Part 10:
Backswing
Hah! It's finished! Please tell me how the pacing is, since that's the major thing I'm worried about in this chapter, and otherwise generic reviews are fine; I enjoy hearing how well you think I'm doing, even if you think I suck. I've had people tell me that one before, too -- but in doing so they validated my existence, rendering them cherished and forever loved. So go ahead, be mean. I can take it.
Note: Long chapter. Freaking long chapter.
Studying the case files on his desk was an engrossing project, and one which Koenma had been at for some hours now. Sheaf upon sheaf of neatly stacked papers began on one side of the work surface and ended on the other, a pair of massive 'Reject' and 'Consider' piles that were, at this point, about equal in height.
Here was the case file on an A-class demon with a few routine murders to his name; nothing very special, having been killed by his own partner and duly sentenced to the mediocre punishment his kind warranted. He had been powerful, however, which made him a decent candidate so far as Koenma's purpose was concerned. His file was placed on top of the consider pile, delicately so as not to upset the precarious stack.
This file was on a living subject who had been of minor use to the Reikai in the past, but hadn't been especially strong. That made him usable, but not ideal, and after a moment of consideration, Koenma set the folder in the reject pile.
I need someone who's used to handling power. While any youkai would do in a pinch, it would not do to have an inexperienced candidate ruin the entire mission. The selection had to be carefully considered. He had already been forced to reject his most vital criterion -- he was not certain he could trust any of his choices.
The Tantei were not much better at this point, but at least he could be sure that self-interest and/or altruism would have kept them in line. He had no such assurances in dealing with anyone else, not even his own employees, most of whom were too cowardly or bureaucratic to be considered in any case. But the Tantei were unsuitable for various reasons: Kuwabara was human, Yuusuke was human, Kurama was pseudo-human (at least his biology was), and Hiei was dead and staying that way. Besides being less than nominally powerful, Yukina alone was not trustworthy enough to be given the task -- she still had suspect ties to her village despite her flight from their restrictive culture. Koenma did not trust the koorime, who were entirely too hidebound for his taste, and even an unknown quantity would be better than risking their meddling.
If the mission failed, it would be only a short step to outright war against all men -- again. My father was cleaning up that mess for decades.
That, of course, hadn't quite made it into official koorime history . . . and wasn't likely to. A society built on the idea that men were the sole destroyers of peace wouldn't have done very well if that particular tale had been preserved. He was fairly certain that the Elders were the only ones who knew, and that they might resort to the same means one day if they saw fit.
Not that Koenma especially minded the koorime when he didn't have to deal with them directly; they rarely did anything he could even call interesting. The most noteworthy event in recent years was their abandonment of the floating island, which he still hadn't figured out the reason for. Even the predictable koorime, it seemed, could do bewildering things.
He knew they had been grooming Yukina to be an Elder, which rendered her out of the question, and left him with these tall, tall stacks of paperwork.
Who knew being a kami would be so very tedious?
He idly leafed through the remaining files, riffling the stack for one that looked interesting in some way. There were an inordinate number of condemned dead in here, along with live prisoners who had been locked up for more than a century. Neither prospect seemed appealing to him; give a proven troublemaker the key to destroying every known plane of existence? Why not hand out scalpels to delinquents and tell them to play nicely? Koenma didn't want to hand over that power to anyone he didn't trust implicitly, as it was not only power over the worlds but power over him -- but his hands were all but bound. The item was absolutely useless without a wielder.
He could also consider some non-condemned demons, he supposed, but it left him with no leverage to make them do what he wanted -- he could hardly waive a punishment if there weren't one already assigned. And youkai weren't exactly the heroic type. Even Hiei and Kurama had had to be coerced into becoming Tantei, though the unusual sense of loyalty they felt for Yuusuke had replaced their initial motivation. An honor code of any kind, much less as stringent as theirs, was an anomaly at best in the Makai. Only a few select groups were known to possess one for certain, and they --
Oh.
"George, come here!"
He snapped his fingers when the flunky didn't appear instantly before him, his thoughts outrunning his ability to articulate them. Just as George burst through the side door and slid to a puffing stop, he barked, "Go find me the files on all the Shinobi who were at the Tournament. Move it!"
"But sir!" the oni huffed, "I mean -- there's something awful going on --"
And Ayame appeared with a crack of displaced air and blurted, "Sir, the rogue demons are on the move, and they've resumed their attacks!"
A moment of blind surprise; the paperwork was swept aside with a sharp movement of his arm, and he barked, "Get Yuusuke right away! I don't care how you find him, just do it! And you!" he directed at George. "I said get me those files!"
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
Yuusuke's pocket beeped.
"What's that?" Kuwabara asked, pointing.
Yuusuke knew what it was. A hand clenched tight moved to take it out, and then stopped. "It's nothing." He kept walking.
"Isn't that the mirror thingy Botan gave you?"
"Yeah. So?"
"So answer it!"
"What for? I have nothing to say to whoever is calling."
The larger boy was in front of him, halting his progress through the dry grass. "It might be important! You should at least make sure it's not Kurama or something!"
With a roll of his eyes, Yuusuke stepped around him. "This is his mirror, dumbass. He gave it to me because I broke mine. The only ones who could be calling are Botan and the toddler, and I don't wanna talk to them."
The beeping ceased then. Kuwabara grimaced in anger. "Look what you did, it stopped! You could have given it to me to answer instead of ignoring it, y'know!"
"Fine," was the reply, as Yuusuke kicked a rock into a high arc. He tossed the mirror at his friend. "Call them back. I don't care."
A gust of wind almost make Kuwabara fail to catch it. There was quite a bit of wind here; it was an open area of grass and dust, and it was boring to walk through. Here in the western sector of the Makai, where Yuusuke thought Kurama might have headed, it was quite a bit colder than the eastern, since it bordered koorime country. This was the first open space they had seen in hours -- before that, there had been the equally boring phalanx of Makai trees, with their inconvenient roots designed to trip passersby and their gloomy visages under the overcast sky. But at least there had been something to block this accursed wind which stung their eyes and made Yuusuke more surly than he'd any reason to be.
I. Hate. Makai.
His preferences didn't make much of a difference, though. He'd been stuck out here all day, and all expectations pointed towards being here not only for the rest of the evening, but maybe days longer. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to restrain himself from outright punching Kurama once they found him, just on principle, for having put him through this pissant search through this pissant countryside.
The communication device was already beeping again even as Kuwabara opened it. With a slightly startled frown, he jabbed a button at random, which cut the sound off but did not appear to do anything else; the little light was still flashing to alert a call. Putting a hand to his forehead, Yuusuke sighed deeply. "It would have been nice to know that thing had a mute button. You want the big blue one, Kuwabara. The red's to hang up."
"I know that, I've seen you use it," the carrot-top grumbled, hitting the blue circle with a touch more force than was necessary. The tiny screen flickered, and Yuusuke looked away to study the ground just as Botan's tinny voice burst over the speaker.
"Kuwabara! Is Yuusuke with you?"
He looked taken aback by this outburst, and blinked, glancing over at his friend as if to confirm his presence before answering. "Well, yeah, I --"
"Something terrible has happened!" she continued, railroading his attempt at words with a frantic note in her voice. "I went to pick up Yukina from the ice village, and when I got there, I found it destroyed!"
Kuwabara gasped. "Yukina!"
"What?"Yuusuke spun, unceremoniously snatched the mirror from his hand and yelled, "How long ago did you see this?"
"Just a few minutes," said the disheveled Botan-head on the screen. "I didn't see Yukina anywhere, but I saw --" She faltered. "I saw -- some of the others. None of them were alive."
Holy shit -- when the hell did this happen? Yukina just went there a day ago -- "You're still there? We'll be there as fast as we can!"
"No, I'll come get you -- where are you?"
"We don't have time for that!"
"It'll be faster than running!" she retorted. "I can gate us all there!"
"Fine, whatever! We're west of the ice village, in a place with lots of grass; there are trees behind us and in front of us about half an hour both ways." I hope that's good enough.
It was. "I know where that is, give me just a moment to get my bearings and I'll get to you."
