Chapter 15 – Beloved Son
Kurama waited patiently as Kaisei manoeuvred Kuwabara into the back seat of his car. Kurama was surprised that Kuwabara had remained conscious – though he was looking very pale – and he was amazed that he was still lucid. When he had been wrapping up Kuwabara's leg, Kurama had discovered that the damage was worse than he had first thought, and Kuwabara's recovery time would not be as rapid as he had hoped.
"Lucky there was only one of those bastards, right?" Kaisei said as he lifted Kuwabara's injured leg carefully up onto the seat.
"Yeah," Kuwabara said. "But we showed him."
"Sure we did," Kaisei replied.
He backed out of the car and Kurama distinctly saw Kuwabara look alarmed, his head whipping about. Kaisei had positioned him sitting upright at one corner of the backseat, with his injured leg stretched out across the length of the backseat.
"Uh, guys?" Kuwabara asked. "Where are the rest of you gonna sit?"
"It's no problem," Kurama assured him. "Kaisei, are you alright to drive?"
Kaisei held up Kuwabara's car key and nodded, before closing the back door on Kuwabara and moving around to get into the driver's seat. Kurama moved over to the already open front passenger door, carefully easing himself into the seat and manoeuvring Akira's limp form into his lap.
"Um, Kurama?"
Kurama looked over his shoulder as Kuwabara tried to leaned over towards him.
"You can put Akira back here with me," he said.
"You need to keep your leg elevated and to keep weight off of it," Kurama advised him. "Akira will be fine here with me."
Kuwabara looked like he wanted to argue the issue and so Kurama pressed on.
"Trust me," he said. "I can hold him until we get home."
Kuwabara's top lip twitched as though he still wanted to argue the matter, but he did sit back, and so Kurama turned to face forwards as Kaisei started up the car.
"Do you have your phone with you, Kuwabara?" Kurama asked as they started to drive away.
"Yeah," Kuwabara muttered.
"Then now would be a good time to call the emergency services here to take care of the casualties," Kurama advised him.
As Kuwabara set about doing as Kurama had asked, Kurama was pleased to see Kaisei turning out of the mall car park in the opposite direction to the one they had arrived from. They had been careful to destroy any CCTV cameras, though Kurama doubted the police would come after them, as they would likely shortly be overcome by similar attacks in the coming days. He was mostly pleased to see Kaisei taking a different route back because in doing so he was avoiding going back through the city itself and avoiding them having to sit queued at traffic lights in the middle of the day with one bloodied and bandaged body in the back of the car and an unconscious one in the front. After Kuwabara had reported the incident – with a nice lie about having driven past the shopping mall and noticed the chaos – the car fell into silence, and remained that way for some time as they moved further and further out of the city and up a quiet mountain road, lined on either side with trees. As they climbed the rarely used road, the edges became overgrown and forced Kaisei to move into the middle of the road and slow down, and the trees began to reach across the gap towards each other, making the road increasingly dark as they blocked out the sunlight.
Just as Kaisei was forced to turn on the headlights in order to clearly see the road ahead, Kurama felt a slight movement against his arm, and he looked down to see that Akira was starting to stir. He flinched slightly and tried to turn over, his knees colliding with Kurama's arm and his head falling against Kurama's chest. He gripped a handful of Kurama's coat and pulled before opening his eyes and blinking a few times. He then lifted his head slightly, staring cross-eyed at Kurama's shoulder, as though he could not really see anything yet.
"Try to relax," Kurama advised him.
His head snapped up and he fixed suddenly wide and focused eyes onto Kurama, inhaling sharply through his nostrils as his eyes found Kurama's face.
"It's fine," Kurama told him. "We finished the flayer and we're on our way back to the safe house. You can relax."
Akira opened out his hand, releasing Kurama's coat, before looking about himself in a pale, sweaty panic.
"Kuwabara's in the back seat," Kaisei said.
Akira stared at Kaisei for a moment before looking up at Kurama again.
"He'll be fine," Kurama assured him. "As will you."
"Let me go."
Kurama frowned slightly as he noticed that Akira's voice had gained that same unusual tone it had taken back in Aokigahara when he had panicked over finding the dead body.
"We'll be back soon," Kurama told him. "Another twenty minutes or so."
"Twenty minutes?" Kaisei echoed. "That's optimistic. If this road gets any worse, it's gonna take another hour to get back."
"Let go of me, right now!" Akira cried, glaring up at Kurama.
