Chapter 12
It had been a few days since Ren had killed the two demons while protecting Hana, and aside from the attack on the first day, everything (in comparison) had been calm and incident free. Hana spent her days down by the beach, taking walks in the tamer parts of the forest with Ren and the others and going to the closest shopping centres to the temple. The Reikai Tantei found that Ren did his job well and without acting or doing anything that would cause suspicion or alarm (which strangely enough caused suspicion within the Reikai Tantei because they couldn't help but think that Ren had some kind of ulterior motive.). Overall, Hana was happy to be free to go outside again and do what she wanted (even though she couldn't go to school since she hadn't enrolled.)
Hiei and Ren appeared to get along well since they had some things in common. Not that they actually had many conversations with one another, they just sort of sat in silence and somehow, somehow, that translated and amounted to them communicating. Hiei was disappointed by the "real" Ren, but he also knew that the Ren he "knew" was just the one he had heard about as a child, an idealised version of him. Hiei only "knew" the Ren as a warrior, not as a person outside of the battlefield because the only Ren Makai knew and cared about was the warrior Ren. While Hiei did respect Ren, he was unsure what to make of the complete and "whole" Ren. He regarded Ren with a mixture of childish disappointment, which he vehemently pushed away, respect for Ren's fighting prowess but at the same time, Hiei felt that there was still something missing from this "whole" version of Ren, something that was being held back. Hiei didn't doubt that that something was due to Ren being in human form and once/if Ren returned to his true form, that feeling would disappear.
Kurama and Ren (to an outsider or to Yusuke and Kuwabara) seemed to get along well enough. However to those who were a tad more perceptive, such as Genkai and Hiei, they could see that Rena and Kurama didn't exactly get along that well. Any kind of conversation between the two seemed to be some kind of verbal chess match with Ren saying something that alluded to him knowing important and Kurama subtly trying probe for more information.
Kuwabara didn't trust or like Ren since he didn't appear to have any kind of moral compass and was a criminal who knew exactly how to prevent people from bringing him to justice. In short, Ren was, in Kuwabara's eyes, a worse version of Hiei. At least with Hiei, they had some kind of fighting bond with him. Ren just seemed distant, constantly mocking everyone around him. Therefore Kuwabara just tended to ignore Ren as much as possible and didn't do anything that would encourage some kind of conversation with him.
Yusuke sort of like Ren and so they kind of got along. Ren was a strong fighter and liked video games; this was enough to make Yusuke kind of like him. However at the same time, Ren was a criminal (who hadn't done anything to hurt them in any way) and made him question whether he really was the good guy when he worked for Koenma. When he had asked the others this, they had all (even Hiei) said yes, he and Kuwabara had been the good guys in the situation (saving Yukina and defeating the Saint Beasts), Ren was simply good at using words to manipulate people, making them question what they know and their beliefs. They (mostly Kurama and Kuwabara) even advised against trusting Ren since they didn't know enough about him or had any kind of bond to build that trust on. But Yusuke still felt that Ren, given the opportunity, could be trusted. It was just a matter of spending more time and fighting beside him before any of them could truly say whether or not they could and should trust him.
It was late afternoon when Botan flew down on her oar to an outside training ground within the compound, with a smile on her face and her curled sky blue hair tousled by the wind.
"Hello everyone!" Botan greeted cheerily, landing gracefully with practised ease, standing and gently brushing out the creases in her pink kimono.
"Botan? Wat are you doing here? Koenma need some help to get his diaper changed or somethin'?" Yusuke asked her. Botan frowned slightly Yusuke's words bit smiled again as she turned to look at Hana.
"I take it that you have come with an update on this case?" Ren asked Botan politely (or as politely he could sound with his lazy drawl and blank expression on his face that always had a hint of an amused smirk on his lips.).
"Bingo!" Botan chirped with a lilting laugh as she turned to Hana. "Koenma sent me to say that he's found your grandparents!"
"My…grandparents?" Hana asked Botan as she racked her brain for any recollection of her grandparents.
