Author's Notes:
I hate author's notes. However, this story needs a real title, still.
I own neither YuYu Hakusho nor Weiss Kruez. Only the plot, narrative, and the occasional, (brief), OC are mine.
Connections
Chapter Four
One look at Hiei's face had Genkai ordering him to sit and calling for Yukina to come and serve tea. It wasn't until all four of the Tantei had been served, and finally enjoyed at least one cup of tea that Genkai permitted conversation.
"Well gentlemen, I sense that tailing the targets did not go well." This was met with a chorus of snorts and chuffs of disgust.
"Speaking as one with some experience in matters of the chase," Kurama said, "our target was not the punch-drunk fool we were expecting." His expression was suddenly chagrined, "he lost me." That statement got the room's attention and Yukina nearly dropped the tea cup she was passing to Kuwabara. Kuwabara quickly took it before it could spill and added, "I really think that's just 'cause we were relying on my ESP to let us know when he got off the bus. But thinking about it, it really wouldn't work like that. What I wanted was to keep track of the guy -so with Yuusuke and Hiei chasing the other one, losing Kudoh isn't a disaster, so I wouldn't get a warning." He shook his head. "Sometimes the way my ESP works just frustrates the hell out of me. I wish someone could have written instructions, but it's different for everyone... ." He shrugged. "I'm going to have to take up psychology just to figure out how I'm hiding stuff from myself."
Hiei laughed, "Kuwabara, you are the only one stupid enough to be able to hide from his own ESP."
Yuusuke reached over and grabbed Kuwabara, yanking him back down in his seat before he could lunge across the table and grab Hiei, "don't pay any attention Kuwabara," he said, then added a smirk. "Hiei's just pissed and embarrassed that our target out ran him." That statement was accompanied by three small 'clinks' as Genkai, Kuwabara and Kurama all set their cups down too quickly.
"What," Kurama asked in a soft and measured voice, "do you mean "out ran him"?"
"I mean, the guy covered two blocks, around a corner and to the roof of a four-story warehouse faster than I've ever seen any human outside this room do it. If there was a parkour Olympic event this guy was a medalist for sure. Hiei is faster than I am, I hate to admit it but it's true, and this guy accelerated so fast that Hiei didn't catch up. If he'd known to go full-out to begin with no way would our guy get away, but by the time we realized we weren't in a normal speed chase, he was a couple of roofs away."
"So did you lose him then?" Genkai growled.
"No." Hiei snarled back, "He may have gotten an unexpected head start, but I marked him with the Jagan. I can get him whenever I want him."
"Good." Answered Genkai, "Then finding the location of their tournament is a guaranteed, as long as Hidaka is a finalist. He's fast enough to play 'chase' with Hiei... I hope that means he's a sure thing to make the cut, if he isn't than we have to assume we're dealing with adepts of one sort or another. Not to mention, when he loses we lose our trace to this new tournament."
"Yes," said Kurama, "According to the information we recovered the next round decides who goes to the island, and we have no idea how our 'candidate' will perform aside from the barest win/loss stats. I think we need to get someone in to observe that last bout. Someone the Dark Tournament survivors will not recognize. . .. But who?"
"Well boys, considering this whole thing is "old home week" I can think of a couple of people who might be willing to do you a favor -without involving Koenma. Would you all be willing to owe a small favor -say the size of a fight, to get someone into that audience?"
The Tantei exchanged looks and finally Yuusuke nodded, "OK Genkai, small favor it is, and that's for the project, not per participant!"
Genkai nodded, "I'll take care of it. Meanwhile, you should be plotting your entrance and planning your wardrobes." She got up from the table. "This is going to require a few phone calls. Come back day after tomorrow, I'll have it ready to go.
