Chapter 2
Conversation and Contemplation
Tuesday
10:30 AM
A hollow thunk rang out through the garden as the stick of bamboo filled to the tipping point with water, and thunked against the rock beneath it. The shishi-odoshi as it was called. Kurama's eyes were focused on the brightly coloured fish darting around each other in the clear pond at their feet. He lifted his cup of tea and drank from it absently.
"Has Koenma told them yet?" asked a rugged, gruff voice from beside him.
"Tomorrow," Kurama replied. "I convinced him to confirm it to me sooner. Though I'd hardly had any doubt. Koenma has been wanting to get a solid influence over the Dark Tournament for centuries."
Genkai nodded. That much was obvious to anyone paying attention.
"Master Genkai, I have come here to request a consultation with you."
"And here I thought you'd come 50 miles to the middle of the wilderness for the free tea."
Kurama gave a soft laugh. "Yusuke and Kuwabara are not equipped to deal with this situation. They know how to win in a ring, but neither of them has given any thought to the politics outside of the arena. Once word gets out that they're competing again…"
Genkai sucked air between her teeth in a disapproving tsk. "Kurama, I'm not Koenma. Either deal with me honestly or put in some real effort. Yes, I have room here to house the two blockheads and their families. Do you have anything you actually want to consult me on? Or just more poorly disguised requests?"
Kurama bowed his head. "My apologies. It is the most effective way of dealing with most people. Sometimes I forget to take it off. I do have something to consult you on. As you well know we are down a member. And I confess that I see no… good solutions."
"That's because there are no good solutions," Genkai replied. "Just ones that won't get you killed. Problem is you don't know which ones won't get you killed until you get the knife in your back."
Kurama chuckled again. "Yes."
Genkai sat back, tea in hand. "Well Kurama, I'll list your options for you. You have six connections to work with. That's you, me, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Koenma. Hiei is not only a dubious asset himself, but if he knew anyone powerful who'd be willing to team up with him, he wouldn't have burgled Enma with Goki and a half demon bastard child. No offense."
Kurama smiled. "Of course not."
"Koenma presents the same problem. If he had anyone of any use to rely on, he wouldn't be sending Yusuke running across the country at the drop of a hat every other week. You can use Koenma's resources to run a background check on anyone you're considering. Of course most people worth working with can fool his records. But that's all he's really good for. You've exhausted the demons Yusuke and Kuwabara know with Jin and Touya's team. I will call on the people I've met in my lifetime who aren't homicidal, insane, or dead, but I'm not holding my breath."
"You know such people?" Kurama couldn't keep himself from asking.
"That's why I'm not holding my breath," Genkai replied. "And I can't imagine you have any old connections that you'd like to call on again."
"You would be correct."
"That's the problem with interesting people. They tend to be loners with a lifetime of baggage. Everything work's great until one of them dies or goes senile and has to be replaced. That's when you realize you're more alone in the world than you think."
Silence fell as they both paused for tea and thought.
"Well Kurama. If I were you I'd start thinking about what you'll do if you have to take on a stranger. Remember that if you recruit someone you know and don't trust at least you know why you don't trust them."
Kurama nodded. Silence fell again until finally Kurama spoke.
"I must be heading back shortly. Koenma will be informing Yusuke of the tournament tomorrow, and I must be back by then. I will aim to have Yusuke and Kuwabara leave for your temple by Saturday. Can you have space for them and their families by then?"
"Yes," Genkai replied. "Should I prepare extra space for anyone for you?"
"No," Kurama replied. "I have that under control."
There was another stretch of silence, broken by the hollow thunk of the shishi-odoshi.
"Kurama, I'm going to be blunt for a minute."
"You weren't already?" Kurama asked with a soft laugh.
"You are acting like one of the dumbest intelligent people I've talked to in at least the last few decades."
"Heh, I thank you for the honor."
Genkai ignored his comment.
"Cut the bullshit and tell your mom."
Kurama did not respond. A soft, receptive smile was placed on his lips.
"You're letting her hang over your head like a neon sign telling the world that your fly's down. You don't want to manipulate her so you leave her painfully unprotected. At the same time you lie to her every day by omission. Right now you are carefully cherry picking the absolute worst of both worlds. If you're going to lie to her, then manipulate her so that she's safe. If you don't want to taint your relationship with manipulation, than for God's sake Kurama stop half-assing it and be truthful all the way.
"There is no good reason why your mother should have been used against you in the last tournament and you damn well know it. You're playing cute and dumb and its only attractive to people too stupid to see how destructive it is. You're afraid of what will happen if you let your demonic side into your human life, so you put on the mask of how you think a normal, stupid human would act. It may win you 'best son in the world' mugs, but it sure as hell won't win her life back when someone who knows how the fuck to blackmail comes along. So cut the shit."
Genkai took a long drink from her teacup while Kurama sat with a perfectly neutral expression on his face, his eyes still fixed on the fish darting around the pond.
"Thank you for your advice," Kurama replied smoothly.
The silence stretched.
"Anymore questions?"
"No. Thank you for your consultation," Kurama stood, and gave Genkai a soft bow and turned. His bare feet passed silently over the stones leading from Genkai's garden to her temple.
"Kurama."
The boy stopped halfway along the path.
"Do it before you talk to Hiei. Your cutesy human mask scares him. He knows you're intelligent, so when you act stupid it means that he can't predict your underlying motives, so he has to assume they're malicious. And God knows the last thing he needs is an extra reason not to trust you."