"That's right. According to Koenma your grandparents were the only other living relatives you had left since your mother had no siblings and neither did your father." Botan explained as she sat next to Hana. Hana nodded her head as she thought about which grandparents Botan was referring to. She supposed that Botan could be referring to her paternal grandparents who lived in Makai (according to her father when he was alive) but she had never met them and she wasn't sure they even knew about her existence. On the other hand, thought Hana, she could be talking about my grandparents on my mother's side, but they live all the way in Nagasaki and I haven't seen or heard from them in a while. Suddenly Hana couldn't help the errant fear that filled her when she thought of the possibility that her maternal grandparents had died but she didn't know about it. Would Koenma send her to live with two people she didn't even know in a whole different world?
"Hana, are you alright?" Botan asked her, noticing the look of fear on Hana's face.
"Did-did Koenma say which grandparents he found?" Hana asked after swallowing thickly as she tried to calm her wild heartbeat.
"Unfortunately, no." Botan replied with a slight frown. "But they are human, if that makes you feel any better?"
Botan smiled weakly at Hana who smiled back, but still looked a little hesitant to follow Botan. Seeing her hesitation, Ren walked over to Hana and silently laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. Turning to look at him, and even though his face was impassive as ever, she felt like he was reassuring her that everything was going to be alright. Hana smiled at Ren and walked over to Botan, signalling that she was ready to go with her, before turning around to look at Genkai.
"Master Genkai, I just want to thank you for letting me stay here." Hana said to Genkai with a bow of respect and gratitude. Genkai looked a little surprised that Hana thanked her since young people generally seemed rather rude nowadays, but smiled back at Hana.
""It wasn't a problem. Besides it's not like I could let you go and be homeless for the last few days." Genkai replied waving off Hana's thank you with a smile. "Now go, you want to see your grandparents again, don't you?"
~Mini Time Skip to Koenma's Office in Reikai~
Hana's maternal grandparents were an elderly, kindly looking couple who wore matching cardigans over their clothes and stood together holding their hands as they watched Hana and the members of the Reikai Tantei step into Koenma's office. Hana's grandfather was an average sized man who appeared to be balding, but still had some white hair behind both ears and the back of his head. The grandmother was a rather plump old lady that smiled a lot and pushed her glasses up her nose every so often with a full head of curly white hair. Their smiles widened as they saw Hana, who ran over to them with all three of them embracing a little tearfully. After embracing for a few minutes the grandparents pulled back so they could get a better look at Hana.
"You've grown so much since we last saw you!" Hana's grandmother cooed.
"Hana, your grandmother and I are so sorry for not asking Sousuke about how you were more, for believing all those lies he told us about your parent's deaths and where you were." Hana's grandfather said earnestly, holding Hana at arm's length and looking at his granddaughter seriously.
"Grandpa…" Hanna mumbled sniffling a little as her grandparents spoke.
"Your grandfather's right Hana." Hana's grandmother said, her voice full of sorrow and regret "We should have done more, tried to visit more, fought for custody over you when my daughter and son in law passed. Dear, we don't expect you to forgive us for letting Sousuke do all those horrible things to you, but all we ask is that you give us a chance to do what we should have done before and take care of you."
Hana looked up at her grandparents looks of shame and sadness and moved forward to hug them both. Her hands clinging to her grandparent's woollen cardigans as she spoke, her voice muffled by her grandparent's bodies.
"There's nothing to forgive. It wasn't your fault, none of it is." Hana said as she held on to her grandparents, for a moment she forgot that she was in a room full of people and it was like she was at her grandparent's house by the sea. "You didn't make big brother do those things. You didn't know what he was planning or what he was going to do."
Hana leaned back to look up at her grandparents with a bright and happy smile.
"Besides Ren and his friends found me before Sousuke did anything." Hana told her grandparents reassuringly, releasing the hug and stepping back, gesturing to the Reikai Tantei.
"Ah, yes, Koenma told us about this Ren person." Hana's grandfather said looking over the Reikai Tantei and trying to figure which one of the group was Ren before Hana stepped over to Ren's side, showing her grandparents who Ren was.
