Chapter Twelve
"Hmmm…" Genkai mused quietly to herself before taking a sip of tea. Kurama sat next to her on the outdoor porch of her temple, holding his head in his hands. "So this… Yukina. She's some kind of ice demon?"
"Yes," Kurama answered.
"And you say she was living with me?"
"Yes."
She took another sip of tea. "And she was Kuwabara's… girlfriend?"
Kurama nodded in his hands. The wind rustled his red hair, and a few birds chirped in a nearby tree.
Another sip. "I would be much more likely to believe your story if you didn't mention the part about Kuwabara, you know."
Kurama looked at the old woman hard. "Now is not the time to be making jokes."
She shrugged, not returning his look and finishing her tea. "I'm not sure what you expect me to do about this."
Kurama stood up, not surprised with how calmly she was taking the news that someone had messed with her memories. "I'll try looking in her room to start."
"Her room?" Genkai asked, raising an eyebrow. "I've been through every room in this place in the past four months, and there is no room belonging to a female ice demon. Just because she disappeared doesn't mean her things go with her."
She had a point, Kurama admitted to himself. "It's still worth a shot." He left the old woman outside, walking into the temple. He passed by Hiei on his way inside. The fire demon sat in the middle of the large room, eyes closed except the Jagan. "Hiei?" Kurama asked.
Not now, Hiei responded in Kurama's mind, almost knocking the fox demon back from the emotion behind those words. Hiei had been sitting in that same position searching for his lost sister since the two arrived over an hour ago. It had never taken this long for him to find a demon before, which was very worrying.
Kurama continued to his destination, leaving Hiei behind. Yukina's bedroom door was closed, and he was surprised to find it locked. "Genkai?" he shouted.
"What?" she answered on her way to taking the empty tea cup to the kitchen sink.
"Why is this door locked?"
"None of the doors are locked here. I think I can take of myself, thank you."
Kurama shook his head. "I mean this door, the one that leads to Yukina's room."
Genkai walked over to him. She looked at the place where Kurama was pointing, her lips pursed. She bent forward, looking closely. "Kurama?"
"Yes?"
"This is a wall."
Had the situation been different, Kurama might have laughed at the ridiculousness of that statement. Instead, he broke the lock on the door and walked inside. Yukina's room was filled with her possessions, still in meticulous order, but covered in a light layer of dust. Kurama walked inside, finding no signs of a struggle.
"Kurama?"
"Yes, Genkai?"
"Can you walk through walls?"
Kurama walked back out of the room, closing the door. "No."
"I didn't think so." The old woman's eyes hardened in palpable concern, and she let out a shaky breath.
Kurama looked behind him. "You couldn't see Yukina's room?"
Genkai shook her head. "It looked like you disappeared into the wall."
"Whoever did this was very thorough," Hiei piped in, walking up behind Genkai who was touching the door, cautiously opening it and sticking a hand through. She pulled back after a few moments.
The redhead nodded. "I figured as much. After all, he was very careful to suppress the memories of everyone Anise ever interacted with, even minimally."
"Where's that idiot's spirit beast?" Hiei asked.
Genkai's eyes darkened and she shrugged dismissively. "Puu hasn't been very active, lately. He stays in the surrounding forest most of the time. He only really comes to the temple if it's raining."
Hiei flitted off.
"Is Puu depressed?" Kurama asked, guiding Genkai to the dining room table to take a seat and sitting across from her.
"I'm not sure. He was very happy here after the dimwit left him with me, but that stopped about four months ago," she began. "He came up to me one day extremely agitated about something. He went on a rampage inside the temple. He cracked walls and ripped up the flooring. I…" Genkai took a deep breath, sighing. "I yelled at him. I shooed him out of the temple, and that's a really tame way of saying it. I imagine it's why Puu doesn't come back to the temple much these days."
Kurama listed intently. "Yukina disappeared four months ago."
Genkai nodded. "I thought something might have happened to Yusuke. I'm glad he's ok." There wasn't much emotion behind those words, and Kurama wasn't sure she really meant what she said.
"Did Yusuke come by when Puu was going through that episode?"
"No, he never came. The dimwit hasn't been here since that day at the beach a couple years ago."
Kurama knew that Yusuke's duties in demon world were extremely important and consumed almost all of his time, but he was connected to Puu and would have known when the spirit beast was distressed.
Hiei returned, walking into the temple and sitting down next to Kurama. "He remembers her. He watched her walk out of her room in some kind of… trance. She walked into the woods and Puu followed her. There was a person in the woods, too dark to see, and as soon as Yukina was close enough to him, he grabbed her. Puu tried to help, but the person pressed a button on his wrist and they both disappeared." Hiei's words were calm, but Kurama could tell that the fire demon could barely contain his emotions.
Genkai lit up a cigarette. "That clears up a few things."
Hiei glared at her. "Perhaps for you it does, but Kurama and I are left with more questions than answers."
"Where is Yukina?" Kurama asked, clearly voicing the most obvious question.
Hiei growled. "I've been looking, but she isn't in Demon World or Human World."
Kurama frowned. "Does that mean she's… dead?" he whispered carefully.
Hiei shook his head. "I don't know. She's not… gone. Every time I look for her, the Jagan leads me to Anise."
The room was stiflingly silent as a sudden realization came to the fox demon. "Does that mean…?" Kurama began, unable to finish the horrible thought.
"Those Koorime powers had to have come from somewhere. It would have been extremely difficult to obtain an ice maiden from the island in Demon World." Hiei choked up slightly, hiding his face. "He must have taken the powers from Yukina."
