of waiting and from a simple shadow at her side a black snake with golden eyes rose to great her.
Grinning she whispered something into its "ear" and the snake disappeared through the wood and tile of the building into the room. There was silence for a minute followed by a scream, some cursing, a bang, and a very soft bought of laughter. A second later a very flustered spirit detective burst from the house, another spirit gun powering up on his finger.
"Yusuke, please. As much as I hate to say it, we do need her in order to complete this mission." Kurama stated calmly as he followed the boy out.
"Actually...well...never mind, yes you do." the bat grinned from her spot on the house, ducking down suddenly as the angry teenager pointed his loaded finger at her.
"Don't waist your energy on her, Detective. She isn't worth it." Hiei said. Amazingly enough, probably because it was Hiei saying it, Yusuke slowly dropped his hand and Komori popped out of hiding.
"Why thank you Hiei. Never thought you'd be one to save my life, but that's ok."
"Only so that I may take it later."
"Ah." Komori nodded a bit before fluttering down to the ground. "So, shall we get going?"
"But you never said-" the teenager began again, but a slender finger over his mouth silenced him.
"All in good time, Yusuke-sama. All in good time." she said calmly before slowly backing away and turning to Kuwabara. "So, you can open us a passage right?"
"Umm...yea."
"Well what are you waiting for? Open her up!"
And so it was written. Powering up his almighty sword the mighty Kuwabara swung and ripped a perfectly sized portal between the dimensions between two trees. It shone with a few different colors as a gaseous cloud of imagination drifted by.
"Thank you Kuwabara-san!" Komori cheered from the side lines.
"Yea, sure, no problem." the teen blushed a bit. It was a amazing what a little bit of flattery from a she demon could do to a guy.
"So, off we go then!" she said, waving to the others to follow as she fell into the dimensional cut, disappearing into the pseudo space.
"It has begun, Mitsuru."
"I expected as much. With a matter such as this she won't want to be wasting any time at all."
"No, I suppose she wouldn't. Although one thing does bother me."
"What would that be? That she and the youko are getting along so well?"
"No. That I anticipated. A millennia of servitude has subdued her. She doesn't fight like she used to."
"Then what?"
"That you and your men aren't there to intercept them."
"You want us to introduce ourselves so soon? Wont' that just ruin the show?"
There was a silence while one contemplated on his subordinates observation.
"Mitsuru, I think you're right. Hang back for now and watch them. I think there might be a way to make this all the more entertaining."
There was another silence.
"You're horrible at this dark overlord thing, you know that right?"
"Yea, I know."
Ok, things I need to clear something up. I know that Hiei isn't old enough to have known Komori if she died 1000 years ago, but I had to do some altering of dates and things. So, Hiei is actually older than usual by about 1200 years or so. Yea, I think that's a safe estimate.
I'm also going to put Kuronue's death at sometime within the past 500 years, meaning he went up to Spirit World. That will come up later no doubt (as it always does) and I just want to get it out of the way.
Also, the chapters begin with something from Komori's pov. I meant to add that to chapter one, but I forgot. You are welcome to skip them, but they do give some insight into everyone's favorite batty!
Please review people, it makes me want to write more.
And as usual, I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. I do own Komori, all other seemingly original demons and the "Christmas presents" that will appear throughout the story.