"Ah yes," Hana's grandmother said with a grateful smile, shuffling over to Ren. "Thank you for taking care of Hana, and I'm sorry that you were forced to shoulder the burden of ending Sousuke's life."
Ren blinked at Hana's grandmother, struck by this family's ability for forgiving others and their thoughtful actions to a veritable stranger. He wondered idly if this was something that was passed down through genetics or if it was something that the grandparents had passed down to Hana's mother and then from Hana's mother to Hana herself. Either way, it was something that was rarely seen with anyone, apparition or human.
"Thank you for your kind word ma'am," Ren said respectfully with the slight bob of his head. Ren's eyes narrowed slightly as he realised that Koenma had changed the situation of his business with Sousuke, twisting and altering the situation as to not upset the grandparents and not put Reikai in a bad light, since he was as part of the Reikai Tantei, representing Reikai and Koenma. 'Of course he doesn't want to tarnish his image in front of humans.' Thought Ren before continuing to speak. "But your worry is misplaced. I do not consider the death, the murder of your grandson to be a burden because his life was exchanged for Miss Hana's life and freedom. And if it is to be a burden, it is mine to bear and worry about. Your thoughts should be of your health, your husband and grandchild's wellbeing."
Hana's grandparents blinked at Ren's words, unsure what to say in response, which Koenma took advantage of and cleared his throat loudly, bring everyone's attention to himself.
"Ah, Miss Haruko," Koenma said sitting up straight and looking over to the small family of three. "If you agree to live with your maternal grandparents with them as your legal guardians, you and your grandparents will need to fill out the appropriate documents."
"Yes, I want to live with Grandma and Grandpa." Hana said happily with the biggest smile on her face that anyone had seen. Koenma smiled gently at the sight of Hana and her grandparents all sharing happy smiles.
"And since we already know that your grandparents are more than willing to have you live with them, if you all follow my assistant Ayame, she'll take you to one of our lawyers who'll help guide you through the required paperwork." Koenma said gesturing to a pale and tall woman with matching black hair and eyes wearing a sombre black kimono who bowed in greeting.
"This way please." Ayame said softly, gesturing towards the door.
Before following Ayame out, Hana quickly stuffed her hand into her pocket and walked over to Ren, pulling out a small purple gift box with a red ribbon on top.
"I just wanted to thank you for saving me from my brother, and protecting me." Hana said with a shy smile and a small blush on her face as she held the gift box out for Ren to accept. "I know you don't think that you're a good person, but I don't believe that, I think you are and that you're trying to be one. So I wanted to give this to you as a thank you and to remind you that you can be a good person, and to keep trying to be one."
"You didn't have to get me a gift." Ren said simply looking at the gift and then at Hana, seemingly a little stunned by her gesture of thanks.
"I know, but I wanted to repay you for everything you've done. I know to you helping me might not seem like a lot, but I'll always remember how you helped me." Hana said with a soft smile. Looking at Hana's smile and graciously accepted the gift.
"Thank you Miss Hana." Ren said lowly and respectfully. Opening the gift he found it to be a jade meditation bracelet.
"I hope it'll help you one day in the future." Hana said hopefully with a small smile.
"I'm sure it will." Ren said returning the small smile.
Once Hana and her grandparents left with Ayame, Ren turned around to face Koenma and pulled a full written report out of his hoodie pocket and placed it on Koenma's desk.
"My report about the assignment." Ren said, his previous smile gone as he stared at Koenma who was pleasantly surprised by Ren's efforts.
"Why thank you Ren," Koenma said opening the paper folder and skimming over the paperwork inside. "This will actually save me a lot of time documenting this case."
"Yes, I'm sure it will." Ren said as his lips stretched into his smile that always seemed to be teetering on the edge of confidence and arrogance. "I've also included an estimate for my payment. I'll let you choose how you send it. Don't worry; I've left plenty of space for you to add your boys' comments about my work."
Koenma pursed his lips and nodded at Ren in agreement, and Ren bowed mockingly at him before turning and walking out of his office. Moments after Ren left, Koenma face morphed into one of frustration having previously believed to have deceived Ren, only to now realised that Ren had played, had been playing him this entire time. Lips twitching around his dummy in frustration Koenma beckoned the rest of the Reikai Tantei closer to his desk and asked them if Ren had done or said anything that struck them as suspicious.