The link cut out.
"Come on, Kuwabara!" Yuusuke shouted immediately. "Get ready to --" And he observed Kuwabara's absence, and the presence of a dust trail leading straight towards koorime territory. "K'so! Get back here!"
It was Botan who yanked the itinerant boy back to Yuusuke's position so that they could all gate to the village together via the Reikai, arriving (as she had said) much faster than they could have run. The place was little more than a smoking, smoldering hole in the ground; the ice and snow were melted for tree-lengths around, and what remained was slowly disappearing, its source gone. Swatches of bare dirt arched in random crescent patterns over the entire area, evidence of massive energy-based attacks that had doubtlessly killed hundreds -- there was a strong odor of burning, blood, and the unique, so familiar smell of death.
Yuusuke gaped at the devastation. What could possibly have caused this? He knew the koorime were capable of defending themselves against even high-level youkai if need be -- they had almost had his hide during the artifact theft -- so it must have been a whole group of demons to have wiped out the entire village. There weren't even any arrows on the ground; they had been set upon suddenly and slaughtered before they could mount a defense. For such a paranoid society to have been so totally surprised seemed impossible.
And Kurama's words entered his mind without being bidden.
"Do you recall the killings near the eastern sector of Makai? Hiei spoke of them before I left."
"Yukina!" Kuwabara hollered, cupped hands around his mouth, totally focused on finding his declared true love. "Yukina, where are you? Yukinaaaaa!"
Yuusuke shook himself, and elected to take a more direct approach by planting his feet, concentrating, and beginning to scan for her youki. It was a familiar exercise, even easy, but he knew he was minimally sensitive at best -- but it was still enough to wake the first stirrings of panic when at first there was nothing. His chest constricted painfully; but as his breathing became quick with fear, he sensed a whisper, an answer . . . and it grew stronger ever so slightly as he focused on it. But he couldn't quite tell where it was.
He squinted, as if it would help his ability to sense ki, and tried harder. It was just at the edges of his tracking range; she must be injured or weak for it to be so low, unless she was somehow far away --
And he realized he was being stupid. He had a walking ki detector right next to him.
"Kuwabara, search for her ki! I think I sense it somewhere here, but I can't get a lock on it!"
The orange-haired boy, fifteen feet away and scrabbling over a mound of debris, didn't even answer, only stopped yelling and closed his eyes. A bead of sweat ran down his furrowed brow as he took a long, long moment to search.
Yuusuke's heart sank. If it was taking this long for even Kuwabara to find her, she might be --
And the other student's eyes snapped open. "Here!" He pointed. "Her ki is over here!" He made a dash for the feeling's source, and Yuusuke was close behind him.
They had to pick their way through broken trees, burning thatch and shards of blackened clay for more than fifty feet before Yuusuke began to be able to track the feeling. By then, they were practically on top of it. Hidden by a ravaged building, under the jutting branches of a fallen tree, there crouched a tiny, weeping figure, tying a band of blue cloth around the waist of another who lay prone on the churned-up earth. She was filthy, ragged, and less than half clothed -- but the crimson hairpiece was unmistakable.
Yuusuke seized her shoulder. "Yukina!"
A wild-eyed look, like a startled deer, dissolving slowly into lucidity as Kuwabara, then Botan repeated her name. Enormous, haunted red eyes widened, filled with more tears, and shut tightly as Yukina threw herself against Yuusuke's chest, sobbing a trail of gems down his tunic.
He sighed to release the tension that had built and put an arm around her, awkwardly. He raised his head. Relief churned his gut and made speech difficult. "Botan, can you check for survivors? Here, you'd better take her, Kuwabara." It took a short interval to unlatch Yukina from himself and transfer her to the other boy, but she didn't seem to notice.
"What'll you do, Urameshi?" Kuwabara accepted the weeping burden as carefully as he would a priceless vase and made sure she was comfortably sheltered in his arms.
"I'll see if I can spot some sign of whoever did this -- they can't be far away."
"Good. Hey, shh, it's all right, Yukina . . ."
Yuusuke stood and was still for a moment, letting his eyes drift from where his teammate was murmuring comfort to the stricken koorime and past to the one she had been tending; he could tell the woman was probably only moments from death. He was no healer, and could do nothing for her -- and if Yukina could not help her, she had no chance at all. Why Yukina hadn't used her healing talent, he wasn't sure, unless she'd had no energy left. That would explain why I almost didn't sense her. But if she had used all her energy, there should be survivors that she had used it on. Botan would find them.
This had all been too close. The feeling of dread would not leave him, and he let himself indulge an all-over shiver that made his head toss uncontrollably. There was very little doubt in his mind that this massacre was directly their fault -- assuming he was correct that this had been done by the demons that had been tracking Kurama. That was the only reason he could see why the insular koorime would have been anyone's target. Kurama had been here, and Yuusuke had brought him; and now the koorime had been brutally slaughtered. It didn't seem likely to be a coincidence.
I just keep screwing up people's lives, don't I?
For his own part, he hardly knew where to being looking for clues. The ruin was so widespread that he couldn't think of a good starting point; so, he started where he was standing, and began scanning his surroundings in more detail. It was the least his conscience would allow him to do.
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
In the end, as the sun rose high into the sky, he found mostly nothing. Beyond noticing two different patterns of wreckage, which only added to his off-the-cuff theory, his inexperience in being a detective in the literal sense was too limiting for him to have much success. He was able to pick out a set of big, clawed footprints, but that could be any generic youkai one might encounter in this place, and might have been something that had strolled by after the attack to scavenge the destruction. Most of the devastation looked to have been quick and massive, coming from only a few sources rather than a large group -- but Yuusuke couldn't for the life of him make a guess as to what sort of attack it had been, other than that it hadn't been an elemental attack like Hiei's fire or Yukina's ice.
There were no easy footprints leading away, and indeed no trail of any kind to indicate where the attackers had gone.
Detective, ha. I suck.
While Kuwabara got Yukina calmed down and halfway coherent, he eventually gravitated to Botan and helped her locate the survivors. He used his weak ki sense and she her awareness of those near death to seek them out, underneath branches and leaves and even entire clay walls, where such were intact.
Besides Yukina, there were six.
They had laid them out next to each other in a cleared spot of ground. Most of them were in need of immediate attention, although two had only disabling injuries that probably wouldn't put them in immanent danger. Yukina had clearly expended her energy on the more seriously wounded ones, saving them from sure death. She watched them with big, empty eyes, and only shook her head when Kuwabara said her name.
"We're gonna have to take them to Genkai." Kuwabara was settling the last of them into a more comfortable position. "She's the only one else who has really powerful healing."
"I agree, but I can't carry this many on my oar," Botan told them, speaking more directly to Yuusuke. "You'll have to stay here with three of them; then I can take the other three, Kuwabara and Yukina. I'll come back for you when I've dropped them off at Genkai's."
"Sure, Botan. Take these ones -- they're hurt the worst. Just hurry back." He looked at Kuwabara. "Is she gonna be okay?" he asked, indicating Yukina with a tilt of his head.
"Yes," Yukina answered for herself. Her voice was soft, but she met his eyes well enough; though obviously exhausted, she was no longer hysterical. "I'm fine. I'll go with Kazuma and help Genkai-baba with the healing."
Botan made a sharp noise in her throat. "You'll do no such thing! You need rest, Yukina! You barely have any energy left at all!"
"I know that," was her quiet answer. "I can still carry and fetch, and I will be able to remain awake for another few hours if I need to." Yukina glanced up at Kuwabara, who looked like he was about to object, and gave him a gray-tinged smile. "Don't worry about me, Kazuma. I'll be all right. This is what I need to do."
His dissent averted, he only looked away, and nodded.
"Hurry up," Yuusuke said. He found his own voice just as subdued. "We need to get them to Genkai faster than this. I'll be right here when you get back."
He watched them go, crouched in the blackened, ash-blended dust, wondering if the women who lay near him would live to see the next dawn; wondering if anything he did would ever be enough to make up for what he had caused. He didn't have much hope --
But then, he never had.
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
"So it was a waste of time. We did all that for nothing!"