"I'm not touching you," Kurama pointed out, holding up his hands to indicate that Akira was really only sitting on him.
"Stop the car," Akira growled.
"No way kid," Kaisei said. "Just sit down and shut-up."
"Stop the car and let Akira come sit back here with me," Kuwabara said.
"That's not advisable," Kurama said.
"Stop the car!" Akira insisted.
"You need to calm down," Kurama said to him.
When he glared at Kurama one last time and then lunged at the steering wheel in an attempt to literally force the car off the road, Kurama was forced to grab his arms around Akira and haul him back down.
"Pull over," he said to Kaisei.
Kaisei did as he asked, and before the car had even stopped, Akira had managed to open the door and wriggle out of Kurama's arms, falling awkwardly out of the car and rolling over himself. Kaisei stopped abruptly and turned to Kurama, arching his eyebrows.
"This is what I was talking about," he said quietly. "The kid is out of control."
"Stay here," Kurama said to him.
"I'm not going after the ungrateful little brat," Kaisei grumbled.
"You too, Kuwabara," Kurama said over his shoulder. "Wait here."
"You can let Akira sit back here with me," Kuwabara said as Kurama climbed out of the car.
Kurama ignored him, starting towards Akira, who hurriedly scrambled to his feet and backed away. Kurama closed the gap between them quickly with long strides, but stopped when Akira urgently put out one hand to halt him.
"You need to get back in the car," Kurama told him calmly.
Akira shook his head.
"I'll just walk," he said.
"It's unadvisable for us to separate," Kurama replied. "And you may not have the strength to make the journey back. You should conserve your energy and focus on healing your wounds."
"I'm not wounded," Akira lied. "And I'm not getting back in there with you. That's just weird."
Kurama suspected that there was another, more complex reason why Akira was so suspicious of anyone he was not close to touching him, but he did not have time to argue it then and there.
"I'll just walk back," Akira said again.
"Do you even know your way back from here?" Kurama asked.
Akira faltered slightly but did not reply.
"Alright, let's compromise," Kurama conceded.
He turned to the car and sat back into the front passenger seat, sliding it forwards as far as it would go before opening the rear door and pointing at the rear footwell beside Kuwabara.
"Sit down there," he offered.
Akira started towards the car, but hesitated again as he drew level with Kurama, looking up at him anxiously.
"C'mon Akira, it's fine," Kuwabara called out to him.
Akira looked less than convinced, but clambered into the tiny space behind the front passenger seat, sitting down with his legs bunched up. Kuwabara ruffled his hair and muttered something to him as Kurama shut the door and, as he squeezed back into the restricted space left in the front passenger seat, Kurama saw Kaisei roll his eyes.
"Let's go," Kurama said as he shut the door.
"Maybe we should lock the kid up until the moon starts to show again," Kaisei grumbled as he pulled away again.
Kurama still found Kaisei's references to Akira's behaviour and the cycles of the moon to be entirely misplaced, but he decided not to dismiss them just yet, as perhaps a little further investigation might go some way to explaining the pattern he had observed.
"We have to make a decision."
Yusuke glared up at Hiei, who was limping about in an awkward pacing session back and forth across the width of the hallway.
"Suzuka's dead, Hiei," Yusuke reminded him.
"Yes, and we still don't know where Jin is," Touya added.
"We gotta stick together from now on," Chu said.
"Hey don't worry about that dumb message," Yusuke assured him. "This bastard isn't getting away with his stupid games any more."
"We gotta find Jin," Chu replied.
"I fear Jin may not be any better off than Suzuka," Touya solemnly announced.
"Don't say that!" Yusuke snapped. "You don't know that! Maybe Jin is with Yomi, or hiding somewhere!"
"The curious thing is, Suzuka appears to have been killed," Touya said.
Yusuke paused, wondering if he had even heard the ice demon correctly.
"I mean he did not take his own life," Touya continued, as he appeared to notice Yusuke's confusion. "And nor can we see evidence of a conflict: it's unlikely any one of Yomi's men could have bested Suzuka in a fight and killed him as brutally as this. It would have taken at least two of the men, controlled by the Dark Force, to overwhelm him like this, but there is no trace of blood or conflict out here in the hallway. It's as though he was lured into the cupboard and killed in there, very swiftly, by someone who was an expert at killing in dark and confined spaces."
"Right…" Yusuke said slowly. "How does knowing that that help us find out where the Dark Force is hiding?"
"Hn."
