Chapter 13

It's been half an hour, and Mitarai and Botan aren't back yet. Well, of course not. They had to first find the demon, hopefully just one, defeat it and get back here. Since they let me stay here in this park so easily it probably wasn't that close; just moving the distance would take them some time. And since they probably fought somewhere that was away from prying eyes, they couldn't be too close… not that that was necessarily the case, but I'd assume so since if they didn't there would have to be more sightings about demons… right?

Even so, I wished they'd be back soon. Waiting without knowing anything made me nervous… is this how women felt in the forties when their husbands, sons, brothers and fathers went off to war?

…Whoa now; I'm being way too pessimistic here. He didn't go in to war; he went to a one on one fight. Or at least hopefully it'll just be one on one. Either way, it was not comparable to war.

And yet he could very well lose his life out there.

I bent over, hiding my face in my hands. Had this been a terrible mistake? Should I have done my all to stop him? Should I have followed him after all? Maybe if I had, I could've helped him somehow. I mean I did so last time, so maybe I could do it again. Even if it had just been luck, who says I couldn't do it again?

…Ugh, I needed to stop. No use crying over something that has already happened. Instead, I should use this time to think about things, like what will I do if a situation like this comes around a second time. Should I follow him if a next time ever comes? Or should I stop him from going in the first place? I had to make a decision, for Mitarai's sake and for my own peace of mind.

XXXXX

I went in to the bathroom, and in the few minutes I had been gone Mitarai and Botan had returned. The former looked exhausted but aside from that, he seemed fine. At the very least, both of them were definitely alive.

"There you are!" Botan called out as she noticed me "We thought you went home already."

"She thought" Mitarai corrected, making me snort. He knew me so well; obviously I wouldn't just walk away without saying anything.

"Are you okay?" I asked, eyeing him. Now that I was closer I could see how dirty his clothes were and the fact that they had little rips here and there "Tough fight?"

"I've had it worse, actually" he answered casually. I could've gone without that information for the time being; he didn't look too good "But it certainly wasn't a piece of cake."

"But you did it, so I can take you home now" I said, glaring at Botan "Right?"

Botan swallowed, I'm sure she did.

"Right" she said nervously, looking like her fight or flight instinct would take over any moment now. If it did, I could bet all my money to it being flight "I'll take care of the rest. See you later Mitarai!"

"Yeah, see you" he said back "Don't over work yourself."

"I won't" Botan said before taking off. I gave Mitarai a deadpan look; if someone here was overworking themselves it was him! Unfortunately, he decided to flat out ignore my opinion on the subject it seemed. He watched after Botan's retreating back before stating: "You scare her."

"I noticed" I said "How come? I mean she hunts demons for a living; isn't it as illogical as it can be for her to be afraid of a human girl?"

"Well technically her job is to guide the one who hunts down the demons, not to fight them herself" Mitarai corrected me "But well… I don't know to be honest; Botan usually gets along with everyone. You sure you didn't do anything to offend her last time you met?"

Excuse me? Was he blaming me of something? That felt a little offending… but it did get me thinking; did I do something?

"Nothing that I can remember" is what I settled on "Unless she's afraid because I'm so strong."

Mitarai snorted before starting to laugh bluntly. My eyebrow twitched, asking despite feeling that I already knew the answer: "What's so funny?"

He kept laughing, but after a while managed to say: "Well, you are clearly stronger than average human, but compared to the people Botan usually hangs out with, humans and demons alike, you have the powers, not to mention control of a new born."

My eyebrow twitched again; I knew he'd say something like this. However, normally his jabs were far subtler. Either he was really tired right now or he really thought of it as that funny. I kinda hoped it was the former…

As I was thinking about a snappy comeback, I finally registered the other important thing he had just mentioned. Botan hang out with demons? As I voiced my confusion to Mitarai, he finally got himself under control before explaining: "It's not like we kill or capture all the demons we encounter, just the ones that break the rules. There are good demons too, some of them are our friends even… or at least hers."

That was surprising; I had thought his job was just to take down as many demons as he could. I suppose it wasn't as simple as that, then. I got even more questions now, but I think I'll start with the one that should be the easiest to answer.

"What do you mean by "at least hers?"" Mitarai looked away, his smile fading a little. Ah shit; maybe it was the hardest question after all. That was the face he usually made when I was being insensitive.

"Sorry"

"It's alright" he said immediately "It's just that… I don't really know where I stand with those guys. We get along and sometimes even work together but other than that, we don't really see each other or talk to each other, so…"

"So, they're more like business partners than friends to you?" I asked, adding quickly: "Do they work for that Koenma, too?"

"They used to, but now they no longer do it officially. It's more like they are doing him favors, mostly when he runs in to trouble that his underlings can't handle or if the trouble is in the demon world." he told me, standing up from the bench he had been sitting on "In any case, why don't we continue this conversation later? I think it's about time for me to go home."

