Ye Gods! It's been forever and I day since I updated last, and I can not ever apologize enough for my meaningless delays in the form of updating. Part of it's all the stuff I've had going on, part of it's been writer's block (I say this every time, I know, but it's true. I haven't been inspired recently.), and part of it is extreme laziness. For that, I apologize.
I'd like to thank all of the people that took the time to review. I think I replied to most of the signed ones, and if I missed you, I apologize, I'll try and get to you next time around.
Since it's been so long, I made this chapter a bit longer than the others. It's taken up about four pages on my computer and I hope that it was worth the wait. So without further ado, here's the disclaimer and the newest chapter:
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Rurouni Kenshin.
Note: This chapter has been edited from what was originally posted.
"It's very kind of you to allow us to continue living here," Botan stated, chatting happily with Kaoru while they watched Yahiko train with Kenshin. The night before had faded quickly after Tomochi left. Little conversation had been found, and now, the sun was shining brightly on the warm spring day. A cool breeze blew through, playing joyfully with the strands of Kaoru and Botan's hair, and ruffling the leaves of the surrounding garden.
Kaoru didn't answer right away, watching Yahiko's form closely for a moment as he lashed out at the ex-hitokiri, only to be knocked away by another one of Kenshin's parries.
"Use more of the hilt, Yahiko," the assistant-master of Kamiya-Kashin Ryu advised before turning back to Botan. "It's no problem," she responded, offering her own cheerful smile. "So long as you guys keep helping out at the dojo, you can stay until your mission is done."
"We really do appreciate it," the ferry girl stated again, just before Kenshin knocked Yahiko to the ground, almost making it look as though it had been an accident.
"Sorry, Yahiko," the swordsman said apologetically, though he was laughing as he bent over and offered a hand to help Yahiko up. Looking at him, you'd never had thought there had been a battle in the dojo just the night before. The rest of the Spirit Detective gang was inside, musing over the previous night's revelations, as well as plotting the next course of action.
"We know how strong he is," Kuwabara stated. "We got a good idea of that last night. I vote we find out where he's hiding and attack head on." The sound of exchanging kenjutsu swords could be heard in the background, with only occasional pauses in action.
Yusuke nodded in agreement to this plan, but Kurama still wore a look of doubt.
"I'm not so sure we definitely got a good idea of how strong he was, Kuwabara. If you think about it, it appeared that he was not even trying when we fought last night, but rather, gauging our own strengths. If he were fighting for real, I believe that we would have had much more trouble," the red headed demon stated, green eyes darkening, his brow furrowing as he spoke.
This silenced both the spirit detective and his partner in crime. It seemed to the group that, despite the happenings of the night before, they were still stuck at square one. The sound of practicing swordsmen ceased, and the rice paper shoji slid open, revealing a perspiring, panting Yahiko and an only very slightly winded Kenshin, closely followed by Kaoru and Botan.
"How goes things boys?" Botan asked cheerfully, looking over Kenshin's shoulder as she gazed at the Urameshi team. "Have you got any plans?"
"We were just talking about that," Yusuke replied.
"We'll join you," Kaoru stated, and the newcomers sat down.
Everyone sat in silence for a few moments, and should any random onlooker have poked his head into the dojo at that moment, he would have heard the wheels in eight heads turning on their axels almost sporadically, trying to come up with some kind of plan to corner their quarry.
"I think…." Yusuke started slowly, chocolate eyes gazing at everyone in the room. "...that right now, we need to find out where Tomochi's base is. As long as Kenshin's his target, we won't have to worry about losing him. He'll keep coming to us."
This earned a nod of agreement from most everyone in the room.
"That's clever, Detective. Too clever for you," Hiei stated from his place in the right corner of the room, separated from the rest of the group.
Yusuke laughed. "Yeah, whatever, Hiei."
"Yusuke's right, though," Kurama spoke up. "So long as he keeps going after Kenshin-san, we can be certain that we will not lose his trail. However, it is imperative that we find his base of operations. If we don't, then all of the confrontations that occur will depend on his standards. If we want conditions to be in our favor, or, even better, if we want to have surprise on our side, we need to know where he is hiding," the red head finished decisively.
"That's exactly what I was thinking!" Urameshi declared, grinning.
"Where are we gonna get our information from?" Kuwabara questioned.
At this point, Kenshin spoke up, his soft voice carrying across the room. "This one knows of some good locations to learn information. Local pubs make for good yakuza meeting places."
"Yup," Sanosuke's voice sounded, coming from the door as he poked his head in. He hadn't heard the entire conversation, but he got the gist of what they were talking about. "If you're looking for information concerning anything illegal or related to the local gangs, then all you have to do is head down to one of the pubs. They're always swarming with yakuza thugs, and if you're willing to pay enough money, chances are you can buy all the information you want. And when you go with threatening guys like me, you can trust that the information that they give you is good. In fact, you might save yourself some cash while your at it."
Sano knew this from experiences as a fighter-for-hire. Often when he was paid to fight rivaling yakuza, he had gotten his information at the pubs for an easy price. Everyone in any pub knew him as Zanza, of course, and wouldn't dare lie to him.
"That's useful," Yusuke stated. "Think you could take us there later?"
"Sure thing. Just say when. Now," he turned his head to Kaoru. "Little miss, when's lunch? I'm hungry."
"Freeloader," Kaoru spat, climbing to her feet as she spoke, glaring at Sano with what must have been feigned anger. "Why don't you try cooking for yourself for a change? "
- - - - - - - - - -
"This is the place," Sanosuke declared. He had let the Urameshi gang, plus Kenshin and Yahiko, to a run down little pub near the center of town, near ruffian row, where Sano had often hung out during his fight merchant days. There was a plain sign made of what looked like simple parchment that spelled out the old kanji for Pub Sakura. From the outside, it didn't look like much, but even from where they were standing, those gathered outside could hear the raucous voices of those within: drunken street fighters, gang members, all making as much noise as they could as they tried to escape from the responsibilities of every day life.