Omi pulled the cap off his head and used his jacket sleeve to wipe the sweat off his hair line, then plopped the cap back down, bill properly facing the back of his neck, and sighed, He dug the paper out of his pocket to make sure. He wanted to make sure that this was his last "professional" stop. Yep - all the martial arts instructors he'd listed to visit for Weiss' case, he'd visited... all except that 'Ryu', (Omi was certain that was an alias), trainer who'd given Ken his card. The card had only a phone number -cell number at that, but but tracing a phone number to a person, and then a physical address was no harder for Omi than pwning your average n00b. He'd spent all morning visiting martial arts schools and squeezing a couple of mystics in between. So far he had a very solid sense that however this Nigre Decuria was picking up on it's prospects it wasn't by leaning on their Senseis: all the schools he'd visited had been all but unaware of the "Dark Tournament". Omi was beginning to think their recruiters picked prospects out by smelling them -there was almost nothing else left. This Ryu guy however, had known about the tournament. He pushed the door open and walked in to a well lit and airy but narrow and largely featureless room. There was nothing but a polished wood floor, three beautifully painted doors, (one of which he'd just come through), and a very beautiful young woman who was just coming through the left-most of the remaining doors. Omi couldn't help but think of Yohji.
"Welcome," the very beautiful young woman said, "how may I help you?"
Omi had been expecting a school or gym of some sort. This featureless elegance was the most graceful stonewalling Omi had ever seen, but it was stonewalling none the less. Oh well, nothing for it but to go for it. Omi pulled out the card and showed it to her, but didn't give it to her, "I want to speak to this gentleman please."
Omi, who was watching for it caught a brief flicker of tight surprise and recognition around her eyes before the polite face replaced it, "I do not believe I can help you, but if you will be wiling to wait, I will see what I can learn."
Omi smiled and thanked her and leaned against the wall to wait as she passed back through the door she'd come through.
Wanting to make the best use of every idle moment, Omi leaned against the wall and began arranging his Civics report in his head. He'd barely decided paragraph layout when the door opened again and the girl came back. She bowed and asked him to follow her. She led him down a very long hall without doors or windows that ran perpendicular to the outside street and ended in a door to an open courtyard. She opened the door and stood aside for him to go through, closing it behind him. A dark-haired, scowling man of uncertain age was waiting for him in the court yard garden. "You're not Ken." the man challenged, "How do you have the card I gave him?"
The air was suddenly angry and felt too heavy to breathe. The room receded to the edge of his consciousness and the two of them seemed alone in a space empty of anything but themselves. A space most definitely not Omi's. He was certain now that this was Ryu though Omi couldn't have said how he knew so completely, and this was inarguably, if inexplicably, Ryu's turf. Somehow the man filled the space to its limit with an overwhelming sense of proximity. Omi found himself instantly terrified by a possibility of violent death he could almost taste.
And suddenly Omi was falling-
Falling, free falling, is one of the visceral terrors; a primal helplessness. All that is human feels it. It is built into your skull, your inner ear. There is nothing to grab, nothing to be done to save your self, no pain to distract you from knowing what is coming. Nothing but you and approaching extinction and pain. Nothing but, perhaps a shriek of wind past your ears, to match the shriek of denial and rage in your mind. From the first time you fall more than your own height you know that, above a certain number of your-own-heights, when you land, you will break. Falling is one of the death terrors and like any face of death, there is only one way to beat it, master it, control it, for you cannot end it. You acknowledge it, recognize that this may be the limit of your existence, accept that this is so and set the fear aside. Omi, long familiar with his own mortality in a way the young should not be, and the violent pressure of another's psyche in a way no one should be, forced a breath of air into his lungs by will and set the fear aside.
-Just as suddenly Omi, who had not moved a millimeter, was no longer falling.
Ryu's hand was under his arm helping him to a bench that Omi was sure had not been in the room when he'd entered it. He was embarrassedly grateful for it, as he was inexplicably weak and more than a little dizzy. Ryu set him on the bench and pushed his head between his knees. While Omi carefully regulated his breathing and waited for the spots to clear, Ryu sat next to him and handed Omi back the card. "I'm sorry," he said, "I gave that card to Ken in less than ideal circumstances. When you had it I thought maybe you were with the people who'd taken it from him."
"How," Omi gasped, a little, "do you know I'm not?"