"Did we? We annexed another section of territory, did we not?"
"But we didn't find the fox or the jewel. Now we don't have any idea where to look."
"The igurka are working on it; if they were trying any harder, they would drop dead. I've seen to that. Have some patience."
"That's what you said days ago! They can't even find out who he was working for, and you still think they can find where he's hiding?"
"Of course they can, idiot. His employer is a complex bit of intrigue, but any fool can track down a rare fox like that. Now do be quiet, I'm thinking."
"Always thinking and doing nothing. When are we going to take over the Makai like we planned?"
"You sound like a child whining for a sweet. We don't have enough information yet, so we have to wait."
"Who cares about information? We're not weak anymore!"
"And who made us strong? You're very little without me. Don't be a nuisance or I'll dispose of you -- or did you also forget who is stronger?"
"I . . . no."
"Good. Anything else?"
"Do you think I can kill that spy now? He's been whimpering again, and he doesn't know any more. I want some food so I don't have to go hunting today."
"Lazy brute. Fine, go ahead. But don't take forever about it."
The voices halted, and there was a scraping noise as of furniture being shifted over uneven floor. Stomps, heavy-footed rather than angry, progressed away from Kurama's hiding place, and vanished as a door was closed.
Those voices were voices he had hoped never to hear again. Hoped, in vain; and now he strained to make out their words. They were speaking of him -- not surprising. He was the one youkai that had escaped from them since their ascension as prevalent powers, the one fugitive from thier justice. In their place, he would have been hunting him, too, with all his resources brought to bear, if only to make an example.
It was not reassuring that they were operating at a similar tactical level. Then again, he knew Donari, and knew her to possess uncanny intellectual facilities for one of her true power level -- odd that he had never quite realized what her true form was until he had seen the artifact and pieced together much of the puzzle. He had taken her intelligence for granted, as most youkai with such power had wits to match, but she was one of the extremely rare weak ones who had a mind to compensate for their bodies' inadequacy. Gendou would certainly never have gotten anywhere without her, though he suspected that the tusked demon had been stronger by a significant margin before they had acquired the artifact. Given that the artifact had been sundered, Kurama suspected that she had balanced their power in her favor by giving him a smaller portion of the overall whole -- which meant she had found it first.
He would have to see if he could find out where and how, before the battle was over, whichever way it went.
I mustn't become too optimistic, by granting my chances a greater percentage than they have earned. Though of what use the information will be, now that it cannot be shared with Yuusuke, I do not know. I can only hope I will find a way.
As for his resources -- they were fewer than expected.
Kurama didn't know exactly what had happened to Hiei that had caused him to miss their last opportunity to plan, but he had a fair idea, and he was certain it had happened because of the Jaganshi's insistence on staying near him. He was most likely in Reikai custody by now. It was Kurama's best guess that he had been taken sometime in the early morning, when the energies connecting the Makai and Reikai were at their strongest point.
Either way, no matter how he chose to view the matter, he was responsible.
I am in this position because I have been a monumental idiot who ought to have been drowned as a kit. Hiei is in the predicament that he is because I am in this position. By proxy, I have landed Hiei in a cell for eternity, and it is a debt that even karma cannot adequately pay.
His unfailingly merciless logic brought him time and again to the same conclusion, and he knew he was not wrong. His plan had begun to cohere around that fact, and while he had every intention of honoring his promise that he would do his best to survive, he had a feeling he would regret the outcome either way.
In many ways, he owed Hiei his life, and to be denied the chance to give it was a unique punishment for his foolishness. The code of ethics he followed was in conflict -- he was required to give his life in payment for his mistakes, but he was also required to live, by both his promise and the awareness that his death would only cause more pain. Hope was a surreal, mutative thing that left him neither anxious nor disinterested in what was to come, for he no longer knew which end he hoped for.
But this would have to serve, this subterfuge and the attack he planned to follow. It was only a matter of moments; the two youkai had already given away their positions with conversation, and all that remained was to ascertain the most propitious angle from which to spring. He had been pleasantly (as a relative term) surprised to have found them in the first place he had looked, and the last place he had expected them to be: at home. He knew from their talk that they had only just been out looking for him, and that they had destroyed a settlement of some kind, but they weren't being specific enough for him to know where. He devoutly hoped that it had not been the ice village or any of the tiny hamlets near his foxholes -- he had enough blood on his conscience already.
More shifting wood, and a slight thump; Kurama pricked his ears and leaned a bit forward. He was on the western side of the house, where the setting sun would backlight him and make him more difficult to distinguish amongst the other shadows, and the noise revealed that Donari was to his right. He considered this moment -- Is it advantageous enough? Perhaps. But I think I may circle around and see where Gendou has gone. He is the weaker, and they have separated, and that is the most advantageous situation of all, should I have the ability to make full use of it.
He crept around the side of the house, away from where he heard Donari, keeping his ki so low as to be undetectable, even lower than when he had been undercover. He was a patient fox -- in the literal sense, at the moment. He had quickly seen the benefit in gaining complete control over his form, and though it had been a long and difficult process, he had earned the ability to take any one of three forms: human, youko, and true fox. As yet he had used the latter primarily for hunting (neither of the other two forms particularly enjoyed the taste of raw meat), but it was worth it now to be as inconspicuous as possible.
He poked his muzzle around the corner, scenting the youkai before he saw him. He also scented blood, and was unfortunate enough to get into position just in time to see his former master gut a humanoid figure with his tusks, lifting the form over his head and letting more blood splatter onto the ground. The spy that he spoke of? It seemed quite likely -- and he abruptly recognized the unique clothing style. It was a Reikai agent.
His mind worked quickly. He had been the last agent of which he knew -- which meant Koenma had sent this one after he had fled the mission. His gut grew just a little cold. How much did this agent know? Did I ever come into contact with her -- him? He narrowed his eyes, and identified the decapitated agent after a long moment as indeed male. He was duly relieved; neither of the two present at his briefing had been men. That didn't mean he had known nothing, however. Whatever he had told the demons, it had been enough for them to keep him alive for at least a short interval.
It was not the best time for Kurama to attack, he was aware. And so he was forced to keep completely still as Gendou tore into the body, consuming it in its entirety, bones and flesh together with a noise that even the hunter-fox found distasteful. He abhorred scavengers in any case, finding them inherently incompetent, and he suffered laziness even less well. While he had never respected Gendou, his opinion was dropping even further.
Partly it was this fact that chose his moment to spring, once the demon had finished his meal and was turning to go back inside.
Kurama leaped, transforming to the youko in midair and summoning his whip, and landed in the dirt inches from Gendou's back. He snapped the whip, looping it around his enemy and pulling it taut -- a maneuver that would have cut any other youkai in half.
The ambush and the yank tore a grunt from Gendou's bloody jaw and he was pulled back instead of cut apart, forcing Kurama to jump aside and shift his pressure on the weapon, sending the demon spinning from its end when it uncurled to reel in an ungainly circle, shaking his head to clear it of dizziness. There was not even a scratch on his thick yellow hide.
Gendou recovered quickly, and stared in shock. "You!"
Kurama was not about to waste time in banter -- he cracked the whip towards Gendou's eyes, drawing a roar from him as it lashed across his face but did as little damage as before.
As I expected. He's far too strong for me to even wound him; but what else can I do? Unless I can find his part of the artifact -- perhaps I can eliminate him before Donari appears.
He did a rapid visual scan of his enemy, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Aware he would get nowhere in this fashion, he swept his weapon up again, razing it across Gendou's head of sparse, lanky hair. Nothing came free, not even a few severed strands, and he swore. Where else would he be keeping it? Under his loincloth? If so, it's a lost cause. He'll be protecting that area rather fiercely.
He scampered away. Gendou roared again and stumped after him.
Kurama needed the distance to prolong this part of the fight, and widen the span that Donari would need to cross before she could reasonably help her partner. He also did not want to be within easy reach of her when she exited the house -- something he had learned even before he had escaped her. It would be even less savory a prospect now, when she surely would seek to kill him on sight. Not that it would make terribly much difference, given that he didn't look to be able to harm Gendou anyway, so that prolonging this would mean nothing. But at least he would be out in the open, and could not be cornered; that was something.