I agreed and we started walking. His house wasn't far and when it came to sight so did his mother, waiting for us at the front door. Good thing I had come up with an excuse why we took so long while I waited and another one for his poor state on our way back.

"Not good" Mitarai muttered. I chuckled, whispering to him: "No worries. I'm your alibi, remember? I know exactly what to say."

"Took you two long enough" Mrs. Mitarai said, crossing her arms as we reached the door "I take it you two have a good explanation for this?"

"I'm so sorry; the fault is mine" I said, trying to sound sincere. I know my excuse is good; now the only problem is if I can say everything in a way that is convincing enough. I must act, but not overdo it "We ran into some old friends and after we had talked for a while they suggested we go to karaoke. I knew Kiyoshi was still in bad shape, but since he wanted to go I figured he was well enough. I know I should've insisted for us to go back."

Yes, I just pretty much threw my friend under the buss and yes, I did it on purpose. I was certainly going to hear about this when his mom wasn't around, but he had it coming. Serves him right for making me worry.

Mrs. Mitarai stared at us for a while before sighing.

"You need to take care of yourself better…" I smiled. Victory! "Now why are your clothes so dirty?"

He addressed the question directly to Mitarai. Well shoot, of course she did. I had prepared an excuse, but hadn't taken the obvious fact that she'd ask it from him, so I hadn't said anything. Stupid stupid stupid! But surely, he could come up with an excuse on his own… I mean c'mon, he did this kind of things frequently, right?

"I fell down" he said "There was a bit of a slope, so…" he trailed off. Oddly enough, that was the same excuse I had been prepared to give. Maybe we think alike sometimes after all.

"You need to be more careful" Mrs. Mitarai chided "Not only are you pushing back your recovery, you're also causing Yuri unnecessary trouble."

Was it wrong of me to enjoy seeing him getting scolded? For once I wasn't the one doing it so I thought I could take all I can out of it.

"It was no problem at all; after all it was me who suggested we take a little walk." just be modest and belittle myself; that'll make her feel even more sympathetic towards me.

"I suppose you are simply too used to looking after my son" she said with a sigh, rubbing her temples. I could see Mitarai giving her a are you kidding me -look and on the inside, I couldn't help but agree with him; after all, in reality he was the one always looking after me! But I didn't let it show on my face; Mrs. Mitarai didn't need to know that and besides, my friend really needed a lesson.

"Mom- "

"Not another word young man!" she interrupted him "Now go to your room; I'll deal with you later after I've sent Yuri home!"

Hah, score! That'll teach him! I know he's going to be angry at me for this for a while but whatever; it was worth it. And so was the face he was making; but it didn't seem like he wanted to get in to an argument with his mother, so he gave in by simply saying: "Yes mom."

I watched him go inside before turning to his mom fully.

"Well it was nice to see you Mrs. Mitarai. Once again, sorry about the trouble. I'll be on my way now before my mother gets worried" I bowed to her and turned around to leave but stopped cold in my tracks as I felt a hand on my shoulder "Hold it right there, young lady."

Uuh, okay what? Had she seen through our act? It wouldn't really be that impossible but if that was the case how come she didn't call us out on it when Mitarai was still here?

"Is something wrong?" I asked, turning around. I tried to keep my tone as innocent as possible as well as my face, but I think she saw my nervousness since she frowned when I turned around. Not good, I suppose.

"Tell me what really happened to my son" she demanded and I froze. She really had seen through the lie… or had she? Should I play dumb, in case it was just a hunch? "And don't pretend you don't know what I mean."

…Was she a psychic too? It felt like she had read my mind! Or maybe she just read my face… either way, this was not good. What should I say? The look in her eyes was determined; there was no way I would get away with a half assed lie. I had to go with half-truth, then.

"He said he had a job to do and asked me to help him sneak out" I told, averting her accusing eyes "I refused at first, but when he said he was going to do it with or without my help, I gave in in the end."

"Were you worried he'd get hurt climbing out the window?" my head shot up, eyes wide as I stared at her. How did she know? She snorted, apparently at my face, before she said: "Does that boy really think I don't notice when he sneaks out at night? When he puts a note "Don't disturb. Studying." on his door and actually has gotten out from the window? He should give me more credit."

"So… you knew all along?" I asked, disbelieving. I knew she cared deeply for her son, so if she knew why didn't she try to stop us? Why didn't she stop him from doing all this in the first place? Sure, she didn't know all of it and how dangerous it all was, but the injuries Mitarai had from time to time should be enough to get her worried sick, right?

She smiled. A small, sad smile.

"Of course, I did; I know my son" she told me, even though she probably had no true idea of Mitarai's double life. In a way it made me happy that I wasn't the only one who thought was close to him yet didn't really know him "Now, what happened? What exactly did you two do?"