Ryu laughed. "There might be, in that organization, someone who can throw off my full ring presence. But I haven't met them yet. And you -responded, to it much the same way Ken did. The two of you are allies or friends or both. If you have that card he gave it to you freely. Why are you here? Is Ken in trouble?"
"Ken's always in trouble." Omi snorted, surprising himself that he spoke so freely in front of this stranger, "its part of his nature -he attracts it."
Ryu laughed again, a deep, bright sound, "I can see that! Now what can I do for you young man -?"
Omi looked at Ryu for several long moments, just as certain now he could trust this man as he'd been overwhelmed by his presence before. Omi had been a vigilante too long not to trust his "soldier sense" of imminent danger, a sense that after the museum he'd found had expanded into a broader sense of people. Omi knew who he could and couldn't trust with a reflex that frequently kept him alive. A reflex that was telling him to trust this man, that he could, that he needed to. Omi opened his mouth and found himself telling the truth.
"Omi. My name is Tsukiyono Omi. We need answers and Ken thought you might have some."
Ryu nodded, "Unless you want to tell me what the three of you are up to, I don't know how much help I can be but I'll answer what I can."
"The three of us?" Ryu smiled, "You, Ken, and Chang -whatever his real name is."
Omi hesitated. "I would tell you -but its not my, or at least not just my secret to tell. If I speak in general terms and avoid specifics?"
Ryu nodded, "That would be better, yes."
Omi sighed "You know about the Dark Tournament. For reasons that have nothing to do with the purse, the three of us need to get into the final rounds, but we know nothing about it."
Ryu shook his head "Omi, you're a nice young man." He held up a hand, "I know you're tough and capable," he matched stares with Omi, "I know you're tough and capable -but somehow you and Ken, and maybe Chang too have managed to keep a kind of innocence, a purity of motivation that I don't often see at your level. These people Omi, this tournament -this is evil. Join them and they will crush everything you have left. Whatever you're doing -is it really important enough to risk that?
Omi matched his stare right back and answered. "Yes, yes it is."
Ryu sighed and stood, "walk with me -I'll answer what I can about the tournament, but you really need to speak to someone else".
Omi's conversation with Ryu had been profitable in an unexpected way. The man had little more to tell him about the Dark Tournament except to verify many of the conclusions that Omi had already drawn: the tournament was being organized "on the fly" and in Ryu's opinion very well could be using communications that could duck Kritiker's surveillance. Ryu didn't seem to think that the Nigre Nigre Decuria was just a money laundering front but that they might in fact have some supernatural means of organization. He'd actually suggested that Omi seek out the last psychic on his list, had even offered an introduction. Omi was nervous about how seriously the man was taking the possible involvement of, well, monsters and magic, but with everything he'd seen? Omi didn't see much point in willful ignorance. Though as he looked up at the seemingly endless stairs that marched up the steepest part of the very tall hill before him and disappeared through the gate at the top of the ridge he was re-considering that position. Somehow he just knew there were more stairs beyond them that he couldn't see. He looked at the address on the paper Ryu had given him. He looked at the address mounted neatly on the wall in front of the stairs. They matched. Silently cursing his ancestor's universal tendency to stick temples on the top of the tallest peaks they could find, Omi settled his pack and started climbing.
By the time Omi had climbed all the way to the crest of the small mountain/ big hill, been greeted by a very small young woman with very traditional looking Kimono and Obi and very unique blue hair and red contacts, (why red contacts?) which matched her very unique hair ornament, been sat down in front of a very large painting of a very scary guy, (was that supposed to be King Enma of all things?) and served a very proper and extensive tea Omi had just about had it. He considered himself, after living with three alternately homicidal/ suicidal and frequently sociopathic roommates, to have developed patience well beyond his years... but a mountain's patience would be wearing thin at this point, and Omi was no mountain. When the (also extremely) short and pink haired old woman was introduced by the blue haired young woman as, "Master Genkai", with a very straight face and deepest bow of respect Omi almost, almost, threw something.