And then he heard an outraged feminine scream, and stopped short so quickly that he almost lost his balance, rolling to the left. Gendou thundered past him, and he had time to stand back up and view Donari as she ran towards him, eyes glowing incandescently with fury.
And now I'm for it. I hope I accomplish something here.
He grabbed a handful of seeds from his hair, flung them in an arc towards her, and made them grow. They were his only real hope.
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
It was very late in the day, perhaps seven o'clock, and Yuusuke was the last one that Genkai released from aiding her -- besides Yukina, that is. Kuwabara had been left to his own devices only moments earlier, but Yuusuke was still feeling persecuted at being last, reminding him how little he cared to be here at all, much less doing work.
As soon as he left the sickroom for the atrium where his friends waited, he flopped over onto a cushion without invitation, breath whooshing out in relief that he could finally relax. Unfortunately, he managed to land his elbow on Botan's ankle with a crack, sending both of them a foot into the air with identical yelps of pain and surprise.
"Watch what you're doing!" Botan screeched.
"Watch where you're lying!" Yuusuke yelled back.
"Shut up already!" Kuwabara interjected. He too sat down, but with a bit more decorum, although that was only because Yukina was still awake and nearby and might see him if he copied Yuusuke's rudeness. "You're gonna wake up the koorime Genkai and I just got to sleep," he continued with a frown.
Yuusuke throttled down the retort that Kuwabara had been just as loud in telling them to be quiet. "Yeah, yeah, fine. So are we really done?"
Botan was up and cross-legged, rubbing her abused ankle with both thumbs as she replied, "Yes. Genkai said they're all going to make it and she doesn't need our help anymore. I'm glad -- I'm out of healing energy for the next few hours at least."
"And what about Yukina?" asked Kuwabara.
"She's going to sleep for a while and then continue to help out; her healing regenerates faster than mine does. That girl is positively amazing." And the ferrygirl was on her back again, knees sticking up and her feet rather impolitely propped on a cushion.
Yuusuke himself had fallen over once he was done yelling at her, and spoke to the ceiling. "Then can we go and get some sleep ourselves? I'm wiped."
"Nuh-uh, you guys," Kuwabara warned. "We were in the middle of something important when we found Yukina, and we have to get back to it. Remember?"
"What was that?" Botan's voice was curious, but not curious enough, apparently, to get her to sit up again.
Yuusuke's answer came out fully as cranky as he felt. "Looking for Kurama. Oh, hell. Do we have to?"
"Urameshi!"
"Yeah, right, of course we do. Chill, Kuwabara, I wasn't asking that for real." He sighed and sat up, eyes still closed against a tension headache of unspeakable magnitude. "But how are we supposed to find him? I mean, we were guessing he would stay as far away from the big demons as he could, so we were looking for him in the western part of Makai. He's too damned good at hiding."
"I wish he hadn't run off like that," Kuwabara grumbled. "He could've at least stayed where we knew where he was."
"There're a lot of things that would be easier if he weren't such a stubborn ass." Yuusuke glanced over at Botan to see if she was going to offer input, and became aware that she was looking entirely too nonchalantly at one of the wall hangings, conspicuous in her silence. He gave her a look askance. "What?"
She made a little jump. "What? Oh, nothing, I was just --"
"You know something," he accused. "What is it?" It occurred to him to ask, "You don't have some weird orders from the stupid baby, do you?"
She sat upright with a jerk, indignant. "Stop calling him that! And no, I'm on leave and don't have any orders right now." Her anger masked what Yuusuke was certain was genuine nervousness.
Kuwabara observed the exchange with puzzlement. "Urameshi, what are you --"
"She knows something about Kurama," Yuusuke declared even more loudly than before, "and I'm gonna make her say what it is."
The ferrygirl glowered at him. "How do you know I know anything at all? I think you're just imagining things."
The Tantei laughed with very little humor. "You suck at keeping secrets, Botan. Now spit it out before I hang you up by your ponytail. I'm not in the mood to play guessing games while Kurama's in trouble."
She scowled dreadfully, not answering, until Kuwabara began to get suspicious himself and threw in beside Yuusuke. "Yeah, what are you not saying? There shouldn't be any secrets right now!"
They wore her down under their combined gaze, and she finally melted completely. "Fine. I saw him yesterday, after I took Yukina to the village, but he didn't want me to let you know where he was yet."
"So you were keeping secrets! Dammit, Botan!"
"Shut up, Kuwabara." Yuusuke snorted. "He didn't want you to tell us, huh? Typical. Too bad for him -- he's in too much trouble for us to leave him alone. Where was he?"
"East of the ice village, close to the Plains of Waste. I think he has a few hiding places there."
"Crap, you mean before we were on the wrong side of the Makai altogether?"
"I told you, Urameshi!"
"Shut up, you didn't know either!" To ward off another argumentive comment, Yuusuke quickly asked Botan, "How did you find him? The Makai's huge, and we didn't know where he was going off to."
She squirmed uncomfortably for a moment, but she'd already copped to one secret, and sighed, surrendering the other. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to tell you this, but . . ."
"But, what?" Yuusuke eyed her suspiciously.
She relented with a grimace. "You remember the demon compass you broke when we went after Rando?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Well, I was given a replacement about a month ago -- it takes Reikai a long time to back-order equipment -- but you weren't on any cases yet, so I kept it. I was experimenting on making it more focused, and I figured out how to set it for a specific youkai. I reset it for Kurama when he went on his mission." She gave the two of them a pleading look. "Please don't tell Koenma. He doesn't know I can do that, and he might order me to use it in a way I don't like."
Yuusuke whistled. "Really? That's awesome! We'll have a much better chance of finding him with that! I get it back after we're done, though, right?" I hope so. If we get Kurama through this, I'mnever tuning that thing onto anyone else. I'll keep an eye on him for the rest of my freaking life if I have to.
Kuwabara looked almost livid at this information. "You mean you could have found him anytime and you didn't try to help him yet? What the hell's the point of that thing if you aren't using it for something useful?"
"Oi!" Yuusuke yelled it sharply to get his immediate attention; it arrested the remainder of what was probably a badly-thought-out tirade. When he had Kuwabara's eyes, he said, "All right, you have a problem with what the rest of us are or aren't doing to help Kurama? Then just say so instead of having a fit every time you think we're being lazy. You went to school yesterday, what does that say about the job you've been doing?"
"Shut up, Urameshi!"
"Then stop getting in our faces about not doing enough. We're already pretty unfocused on this whole problem, and you don't need to make it worse."
They glared at each other. Yuusuke didn't intend to back down. He not only didn't need the distraction, he didn't need the constant reminder that he really hadn't been doing much to help anyone but himself. Hell, Genkai had already yelled at him for that --
He realized something so suddenly that he lost his stare-down with the still-furious Kuwabara. I totally forgot to talk to Kurama's mom. Kisama -- I hope my mom doesn't do anything dumb like she did when she heard he was dead; but she won't know he's alive, though. I didn't tell her. Unless Keiko did it -- crap, she would. Now what?
"Fine." Kuwabara's voice jolted him back to himself. "I shouldn't be yelling at you guys. Now can we just use that stupid compass to go find him?"
Botan answered before the black-haired boy had recovered his equilibrium. "I can spot him if I'm within twenty miles. If we go to where he was when I last saw him, we should be able to find him if he hasn't gone too far." She faltered a moment before reluctantly adding, "I'm not sure what we'll do if he has gone too far, but maybe we'll get lucky."
An idea happened in Yuusuke's brain in time for him to jump in. "If we come at it from the west, maybe we can catch him if he's headed this way."
Botan gave him a look and a sweatdrop. "That would work for any direction, Yuusuke."
The Tantei made a face at her. "Well it was a thought! Do you have a better idea?"
"Yeah, how about we get moving!" shouted Kuwabara over Botan's acerbic response. "He could be in trouble already while we're sitting here fighting!"
"You're one to talk!"
"Dammit, Urameshi, I said I was sorry!"