"Peachy, isn't it?" Yusuke commented, looking the place up and down.
Sano shrugged and led the way in.
The inside was as poorly decorated as the outside, but, if the huge crowd of people gathered inside was any kind of hint, to these customers, home décor didn't matter all that much: the pub was almost filled to bursting with customers of all shape and size, ranging from police men on break to random guys off the street.
With some difficulty, the group found a place to sit, still looking around.
A short, black haired, balding man approached the table, a cream colored, cotton apron tied around his waist.
"Can I help you?" he asked, his voice raspy, as though he had a soar throat.
"Nah, not right now," Yusuke replied, looking around.
"Ah…If you're going to sit in here, then you must buy a drink. Company policy," the old man stated, eyeing the group out of the corner of his dark black, beady optics.
"Geh…Fine. Gimme some chilled sake," the Spirit Detective replied, rolling his eyes.
"Me too," Sano added just before the man walked away.
"Sano," Kenshin started from his seat, looking very out of place in the bar. "How should this be taken about?" he questioned.
Sanosuke turned to face the table now, done watching the back of their waiter. "You don't wanna ask any random guy. Let's just watch the crowds for awhile and see if any of these pathetic excuses for gang members look as though they're in charge."
About ten minutes came and went, the sake had been served and refilled and finally, Kurama spoke up. "That man in the corner, surrounded by about ten others," he pointed out. "He looks to be in charge of the whole lot," he stated, having been observing the man very closely for the past five minutes.
Yusuke, Sano, Kuwabara and Kenshin nodded simultaneously: they had all been watching the same man. The mentioned male was indeed surrounded by a large following of men, all of whom looked as though they were hanging on to every word that came out of his mouth. He had greasy looking, shoulder length hair, but in contrast to this, his kimono looked to be very expensive. And, to put the icing on the cake, he wore a sword in his belt, as did all the men around him.
"That's our guy," Sanosuke muttered, and at a nod from Yusuke, the five of them rose to their feet, signaling the others to wait for them at the table.
Urameshi led the way over, and when they reached the crowd of yakuza surrounding their target, he pushed his way through, ignoring the angry cries of protest that he had earned in doing so. He stopped at the edge of the table, looking the man straight in the eyes with Sano, Kenshin, Kuwabara and Kurama standing imposingly behind him.
"You want somethin' twerp?" the guy demanded, his speech ever so slightly slurred. It seemed he had had one glass of sake too many.
Yusuke continued to glare at the man determinedly, his gaze never leaving the other's. "Information," he replied, his tone sly.
The man raised an eyebrow. "Oh. An' how much are you willin' to pay?" he questioned, sitting up straighter and leaning across the table. "Good information don't come cheap these days."
"How much you want?"
"Depends on what you want to know."
The spirit detective allowed an arrogant smile to grace his boyish features as he continued to hold his staring contest with the man. Guys like this were easy to deal with--all they were interested in was money, not that it mattered.
"Word on the street there's a new upstart in town," he stated, his gaze narrowing. "He's messed with some of my guys, and I don't like that too much. Problem is, I don't know where he and his yakuza hang out. Name's Tomochi. You got any information on the guy?" he allowed his voice to hold all the right tones, making himself out to seem like the leader of his own branch of yakuza. Their 'friend' seemed to buy it.
"I'll tell you what I know for fifteen hundred yen," the man replied after a moment's thoughts, acting as though he were the one in charge.
Sano's deep brown eyes glinted dangerously and he clenched his bandaged fist. "That's a lot for just a bit of information. In fact, that's too much. We're not payin'" he growled, taking an imposing step closer to the table.
As Sanosuke approached, the man stood, stumbling back and tripping over the stool upon which he had been sitting, falling to the ground. The moment Sano clenched his fist, recognition broke over him: this man was Zanza with the symbol for 'evil' on his back. He had gotten himself in with the wrong people. As Sanosuke stooped to grab the front of his yukata, he cried out suddenly:
"W-wait, wait, I'll tell you! Just don't hurt me!" His tough guy exterior was gone.
"That's what we wanted to hear," Sano stated, pulling the man to his feet and replacing him at the stool. "So, what you got to say? Make it quick."
"'Kay, guys, here's the deal," the man started, leaning across the table closer to the four. He looked around nervously with sweat beading on his forehead before he started. "I've heard all 'bout your guy. Word is he's ruthless: he's new to town, and already he's given most of the local yakuza the shivers. People have already tried to challenge him for his turf, and all they've gotten out of it was a buncha dead bodies. Not fun. I've got good information that he's got his base located 'bout a mile and a half west of Tokyo," by now, he was leaning very close to Yusuke, his voice nearly down to a whisper. "I wouldn't go crossing swords with this guy, if I were you, though. He's not your average swordsman."
"We know," Kurama replied.
"Thanks for the info," Sano retorted, waving carelessly before he turned to go.
Yusuke bowed his head in thanks. "Thanks for the business."
"Don' mention it," the guy replied. "You didn't hear any of it from me, though."
"Sure thing," Urameshi responded, giving a single wave of his hand as he walked away. There was a slight grin on his face. Team Urameshi was back in business.
Once again, I apologize for my horrible delays in updating. I'm a very bad person, and-I've said this thousands of times but-I hope to remedy this. I'll try to update sooner in the future. Thank you for being so patient with me. Reviews are appreciated and constructive (creative, ha ha) criticism will be adored. If you see anything wrong please point it out to me. This ranges from typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, OOC, or anything else that you see is wrong.
I'll try and update sooner.
--Demon of Evilness