Genkai for her part almost laughed. It was like having a ghost of equal parts young Kurama and Idiot in her temple again. And unfortunately, it was clear why Ryu had sent her this one. The young man appeared entirely human -but his aura was so infested with demon energies she was surprised he'd made it past the gate unscathed. Whoever this young man was he'd bumped up against the supernatural hard and nasty, and maybe even often. It was also disturbing that the quick call she'd made to Botan after hanging up with Ryu turned up nothing on "Tsukiyono Omi", live or dead.
"Well young man," Genkai began after sitting and taking a sip of her tea. "Why are you here?"
Omi wanted to be irritated, he felt he'd earned it, but just like Ryu earlier this woman's presence controlled the mood of the room. He resented that of course, but somehow he just couldn't work up the outrage to do anything about it -maybe that was the reason behind all the steps, make them too exhausted to argue with you? He sighed, "Ryu sent me, he said he'd call ahead?" The old woman nodded for him to continue. "He said you could answer well, unusual questions."
"Unusual questions?" Genkai prompted.
"Yeah," Omi replied, "like monsters and glowing mist and things like that."
Genkai set her cup down. "Young man, I am far too old to waste time dancing around to get to the point where we both agree that there is more to the world than science can explain. I know this and I sense that whatever you wish were the case you have come to know it too. This temple exists to, and it has long been my business to help both the seen and unseen worlds exist side by side without more conflict than necessary. I think you must tell me everything."
Omi wanted to fidget, he didn't like the idea of trying to lie to this person, but he couldn't tell her everything. Demonstrating just how perceptive she was the old woman added, "you may leave the names out if you want but I will need the details."
It seemed like the best deal he was going to get. Omi opened his mouth and told her about the monsters, the mist, and quite unexpectedly told her about the museum, and the thing that had tried to occupy Sakura's body and the searing touch of the Elder's mind as it slammed them around and the cold, cold, water closing over Weiss' heads for what they were sure was the last time. And then, for a final impulse, told her about fighting monsters with pink mists.
Genkai listened to the not-a-boy talk with growing dread. This was the legacy of modern blindness. The current perspective gave them medicine and machines and means to stop the old plagues cold, move anyone anywhere and feed the millions. But it left children like this one, not unlike the Idiot had been, to grow souls as weary and ancient as hers. She heard what this Omi talked around. She had no names, but it was clear that this should-be-boy served one of the many vigilante organizations that existed to "take up the slack" from a police force that was only allowed to address half the problem. And unsurprisingly some one with his kills, she could see the death in his aura, had brushed up against her side of the tracks; and then this "Esset" had dragged him and his friends right over the cliff into the thick of it. Now, it was only a matter of time. If it wasn't for the immediacy of the current problem she'd make Omi and his friends move into the temple right now if she had to have Yuusuke kidnap them. Finally Omi ran down and out of things to say, and stopped. Waiting for her.
Genkai set her cup down again and bowed her head with a sigh. "Tsukiyono, I'm afraid there is no choice. I don't know what you're messed up in that pits you against demons and demon summoners, but I warn you now, you've seen too much of it to get away from it. The energy of that ritual is sticking to your spirit like a stench, attracting spirits and weirdness and I'm surprised that you haven't begun seeing things sooner. If you'd actually drowned in that collapse you'd find town a much more crowded place. Brushing up against death -opens things, like vision, that most people keep closed, lets you see things and touch things that just waft by everybody else. You, and your friends are going to need training, immediately. Bring them here tomorrow-"
Omi jumped to his feet, tomorrow! That was just not going to be possible, Ken and Yohji would be leaving for the island in the next few days! He bowed abruptly and apologetically to Genkai. "I'm sorry Master Genkai -that just won't be possible, and I've just noticed the time! I'm late for cram school!" he bowed again and bolted for the door trying to get out before she stopped him.
"Tsukiyono." damn, to late. "I will let you go this time, but you will be back, and soon, or I will hunt you down and make you regret it. You cannot escape this and you cannot escape me. Understood?"
Omi froze, then nodded, and left.
Genkai sighed. She hoped the boy could survive whatever made him so desperate to wait. After the tournament. Get everyone that far before she hunted down and dragged back any new students. She sighed and sipped her tea again. She was getting too old for this. And she still had phone calls to make.