"No, you didn't! You just said 'Fine'!" Yuusuke made his voice high and mocking.
"Well I meant I was sorry, and I am, so quit being a dumbass!"
Oh. "Yeah, right, whatever. I'm not in the mood to fight," the detective muttered petulantly.
"One can never tell with you," Botan said darkly, and Yuusuke kicked her on the sore ankle to make her screech again.
He stretched out his legs, popping both knees. "I guess we should go. We gotta find him as soon as -- ow! Botan! Cut that ow!" Another cushion smacked him in the forehead and he retaliated with two of his own straight to the reaper's chest. Outraged and indignant at his choice of targets, she had one lifted over her head with her free hand (the other was protecting her breasts from further assault) and would have landed it in a place perfectly suited for revenge if it hadn't been snatched from her by Kuwabara.
"You guys, shut up!"
In the other room, there was a thump. They all froze.
The door slid open to reveal an exhausted and irate Genkai, her eye twitching in a manner that made Yuusuke -- who knew what it meant -- want to hide in his own lap. She glared death at all three of them.
"Get out of my house!"
They were only too happy to comply.
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
Yuusuke perched on the oar behind Botan, sandwiched between his companions with the larger boy breathing rankly down his neck, and keeping a keen lookout with sight and ki to see if he could spot any sign of Kurama. Although, if Botan hadn't detected him the the compass yet, it was probably useless; with a radius of twenty miles, the equipment had a much better range than his senses. They had begun at the edge of the forest, near the ruins of the ice village, and made several sweeping passes eastward, looping around to cover as much ground as possible. Now they were just reaching the Plains of Waste, as Botan had named them -- after four hours of searching.
That was four hours of Kuwabara bitching, Botan muttering under her breath, and the oar handle digging into a very delicate area of Yuusuke's anatomy. He was reaching the point where he seriously considered just giving the other boy a shove and seeing if he managed to land on his head. Given that the compass had a better range than Kuwabara, too, it wasn't like it would matter.
Fortunately for Kuwabara (although unfortunately for Yuusuke's indulgence of pissiness), they finally had a break.
"I've got a reading!" Botan's voice was excited and apprehensive at once, peering at the small wristwatch-sized screen. "He's pretty close!"
"What? I thought you said that thing works at twenty miles!" Not that I'm complaining --
"It does, but it did this last time, too; he must be masking his ki. He's only a mile from here at the furthest." But then she peered closer yet, and her brow furrowed. "I'm also getting some interference from that area. It looks like there are some really strong youkai there."
"Fuck!"
Kuwabara was startled so badly, leaned over to try and see the compass, that he nearly lost his grip on the oar and gave Yuusuke the opportunity to try his experiment after all. "Hey, Urameshi!"
"He's been found, dammit!" I knew it. Fuck, fuck, fuck. We're already too late to get him back to the Ningenkai -- now we're gonna have to rescue his ass from them without getting ourselves killed.
"How do you know he isn't hiding with some friends?" Kuwabara, as usual, played devil's advocate to Yuusuke out of pure spite. "Maybe he's fine, ever think of that?"
But Botan was shaking her head, eyes frightened. "I've only been here once, but I know this area -- I dropped him off here weeks ago for his mission. This is where Gendou and Donari live. He must have gone back for some reason." She watched the twitching needle of the compass with a fixed gaze.
We can't fly over them, Yuusuke suddenly thought. We'll need to be on the ground before they see us, or they could shoot us out of the air. "Set us down, Botan!"
"Right!"
Once on the ground, Yuusuke wasted no time, pelting as quickly as his legs would move him towards the compass reading. This sucks, this sucks, this sucks -- I hope he's not hurt already -- He was nearing a tall hill, and his own internal ki meter spiked; and he realized with a painful jerk of his stomach that Kurama wasn't masking his ki. It was depleted. He could feel it fluctuate --
The aroma of battle, stung through with smoke, reached Yuusuke's nostrils as he crested the hill, and he beheld the scene he had feared he would. The youko was already battered, bleeding and stumbling, wielding his rose whip in desperate, jerky movements utterly unlike his usually fluid grace, and it was clear that he would last little longer against the pair of youkai before him.
And they -- they were so small that Yuusuke had to blink as he ran to make certain that they were really the menace his friend faced. Oh, one was decently sized for a youkai, he supposed, but the woman was diminutive as Yukina, and nearly as pretty. Somehow, he had envisioned them both as enormous hulking monsters like Toguro.
Stupid,he berated himself as he dashed ever closer. Kurama's powerful as hell, and he doesn't look like it. Since when has anyone really powerful been like that except for Toguro?
Such thoughts were wiped from his mind as a slashing blow knocked the kitsune to his knees, sending blood splashing in a playful arc through the air. "Kurama!" Yuusuke shouted, putting on another burst of speed and readying his reiki for an attack. His feet flew over the hard-baked sand.
All three heads jerked up and swiveled to face him as his voice echoed across the expanse between them. He saw Kurama take advantage of the distraction to spring back out of reach, pull a seed from his hair, and shout hoarsely in response, "Yuusuke! You must leave immediately! This is not your fight!"
Kuwabara was behind him, as was Botan; he heard them gasp in exertion or dismay. He almost grinned at the rank surprise with which the trio was greeted -- the attacking youkai did nothing for one moment but stare blankly. It was the perfect time to ignore Kurama.
"Screw that!" Yuusuke hollered, and threw back his head. "Rei gun!"
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
Kurama had only a split second to throw up a ki shield around himself and his last remaining plant before the blue-white energy detonated over everything, showering debris and rocking the ground like an earthquake. It battered his hasty construction and left him gasping for air, the seed knocked from his hand and lost in the dirt. His power was low, and he could not afford this expenditure -- this fern was his last viable diversionary plant, which he could notreplace if it were to be destroyed. He felt his anger rising, and lost his temper for one moment.
"Damn it, Yuusuke!" he yelled into the keening wind of the backblast. "I told you to leave!"
The detective didn't seem to hear him at all, no wonder what with the ringing explosion. He was still racing over the plain, skidding down the last of the small hills with one of those big, silly grins plastered on his face. To Kurama's dismay, he was not alone -- Kuwabara was there, and Botan (of all people) was right on their heels. The ferrygirl seemed to be spiraling up to a safe distance in the air, and the two boys began to automatically split up and head for one opponent each. Yuusuke was making a straight line for Donari, a light ki shield pulsating around him.
The demoness was recovering, and she was making ready a lance of energy to meet this new threat. Kurama's pulse sputtered; Yuusuke was going to die and he didn't even know it. Kurama couldn't intervene in time to warn him away -- he saw it as thought it had already happened: the white-hot attack arcing towards his friend, the cocky smile slowly changing to disbelief as his shielding disintegrated, the impact that would throw him backwards to lie still on the hard ground --
He abandoned caution and flung as much power into a raw assault as he could muster, draining his reserves in an attempt to turn the attack away.
A shocked Donari was engulfed in green brilliance and Gendou was flung back out of range altogether. That was all Kurama could see -- his vision blotched to white and he felt himself hit the ground, dazed and lightheaded from expending so much energy while wounded. He heard Yuusuke call his name, and slowly struggled back upright, his sight slow to clear and his wounds bleeding freely.
Once he was on his feet, however, his conditioning took over and he regained his equilibrium. It seemed, as he surveyed his handiwork, that he had been successful; Gendou was nowhere in sight, Donari was still invisible in the center of a dust cloud, and Yuusuke was suddenly at his side, gripping his arm.
"Are you all right?" he asked, eyes on the dust.
"I will be, but I expended the last of my youki in that attack. Why didn't you leave when I told you to?"
"Nice to see you again, too."
"Because we're supposed to help out our friends, that's why!" This from Kuwabara, who had made his way over to them. He was glowering fiercely.
Kurama shook his head. "You're only putting yourselves in unnecessary danger. These two are after me, not you, but they will not hesitate to kill you if you get in their way."
"So what? We can take 'em!" Kuwabara shot back cockily. "It'll be --"
"Watch out!"