"…I understand. Thank you for your time," Kurama said, and vanished into the temple.
Tuesday 9:15 PM
Kurama sat tucked away in the high branches of one of the larger oak trees at the edge of his town, pondering.
"If I may ask," Kurama said as his meeting with Koenma drew to a close. "Have you run your plans to compete in the tournament past your father?"
Koenma nodded. "He prompted me to do it, actually."
It was as Kurama had suspected. Koenma had been wanting to get influence over the dark tournament for a long time. Everyone knew it. But imperial officials rarely competed within the tournament. It was breaking a sort of unspoken rule. Intelligent demons knew that the tournament was kept afloat by the reining powers. But no contestant within Mukuro, Yomi, or Raizen's ranks ever competed. To do that would provide an open challenge.
It sent a clear message: I have entered into the pecking order. Challenge me.
And the moment that one challenger from one kingdom competed in the tournament, the tournament would immediately dissolve into a political playground. A space for the reining powers to assess pecking order between empires, compare military strength, and decide whether they had the means to win in war.
Enma was no exception. So while he tried to make sure that humans won the tournament instead of demons, he never sent his personal detective into the fray. The last tournament had been a free trial run for him. Yusuke had no choice. The Demon World understood challenges of honor, and so they had understood that Yusuke came to the tournament as Toguro's rival, and not Enma's detective. This year that was no longer true. Which left the question of what Enma was trying to communicate to the demon world by having Yusuke compete.
He could play it off again this year, by saying that Yusuke was the reining champion, and it's customary for the reining champion to compete the next year. But not all reining champions competed. Toguro hadn't. And by not turning down the offer Enma was sending a direct challenge to Mukuro, Yomi, and Raizen. Come. See my soldier. Look what I have done with him.
But to what end? Kurama wondered.
To provoke war with Demon World?
Genkai was correct. If Enma had a good team of soldiers beneath him he would not be relying so heavily on Yusuke every time something popped up. To provoke a battle with such scant resources was beyond stupid. Of course it was possible that Enma was intentionally concealing a greater force than he was letting on…
To send a warning?
"Keep your demons out of my human world, or they will face my detective." A show of strength to deter further conflict? But that won't work, and Enma must know it. This will only increase the number of demons who want to test their strength against Yusuke—
To strengthen his detective?
Up the challenge level for Yusuke and force him to adapt to being hunted. It was definitely true that Yusuke seemed to grow best under threat to his life, or the lives of those around him. If Enma was planning a battle in the future that he wanted Yusuke to be a central piece in, this strategy for strengthening his soldier wouldn't be unreasonable…
One final idea was prickling at the back of Kurama's mind, and Kurama found that he had some kind of resistance to it. That alone was a blazing sign that the possibility was an important one. So he calmed his churning thoughts and pushed that resistance carefully to the side and let the final possibility unfurl to be adequately explored.
To kill his detective?
If Enma was planning to kill Yusuke, throwing him into the tournament, catching the attention of the reining monarchs, then not backing his pawn with an army was certainly an effective way to do it. He could even cloak it under any of the other possible reasons that Kurama had already come up with.
'But he has no motive,' Kurama's mind tried to argue before another voice cut in over it—shutting down the definite statement with a clarifying question.
What do I think I know, and how do I think I know it?*
To know whether Enma has a motive you must know his mind well enough to predict him on a personal level. You must know the variables that Enma sees. You can predict his movements on a political level because you understand the political entity that he speaks for. But he has carefully kept himself far away where you will not be able to meet him personally. He has planted the stage so that he cannot be read.
Kurama mentally committed each of these possibilities to memory and began listing tests for each hypothesis:
Provoke War
What next step will Enma take if this is his goal?
Step 1: Raise an army.
Test: Keep an eye out for any space within Spirit World that is not being used that could be secretly housing barracks.
Step 2: Fragment his enemy.
Sub-step: Stir up rumors at the tournament to keep the three empires fragmented.
Test:
1. Find trusted demons who aren't suspected of being Team Urameshi sympathizers. Situate them throughout the rumor mill to stay in the gossip loop.
2. Bribe/drug demons to get information about gossip.
Complication: Rumors happen. It does not prove Enma's involvement.
Kurama frowned. Thought a bit longer, then left that step open ended and moved to the next.
Send a Warning
What next step will Enma take if this is his goal?
Step: Urge Yusuke to kill his opponents.
Kurama and Hiei had the reputation of killing their opponents. Kuwabara and Yusuke did not. If Yusuke showed that he would kill any demon that opposed him without a second thought, the message might be received.
Test: Monitor what messages Yusuke receives and from whom.
Monitor Yusuke's actions.
Use knowledge from involvement in the rumor mill to monitor public opinion of Yusuke.
Strengthen his Detective
What next step will Enma take if this is his goal?
Goal: Monitor Yusuke's situation, be ready to step in if things go seriously out of control.
Test: Monitor what safety precautions Enma takes. Does he have men standing by to intervene if things get out of hand or avert the more subtle murder plots?
Complication: Difficult to test without attempting to murder Yusuke.
Kill his Detective
What next step will Enma take if this is his goal?
Stand back and watch the show.
Kurama frowned. It was not a good sign that that was the only goal that involved no extra steps on Enma's part.
A/N 12:54AM Saturday totally counts as updating on Friday, doesn't it?