"You mean other than those demons he killed on day one?" Yusuke asked Koenma who tilted his head a little as he spoke.
"I can assure you now that I was watching the entire time. I want to know if there was anything that you thought was suspicious." Koenma said looking a little troubled.
"Well those two demons that came after Hana was kind of suspicious, I mean how did they know to go and find her at Genkai's?" Kuwabara said scratching his chin in thought. "And other than killin' them, he didn't do anythin' out of the ordinary and that was just kind of…weird I guess."
Koenma nodded along to Kuwabara's words making note of everything.
"Other than though, he didn't really do anything." Yusuke added scratching the back of his head.
"Oh, come on now!" Botan said in slight protest. "We should at least give him some credit for doing a good job! Koenma, you saw it yourself, Ren stayed by Hana's side and protected her like you told him to and he wasn't being overbearing and let her have her own space. I thought he was a thoughtful and kind protector, letting her go out and have alone time when she wanted it, all while she was waiting for us to find her grandparents. Surely it's unfair of us to keep thinking of him to be a suspicious character?"
"Botan, everything that guy does is suspicious!" Kuwabara interjected passionately (just like everything else he does in life except studying unless the time calls for it). "He told her to stay away from his, 'cause he says he's a bad person, right? But when she wanted him to protect her, he shouldn't have said no, right? If he was really serious about lookin' out for her he would've said no."
"What you say is true Botan and has been taken into account." Koenma said, nodding and conceding that she had a valid point and gesturing for Kuwabara to calm down, worried about how red Kuwabara's face was getting from his shouting. "Kuwabara, your concerns are not yours alone but the fact remains that Ren has conducted himself in a professional manner. In addition to this, Ren had acted in a way which he felt best and with a full understanding of the consequences of his actions. Yes, acceptance of this case would mean potentially contradicting what he said earlier to Hana. But at the same time had he refused, he would have removed the one person Hana felt some semblance of safety trust. And while it may be unfair for us to still regard him with suspicion he is still considered to be a convicted criminal and we cannot simply assume his innocence."
Koenma let his words sink in as everyone silently thought over his words.
"But this matter has resolved, has it not?" Kurama asked Koenma who still looked troubled, which worried him.
"Well, yes it has." Koenma answered him, mumbling slightly.
"If it's been resolved then why haven't you let us leave?" Hiei asked glaring at Koenma with less malice than usual. "If this matter is resolved why are you so hesitant to end it?"
"Had I been the one to find Hana's grandparents then it would be." Koenma said sounding a little miserable and frustrated by the situation. "The fact is I didn't find Hana's grandparents."
"Wait a second," Yusuke said with a slight frown of confusion. "If you didn't find Hana's grandparents, who did? I mean Hana recognised 'em, so they had to be the real thing, right?"
"Well, yes they really were Hana's grandparents, but I, Reikai didn't locate them." Koenma said seriously, pushing aside his frustration so that they could concentrate on what was really important at the moment.
"If you didn't, who did?" Kuwabara asked in confusion, pointing at Koenma a little dumbly as Hiei rolled his eyes at Kuwabara's idiocy (despite not really knowing who did either). Koenma reached into a drawer of his desk and pulled out two notes, both written in the same neat handwriting. The first note that Koenma showed the group said:
"Send another group like that and they'll be returning in body bags. Leave me alone."
The second note simply had the names of both Hana Haruko's grandparents, along with their address and contact details.
"Do these notes seem familiar to you?" Koenma asked them as he watched the cogs turn in the heads of the Reikai Tantei as each realised, at their own pace, the sender of the notes.
"Wait, if Ren sent these why'd he? How'd he? This doesn't make any sense!" Kuwabara exclaimed loudly as he felt a headache coming on as he tried to figure out Ren's thought process and reason for doing these things.
"Why does Ren do anything?" Koenma asked rhetorically before continuing. "To further his own ends and his own gain, I assume or something along those lines."