Kurama gave each of his companions a shove to either side and then leaped straight up into the air, narrowly avoiding a blast of jagged power.Gendou must have swung around behind us! And in front of them, as he came down, he saw that the dust had settled, and a smudged Donari was advancing in outrage at the intrusion, both clawed hands crackling with violet ki.
"Get behind me!" he commanded, and made a dash for his plant. Putting it between himself and Donari, and keeping half an eye on the place where he could now make out Gendou (whose yellow hide had blended too well with the landscape), he grabbed a stone and pitched it hard at the base.
The dark, velvet-leafed fern released a shower of spores into the air to cover Kurama with glitter. He choked down the inevitable sneeze and cleared his eyes, glad he was not susceptible to the effects; he had used this plant far too many times before. A quick whirlwind of petals would be enough to carry the spores to his immediate enemy. After accomplishing that, he swung around and sent some at Gendou, thought he doubted it would be very potent after spanning the distance between them.
His teammates were not behind him, but slightly to either side, just barely out of range of the plant's insidious dust. As he kicked off into a sprint once more, he yelled, "Don't block, dodge! They've got something augmenting their power -- they're stronger than you are!" He directed that last at Kuwabara mainly, and was less than happy that the boy didn't look wholly convinced. "You have seen part of it before," he continued. "The artifact we stole from the koorime -- do you recall how it appeared broken in half?"
Though the statement's target continued to frown in puzzlement, even as they ran Kurama saw Yuusuke's eyes widen in comprehension. "That's what that thing was? The same thing that made these guys powerful?" They broke away then, and came back about, watching for another onslaught.
Aware that Yuusuke was watching him as well, Kurama nodded a confirmation.
Yuusuke didn't waste time asking him how he knew; he looked up, saw that both demons were advancing once more, and fired off a reiki bolt at Donari. On the other side, Kuwabara readied his rei ken and took slow steps toward Gendou.
And they stick to their designated opponents, yet, was the errant, silly thought that crossed Kurama's mind. I had better help Kuwabara; he will need it since he has to get in close. Accordingly, he sidled closer to his teammate and brought out the rose whip again. "Stay on his left side," he instructed quietly. "He will be slower to hit you there. Also, remember: block physical attacks if you must, but stay out of the way of energy blasts. They will be weak at first -- but he will quickly realize you are no ordinary human, and they will become much stronger."
"I got it," Kuwabara said with eyes narrowed to slits. "Does he have any weak spots?"
"Not of which I'm aware, but I'll be keeping my eyes open. You should do the same -- watch for any sign of the ki amplifier he carries. It has to be in contact with his skin somewhere; separate him from it if you can."
"Right. Here I come, you big monster guy! Get ready to feel my sword!"
And here they are, just as I had hoped to avoid. Inari, why do you do these things to me?
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
While Kuwabara charged, Yuusuke hung back a bit, eyeing his adversary. She had stopped moving and was staring at him, almost thoughtfully, ignoring the shots he fired at her and showing no concern for her partner whatsoever. She almost looked like she was puzzling something out, and not liking the conclusion. How come a low-level demon is so smart? I thought the weak ones were usually dumb, too. And what the hell is she thinking about? Not me, that's for sure. Gotta fix that.
He considered. He was clearly an afterthought at this point; she was after Kurama as he had said, and the kitsune was already pretty banged up. What he was even doing out here, getting beaten to a pulp by two demons he could easily have hidden from, was confusing Yuusuke as well as pissing him off. Royally. He was going to chew Kurama out when they were done here, and watch his back in the meantime.
Right. Time for something stupid and impressive. And he took his stance, centered himself, and geared up for a little-used technique, just at the moment that the demoness began approaching once more.
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
It was an odd end for such an exhausting day. The last of several unique cases had just left Koenma's office with Ayame following her, two silent shadows in their soft kimono. His endless paperwork was nearly completed already, and his hands were reluctant to stop moving in the pattern of stamping and signing. He had switched between his toddler and teenaged forms more times than he cared to count, keeping his dignity and authority for meetings with the koorime souls while saving as much energy as possible once they left. There had been almost a full thousand women in the village; so, though most were easy enough to sort, there had been about fifty special cases or so, largely those who had turned traitor at the first sign of danger and even a few who had committed murder thinking they could save themselves.
So much for the peaceful female nature. Koenma rubbed at the mounting pressure behind his forehead and reflected on the bloody nature disasters seemed to spark even in supposedly peaceful people. He had seen it before, several times in both worlds, and it never ceased to make him shudder at its ability to revert rational beings. Even this mostly unanticipated visitation, though it put a surreal twist into the horrendous monotony of processing death, only reminded him of the same subject -- he was confronted by one of those special demons who both caused and averted messes such as this.
And very few demons were also ice masters. Hence, the oddity. It was almost like deja vu.
He eyed Touya through he gaps between his fingers. He had had no time at all to review the Shinobi files he had demanded from George; instead, an arbitrary decision to summon Jin had been his last order before the flood of souls hit his poorly-prepared staff like a tsunami. Now, as it tapered off, it was the ice master who had answered the order. He was curious as to why, but too tired to ask.
"Thank you for coming," he said wearily. "I realize you didn't have much notice, and as busy as you Shinobi can be, I didn't expect you to be available for weeks."
There was a short interim of silence. "Jin was furious. He told me to tell you never to summon him like that again."
"I wondered why you came instead. I'll remember that; extend my apologies when you get the chance. Did your escort tell you anything about why you're here? I know George didn't." Touya was sizing him up. He could tell from the youkai's choice of introductory topics. He had forgotten that none of the Shinobi had seen him up close before, and thanked his kami ancestors that he had not switched back to baby form. Business tended to go much better when he wasn't being laughed at.
A shake of his head was Touya's answer. Koenma had thought as much. "Good," he continued. "I'd rather tell all of it myself so you won't get any confusing babble intermixed. I have a favor to ask."
An unnerving facet of Shinobi training kept Touya entirely immobile, except for the eyebrow that lifted just a fraction. "A favor."
"A very big and dangerous one. I need you to use an object for me -- a weapon. This." He pulled the half-Orb from under his desk and held it out, then took a deep breath and launched into the abbreviated version he had practiced. "Before you ask, you would have to fight some strong youkai who have the other half of this same weapon, you'd be doing it in order to get the weapon back from them, and no, I can't do it myself, and neither can my team. We're very short on time, because these demons are already killing in large numbers -- you saw the mass of souls that just went through here. If they aren't stopped, they'll conquer Makai, Ningenkai, and eventually even Reikai, which would not be to anyone's advantage. They might even be able to get Meikai back open if they're clever about it." He paused, considering. "Yeah, that about sums it up. Will you do it?"
It took surprisingly little time for absorption to occur. "Possibly. Why can't you use it?"
"I made it. It takes power from me in a peculiar way, and I'd probably make it explode if I tried."
"And why not your team?"
"It's not designed for humans. They die," he replied shortly.
"Not all of them are human."
"Kurama counts."
"And the fire demon?"
"He's dead."
This time both eyebrows jumped. "They really must be strong demons."
Koenma deliberately chose not to correct the obvious assumption, since it would probably work for him in this case; and he did not want to go too deeply into that matter. It had already caused too much damage. He knew Yuusuke would tell Touya everything once the two met for the mission, but he wanted Touya committed before he got the idea that his prospective employer was a traitor.
Even if he was.
He had come to the hard conclusion that Yuusuke was right. Lies were betrayals, and he had not seen it. Lying was a necessary, even vital part of his job; that he had never been good at it was a statement about his other competencies as a ruler. He had assessed the situation and determined that lying was the best way to accomplish his goals -- but he had assessed it wrongly, and broken the one rule he should have counted as most important: never to lie to those who followed him.
"You realize I owe you no favors," Touya was saying, gazing steadily over folded arms at the beleaguered prince of Reikai. "Should I choose to do this, you will, therefore, owe me one instead. What do you offer?"
The prince in question adopted a distinctly pained look. "I don't know what you want. And I'm afraid to ask."
Touya raised an eyebrow. "Don't you?"
"I have a short memory span." He rubbed at his temples. "Fine, I do. But you are aware that it's not mine to give. I'm not in the habit of annexing property, unused or not."