"I don't know what he did; I was waiting at a park" I said, deciding to go with the truth and only to leave out the supernatural stuff "He told me to wait because it might get dangerous."

She held my gaze, clearly trying to decide if I was telling her the truth or not. Hopefully she wouldn't catch on that while it was the truth, it wasn't everything. I wouldn't be able to come up with a workable emergency lie in this situation.

"Are you telling the truth?" she finally asked. I answered with a firm "yes", hoping that it was firm enough. Our staring contest continued and I had to use all my willpower not to look away; that was a sign of hiding something after all, wasn't it?

"All right then" she finally said after what felt like forever. Sighing, she asked: "Hopefully my son didn't get you in any trouble."

"No, not at all" I answered. Well, expect with her, but she didn't need to know that.

"Thank you for looking after him again" she said. The next part was probably not meant for my ears, but I heard it regardless: "One day that boy will kill me with stress and worry…"

I bit my lip, again struggling with if I should ask or not. Last time I had been able to keep my mouth shut, but not this time. Today, my curiosity and most of all, my need to know overwhelmed me. The words came out before I could stop myself: "If you're so worried then why don't you stop him from working?"

For once, it was her who froze. The she closed her eyes, covering them with her palm.

"Do you think I haven't tried that?" she asked with quiet, barely audible voice. It was shaky. I knew it'd be wrong to press her, but since I already started I figured I should see this to the end. I wouldn't back out until I got my answer.

"Then why not try harder?" I pressed. She shook her head, balling her hand in to fist repeatedly "I can't."

I raised an eyebrow, not that she could see that. Would she continue on her own or should I keep pressing?

"If I try to stop him by force, he'll find a way to go anyway most of the time. And I can't keep an eye on him all the time; at one point, I thought he had stopped, but it turned out he was just doing it in secret." she took deep, shaky breaths. I didn't rush her, feeling like she'd tell me everything if I just waited "And part of me doesn't even want him to stop."

I waited, but she didn't continue after that, so I asked: "Why?"

"Because it's good for him" she said, finally removing her hand from her face. Her eyes were buffy "My son had some… problems. After those were solved, he went on with his life happier than ever for a few months, or so it seemed. Suddenly he just became… depressed."

She shook her head. I was starting to regret this; was it really alright for me to hear all this? Especially since I heard it from his mom, not Mitarai himself?

"He kept doing his best, that was easy to see, but he was just… withering away. I wanted to suggest therapy, but had no courage to do so. Last time I did so, it didn't end well" that was probably during those problems of his "But one day, he came home and something was different. When I asked him, he said he'd gotten a job. From a ramen stand, he said. I noticed fast that the job made him happy, and I was relieved. Until…"

"Until you found out the truth" I finished since she seemed unable to continue. She nodded, rubbing her eyes with her fingers "I tried to stop him, but I failed time and time again. And it made him more distant from me, so in the end, I decided it was better to stop. I didn't want him to be unhappy or to hate me."

She looked at me, asking: "Am I being selfish?"

Yeah, in a way she was. She allowed her son to put himself in danger so that he wouldn't carry a grudge against her. But then again if Mitarai was miserable without his job, which is understandable when more or less knowing what's at stake, maybe it's best for him. Or maybe not.

"I don't know" I confessed "But well… as long as you do what you can for him, I suppose you don't have to feel guilty."

I was the selfish one here; I was just trying to convince myself that what I was doing right now wasn't wrong. That the more I knew, the more I could help him while in reality I was just trying to satisfy my own curiosity.

I was horrible.

"Maybe so" she said "I'm sorry for bothering you with all this; in the end, you're still a child yourself."

True, but I had already had my fair share of trouble in my life. A bit more wouldn't kill me, especially when it was for the sake of my friend. I just hope he won't get too angry if he ever finds out what I know… not that his mom told me much details.

"Don't worry about it" I assured her, adding as an afterthought: "Your son has helped me a lot; I'll be glad if I can finally help him with something, too."

It was true, and I'm not just talking about the fact that he saved my life. He was the one who helped me to pull myself together, he was the reason I am who I am.

…A real pain in the ass for him, that is. Well, he has only himself to blame for that… sort of.

"I'm sure you've already done plenty" Mrs. Mitarai said and while I disagreed, I didn't argue. There would be no point "I won't hold you any longer; go home before your mother gets worried."

Thanking her for the evening, I did just that. I just hope that curiosity won't kill the cat this time, that all this information won't bring me trouble.

But of course, with my luck, that probably won't be the case.

A.N: Mitarai's mom seems to have a bigger role than I originally planned… do you think she needs a first name? Yuri can just call her "Mrs. Mitarai" or "Mitarai's mom", but if someone else than her or Mitarai talks to the woman… well, I'll worry about that when/if I have to.