"If Ren considers finding Hana's grandparents within the parameters of his job as Hana's protector, then it would be understandable." Kurama reasoned thoughtfully as he cupped his chin and analysed the two notes and the possible reasons behind them. It was clear the tones of the two notes were very different, with the first being a threat while the other was just to give information. Kurama supposed that since the second note wasn't signed, then Ren didn't want Reikai to know that it was he who wrote and sent the note. But if that was the case, then why did he write the note himself? Why didn't he just print out the information, thus removing the possibility of using his handwriting to identify him? Perhaps it was Ren's way of giving Reikai some kind of peace offering? But this wouldn't fit in with his profile. Ren was someone who rebelled and waged war against King Enma and Reikai, so why would he suddenly let Reikai and Koenma take all the credit? In fact a lot of what Hana's grandparent's said to Ren didn't reflect the actual events of Ren's job.
"But it doesn't!" Kuwabara shouted holding his head as he tried to wrap his head around the situation. "Nothing he does makes any sense!"
Hiei scoffed at Kuwabara despite feeling that Kuwabara had a point…to an extent. It didn't make any sense for Ren to do such a thing to help Reikai. Unless, thought Hiei, it has something to do with that business he had with the girl's brother. Hiei's eyes narrowed slightly as he thought this. Hiei knew that Koenma and the humans probably wouldn't realise this just yet, but Kurama would, if he hadn't already.
"Koenma." Kurama said as he looked seriously at Koenma who looked up at Kurama. "What exactly did you tell Hana's grandparents? When they spoke to Ren, they made Sousuke's death sound less like a murder in cold blood, but collateral damage of some kind."
Koenma shifted in his seat, feeling a little uncomfortable as he thought of a way to explain what he told Hana's grandparents in such a way as to not anger Yusuke and Kuwabara or even worse, Hiei and Kurama. It wasn't like he could just say that he lied and made Ren to be some kind of morally troubled hero that was working for Reikai who was forced to end Sousuke life in the name of righteous justice.
"I…" Koenma said slowly as he tried to explain his way out of this situation, wishing that he had Ren's ability to talk his way out of sticky situations with that damned silver tongue of his. "I told Hana's grandparents the next best alternative. I couldn't simply tell them that their grandson was a criminal who used money that came from illegally trafficking drugs, weapons, apparitions and humans to bribe corrupt members of the government and police force who had crossed paths with the wrong person who sent the hit man Ren to end his life! They wouldn't be able to live with themselves knowing that their grandson had committed such horrific crimes. Nor would they trust us if I then told them that I, Reikai, entrusted the safety of their only granddaughter to the same assassin who murdered their grandson."
"So what did you tell them?" Hiei asked Koenma flatly.
"I told Hana's grandparents that Reikai to investigate the Haruko estate because we believed that there had been reports of people going missing. Once Ren had entered the estate he had found Sousuke, who had been possessed a demon. Ren had been forced to kill their grandson and the demon possessing him in order to save the kidnapped humans, Hana and Sousuke himself."
"So you lied and pinned the blame on a demon instead?" Hiei hissed with a glare.
"I did it to preserve their memory of their grandson!" Koenma shouted angrily. "I lied so they could bury their grandson's corpse without feeling shame upon their family, so that they will remember Sousuke as he was before he became a criminal, so that his family wouldn't just brand him a criminal, never to be thought or spoken of again!"
Everyone had been stunned by Koenma's words. Until now, they never really thought about what Koenma had to say or do after they finished their work, never dwelled upon the aftermath that Koenma had to deal with on a daily basis. Until now their cases had just been about themselves, whatever their objective was (usually saving someone or the Earth) but at this moment in time they thought outside of themselves to consider the difficulties that came with ruling. For now, whatever confusion Ren's actions had caused had been swept away as they thought and imagined how much Koenma must have hated lying to that elderly couple and making Ren out to be some kind of hero. Seeing that the four of them were busy in their own thoughts (well, Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara were) Koenma dismissed them tiredly, wanting to relax and put this case behind him for the rest of the day.