"I will accept any land. It need not be the island."
"Unless you want some land in the Reikai, and keep in mind you probably won't like what's available, I can't do that." He made a grand, sweeping gesture that vaguely encompassed his entire surroundings. "I own this office, and I pretend to own every soul that passes through it, but I'm just a desk job. My father is the one who's really in charge here, and he doesn't come home very often. I can promise you to ask him, but I wouldn't hold your breath -- it might be a decade or two before I can get back to you."
The ice master was frowning. "Then we have no bargain." He looked unpleasantly like he was about to turn and leave.
Koenma sighed heavily. "Isn't there anything else you people want? I'm assuming you're after land for your entire Shinobi sect. Is that correct, Touya?"
"Yes, it is, and no, there isn't. All of our other desires are things we can easily obtain ourselves."
It was Koenma's turn to raise a skeptical brow. It wasn't like Touya to tell such an obvious falsehood, but he considered it unlikely at best that the Shinobi were in need of nothing they could not acquire. "I don't buy that," he said frankly. "You must want something. Everyone does these days. I can't give you land, but I can do a lot of other favors for you that I bet no one else can. So what'll it be?"
The youkai was unmoved. "I thought you were only a desk job."
"Even bureaucrats have influence. You know, I don't particularly understand why you require a reward in any case, unless I haven't made the situation sufficiently clear. You can hardly find land anywhere if the demons I told you about have conquered it all." He let a pause settle in. "No self-preservation in the Shinobi code?"
"Don't be insulting." But the ninja was smiling faintly at his last sally. "But you do make a good point. What sort of favors do you do?"
The kami steepled his hands and took a moment to think. His father would kill him for this, but -- "I know it's not as good as land, but I can grant your sect free access to the mortal world, just as my team has free access to yours. You would have to guarantee that they'll behave themselves, though, and it comes with the standard revocation clause if they don't. I can't have anarchy in the ningen streets." Let that be good enough so I can be done with this whole mess.
As it happened, it was not. Touya considered, shrugged, and said, "And?"
"Now I know you've met Kurama. He's already taught you the fine art of being difficult. What about that offer wasn't good enough?"
"We are demons," was the patient reply. "Not all of us can pass for human. And what would we do in the human world? It's not ours. We would, at best, enjoy the novelty of it."
And Koenma hit upon the perfect bargaining chip, startling his features into a smile with its abruptness. "You have money, don't you? And you can get gold for it?"
"Of course we do. Shinobi are all well-paid for our services. What's your point?"
"It's simple. While I can't give you land, in the human world, it's available to anyone with enough money. You can buy all the land you want if you're inconspicuous about it."
The youkai's eyes widened. "You mean humans will give up their land for money alone? Are they so frivolous? How do they survive?"
"Most humans aren't rooted like demons are, and land isn't the same symbol of power that it used to be. They live where it suits them, for as long as it suits them. An attachment to a particular bit of land is considered quaint and antiquated at best and eccentric at worst, in all countries except a few. If you offer enough, you shouldn't have a problem finding a place like the island, or somewhere inland, if you prefer."
There was another significant pause as Touya worked out the implications of this new information, and Koenma grew more hopeful with each second.This should work -- thank Daddy I'll be getting this over with. I'm that much closer to recovering the Orb and destroying it for good. And no one will have to know anything more.
Touya came out of his momentary reverie, looked Koenma in the eyes, and said, "This is a bargain of which my sect would approve. However, there is one further condition: you will furnish half the gold for our land."
The princeling squeaked indignantly. "Half?"
"Half."
It took a moment for Koenma to clear his lips of spluttering. After he recovered, he glared. "I thought you were 'well-paid' for your services! Gotten greedy all of a sudden?"
And Touya smiled confidently at him, with just a hint of a smirk. "Do you want me to save the worlds or not?"
With some final grumbling, Koenma acquiesed. "Have it your way."
The message went out with Ayame for Botan to return to Reikai. There was a lot to iron out.
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
Watching Kuwabara run forward, Kurama had the presence of mind to wonder what help he could offer at all, though he was bound to try. He had only just enough ki left to form the rose whip, and the effort coupled with his injuries was affecting even his sense of balance. He would, at best, be able to serve as a distraction or a decoy, which would probably result in his death or incapacitation in a very short amount of time.
Hedid have that plant, but the spores hadn't had any visible effect on the two demons, and so it was next to useless. He supposed he could try to blind them in a cloud of the dust, but little more.It's a good thing the Tantei arrived when they did, he thought, unbidden, or I might already be dead.
Shut up, he told his traitorous mind in response. Now they will only be killed along with me. I have yet to discover any besides minor weaknesses in my enemies, and I am a liability now, hurt as I am, that will distract them.
Then again, Hiei has gone and is probably captured -- now, should a weakness be found, the others will have knowledge of it.
Which will not help them if they are dead from lack of attentiveness due to concern for me. I must not let them know how badly off I really am -- or I must do whatever I can immediately, and remove myself from their consideration.
I really don't know if I want to die.
Too bad. You knew this would happen, and you went along with this plan anyway.
Inari knows why.
I thought I told you to shut up.
Kuwabara's sword slammed to a halt upon contact with Gendou's hide, throwing out a fair shower of sparks. It also made an odd screeching sound, reminiscent of nails on a blackboard, that penetrated Kurama's ears like a hot knife. He hissed, and laid them down flat, both to convey his extreme displeasure and to partially block out the noise. "Gah, what is that?" he heard faintly from above. He had forgotten Botan was even there; what was she doing, other than flying around and probably dodging shots?
Finding me, his mind supplied promptly. Well, that made sense of a sort. The others had located him rather quickly to have had no outside help. In her place, however, he would have stayed out of sight altogether -- unless she was acting as a backup escape route, which also made sense --
"Reikodan!"
Even over the continual scree of Kuwabara's swordlock with Gendou, Kurama clearly made out Yuusuke's ringing shout, and was able to look over just as the spirit detective's punch connected solidly with Donari's lovely face, driving her back several paces and flashing a brilliant white that threw spots into his vision. There was a delayed explosion, veiling them both in dust.
"All right!" he heard Kuwabara crow from in front of him. "Go Urameshi!"
Oops. I ought to be doing something by now. Blinking the dazzle from his eyes and recalling his own responsibility, Kurama made a sudden dash for Gendou, veering to the left and circling behind. He lashed out his whip, almost certain it would actually connect with its target. It did, but instead of slicing open the youkai's back, it had as little effect as Kuwabara's rei ken, and he held contact for no more than a moment before dropping down on all fours and scampering ungracefully out of attack range.
His mind caught up. If Yuusuke is trying to draw her attention and her fire, the reikodan may well do; if he's trying to defeat her, I have not adequately expressed the extent of her power. I only hope it is the former. And I; I do not know if my distraction was effective, but I would venture to say it was not. I must take more drastic measures than I had hoped to focus Gendou upon me.
Well, there was more than one way to go about doing that. He quickly discarded them one by one. Too risky; too obvious; too stupid; well, that last one might actually work. Here goes.
"Well, Master Gendou, how will you punish your youko slave?"
A moment only, and the awful sound ceased as Gendou threw his formidable weight at the rei ken, sending his opponent sprawling. He paid the human no further notice, and turned his back so he could face the source of the taunt. He snarled. "Curious, traitor?"
"Amused," the youko replied with a hint of disdain. "I admit I've been holding back, but do you truly think you can defeat me? Do you not know who I am?"
"Who you are?" Gendou sneered. Kurama caught a peek of Kuwabara righting himself over the monster's shoulder. "A pathetic excuse for a spy? I killed the last of your kind easily enough."
"Hah. You really don't know." He put on a predatory smile, and stood straight as a rod, as if his wounds did not pain him at all. "I am the silver youko. I am the legendary bandit, who escaped death to return twice as strong. I am Youko Kurama."
He struck a slightly over-the-top pose just to make sure he was getting through to his dull-witted enemy. Kuwabara had a sweatdrop.
That should do it.
The yellow demon did not seem to find it absurd, however -- and neither, apparently, did Yuusuke, whose ki flared with unmistakable alarm. Kurama risked a glance over; the Tantei had squared off with Donari, who was yet dirtier but seemed otherwise unharmed by the full impact of an extremely destructive technique as delivered by the strongest Reikai detective in centuries. And she was also watching Kurama.
An entire internal monologue of curses passed through Kurama's mind.Kisama . . . I went too far -- I overestimated the effect that the reikodan would have on her attention. Now I'll have them both on me in the next instant. I'd better get back to my plant; it may be my only recourse to avoid them both at once.
He leaped, and was next to it -- directly between the two demons. Fortunately (or not, as it were) that movement was in keeping with his melodramatic posture and attitude of challenge.
"The silver bandit?" The tone of Donari's voice was rich and amused. "I knew you were a special sort of slave. I'm honored that you submitted your -- services -- to me so willingly."
"Kurama, what are you doing? I'm in the middle of kicking her ass, so stop distracting her!"
This will not go well. His thought process spiraled out of his control. They had both focused on him, and there was almost nowhere he could dodge; though near his plant, this position was otherwise untenable. If both of them fired salvos at once, he would be caught by at least one for certain, and he didn't have the energy to recover from that. This was one of his more reckless bluffs, especially with no backup ready. Even if they could reach him themselves, Yuusuke and Kuwabara had already proven to be less than effective in his fight.
But he had a plan.
I've got their attention -- so now I must draw them in close, and widen my avenues for escape.
"Do shut up, human," he told Yuusuke with a warning in his voice that he hoped both sides would interpret as he intended. "I need no help from you, as I told you. I would challenge Master Gendou, here, and see if he would meet me at close range -- unless you are a coward, as I suspect?" he directed at his target. His smile was feral even as his heart sped in his chest.
In response, the youkai bellowed and charged, churning the sand in his wake with great stomping strides.
Before Gendou closed the gap entirely, the kitsune dared to drop his defense for an instant and give the plant a swift kick to set loose more dust. It had matured more fully; this time it was an enormous, obscuring mist, and Kurama could not again avoid sneezing. It blanketed his enemy, producing smothered choking sounds, and he seized his chance to slip away out of reach, and reposition himself behind Gendou. He took a moment to hastily calculate Yuusuke's position, and aimed a gust of petals and spore at Donari, hoping he wouldn't tag his friend by accident.
A string of violent sneezes made him silently curse once more. Though the dust settled quickly, Yuusuke continued to sneeze for almost another full minute, coughing, gasping and eking out half-formed expletives between nasal expulsions. Donari, on the other hand, seemed quite unaffected.
She raised a disdainful eyebrow, sneered at Gendou and proclaimed, "I tire of you, youko. I will kill your ningen cohorts, and then deal with you -- you may be certain you will not enjoy your fate." And she thrust a hand, fingers splayed, towards a spot several yards behind Gendou.
Botan gasped high above them. "Kuwabara!"
Kurama was already leaping before he had time to think about it -- but he wouldn't reach the boy nearly in time. He knew Kuwabara was going to die instantly, destroyed by a blast of energy an S-class youkai would have a hard time withstanding. The demoness could have killed him just as easily, he also knew; and his mind made a connection without being asked, as he realized She never meant to kill me --
And he landed hard, automatically rolling to a crouch and hunkering down defensively. He whipped his head around.
His human friend was still standing there, looking terrified; Yuusuke and Gendou were still sneezing; and Donari was still motionless with one claw outstretched, appearing utterly baffled.
The decision based on an instant's assessment, and Kurama had hold of Yuusuke's wrist and was yanking him along in a mad dash away from the battlefield, shouting, "Kuwabara, Botan, follow me! We can hide!"
Botan protested, "But I'm not --"
"You're not safe in the air! There's more cover on the ground!" He hadn't even looked back to see where she had answered him from -- his eyes were fixed on the small hills and the shelter-like depressions he knew to be behind each of them, and his back itched interminably, anticipating a strike. She won't be stalled for long -- but what stopped her? It was nothing any of us did. Even if she doesn't mean to kill me, I wouldn't have gotten there in time to be hit --
"No way!"
The fox skidded to a stop, dumping Yuusuke on his rear as he slid into an about-face. Kuwabara had his sword out again, and it was raised in challenge. "I'm not gonna run away!" he was declaring. "I haven't even gotten started yet!"
"Kuwabara, no! You'll have a much better chance if we retreat for now! This isn't very wise!"
But his words were futile. The brash boy was already running at the recovering Gendou, swinging his sword around for a sweeping cut. The kitsune flinched, anticipating a screech like the one before --
And screech it did, but at a lower pitch, like a buzz saw, and accompanied by an impressive roar of pain. The rei ken had left a shallow slice, leaking ichor-like blood, all the way across the demon's chest from shoulder to opposite hip.
"Oh, yeah!" grinned Kuwabara triumphantly. "Not so tough after all!"
What in Inari's name . . .
But before the thought could even be completed, three things happened.
Yuusuke got up, swearing and swiping at his eyes but no longer sneezing; Donari growled and raised her hand to attack again; and Gendou looked down at the slash in his torso, glanced back up at Donari -- and fled with all speed, leaving a dust trail as high as he was tall, into the west.
Everyone stood in mute, openmouthed shock, for the same moment. The same long, long moment.
The return of his senses snapped Kurama into action. "Come on, you three! We don't have time to waste! Yuusuke, can you see well enough?"
"Oh, yeah, I think so," the detective replied, still watching after the rapidly escaping demon. "The colors are a little funny, and my ears are ringing some. What'd I miss?"
There was an explosion near them. They yelped and took off, with the other two at their backs, running headlong for the hills and sliding around in the sand in their haste. Much belatedly, it seemed, Donari had recovered from her own startlement, and had fired a rather badly-aimed strike at her stationary opponents. But that was sosloppy, to miss an easy shot like that -- and why had she failed to kill Kuwabara? And what had made the rei ken so abruptly effective?
A number of things suddenly weren't adding up; unless, of course --
The plant?
x . o . x . o . x . o . x
The room was on fire.
It burned red and orange and blue, with devastating heat and no smoke at all, and served to backlight a small figure who stood in the inferno's center. There was a trembling collection of frightened creatures huddled as far from that figure as the walls permitted, watching it through the lattice of bars; it stood ready to spring regardless of its confinement, all its features shadowed except for three blazing eyes, and it snarled at them with all the ferocity of a wild thing.
"I can and will kill every one of you!" it roared. "I will burn your flesh until it shrivels and blackens on your bones! I will tear you apart and leave you to fall to ashes!"
The creatures whimpered and cowered, pushing to be at the back of the group. None of them dared look directly at it.
"I want him to come down here! Do it now!"
And the flames surged to fill the corridor, and only those lucky enough to see them coming were spared.
Well, isn't this an annoying place to end the chapter? I kind of had to, though; I was only just past halfway done with my planned Chapter 10 when I did a word count and came up with over 12,000. o.o So I elected to split it up into two chapters to avoid pissing everyone off with obscenely long chapters that would be impossible to pace correctly. Not that it worked -- this chapter is still almost 14,000 words -- but I tried. It would have been worse the other way.
As a side note, the last three chapters have been written almost completely without the use of a thesaurus, due to my computer being very much gone. However, I have a laptop now, so not only is my fic portable, but I can download a thesaurus from the internet and will be verbose again. I also managed to find a very old book that my mother gave me, A Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms, which is copyrighted 1961 but is still better than no thesaurus at all. It's been minimally helpful (darn thing doesn't know half the words I use, dammit). I also do not have anything better than Wordpad right now, so I don't have a spellcheck; as such, it's doubly important that you, my cherished readers, inform me when I have glaring typos as I always seem to, no matter how careful I am. Those who point them out will be luffed.
Please don't freak out because of Kurama's battle yet -- there's more to come, and over half the next chapter is already written, although not yet polished and subject to change as usual. I'll do my very chibi best to have it finished with minimal wait. Can't speak for Chapter 12, but I've got some done on that already, too. Be patient -- which will put you one up on me.
Love you all!