Yusuke looked up at Hiei, who had finally stopped his stumbled pacing, which was a relief for Yusuke, but he was now wearing an inappropriately smug look on his face that was even worse to look at than watching him pace about with a limp had been.
"It appears we have an enemy amongst our own ranks," he said.
"What the hell are you talking about, Hiei?" Yusuke demanded.
"Clean your ears out and think about what you hear, Yusuke," Hiei sarcastically replied. "It looks as though Suzuka was lured into the cupboard – which is something none of us would allow to happen to us unless we fully trusted the person luring us – and, once inside the dark, confined cupboard, Suzuka was quickly killed by someone who was not only strong enough to swiftly execute a demon of his class, but also someone who was an expert at killing in dark and confined spaces. Which of us do you think has such a skill set, Yusuke?"
"You?" Yusuke growled.
"He's implying that Jin killed Suzuka," Touya said.
"I'm gonna pretend you didn't just say that," Yusuke said, turning his glare to Touya.
"The evidence we see before us would seem to implicate Jin," Touya replied. "And, as Jin's longest standing ally present, it's a difficult conclusion for me to accept, and yet it does seem the most likely explanation."
"Nah, that doesn't make sense," Chu said. "How and when did the Dark Force manage to take a guy like Jin?"
"Probably right around the time we were all distracted by Risho's little "hand in the rock" trick," Hiei offered.
"Hiei, don't be an ass about this," Yusuke warned him.
"He may have a point," Touya said.
"What?" Yusuke echoed, turning wide eyes of disbelief to Touya.
"There's no way of knowing when it might have happened," Touya quickly added. "But the point is that it could have happened as far back as Hiei just suggested and we would never know, just like how we didn't know with Risho."
"I knew with Risho," Yusuke asserted. "I knew right from the start that something wasn't right about him."
"Only because you didn't like him and you were looking for a reason to distrust him after he called out one of your friends," Hiei said. "And now you have the opposite problem: you can't see what's right in front of you because you don't want to see one of your friends as our next enemy,"
"Not Jin!" Yusuke snapped. "Anybody else but him! He's too laid back and too sure of himself to let some ancient, crabby-ass shadow monster take his soul!"
"That's not quite how it works–"
"Shut-up, Hiei! Damn, you almost sound like you're enjoying this!"
"Why the hell would I be enjoying this?"
"I don't know Hiei, but from where I'm sitting, it kinda looks like you are!"
"And from where I'm standing, you look like the sort of idiot who could end up being the last man standing to oppose this enemy, and when that day comes, you'll be scratching your head wondering how it managed to manipulate and kill everyone else around you because you're too short-sighted to see what's really going on here!"
"I'm not an idiot, Hiei!"
"You're acting like one! Burying your head in denial and insisting someone is safe from the enemy just because he's your friend or because he seems too "cool" to become someone else's puppet is exactly the sort of naivety an enemy like the Dark Force preys upon!"
"Stop arguing, you two!"
Yusuke turned to Chu, who was glaring up at Hiei.
"Chu's right," Touya agreed. "Arguing between ourselves will only further empower the enemy."
"I still don't agree that Jin's turned on us," Yusuke insisted.
"But that is a possibility we ought to prepare ourselves for," Touya said. "We've been very fortunate up until now in that we have not been forced to fight against someone we are close to, but that may be about to change. We all knew, from the very beginning, that this day would come."
"Might come," Yusuke grumbled. "You don't know that Jin did this."
"No, we don't know for sure, but we should proceed with caution," Touya advised. "When we find him, we can't just allow him to rejoin us without first carefully considering the situation."
"What are you suggesting?" Yusuke asked.
"Merely that we be cautious," Touya replied.
Yusuke was less than convinced. Reading between the lines, he was almost certain that Touya was suggesting they ought to kill Jin when they found him just in case he was another puppet of the Dark Force. Maybe Touya was working for the enemy, Yusuke thought darkly. He had been far too indifferent about all the deaths and complications they had faced and he had been far too quick to blame Jin for Suzuka's death. Maybe Touya was the enemy, working on the inside to tear them all apart.
"What about Suzuka?" Chu asked, breaking an otherwise awkwardly tense silence.
"We should do something for him," Yusuke agreed.
"We don't have time," Hiei said. "We're already wasting time sitting around here talking about it."
"Hey Hiei, if you're so eager to run on ahead, then maybe you should go do that," Yusuke answered him.
"No Yusuke," Touya said. "No more splitting the team."
"Hiei was supposed to go ahead with Jin in the first place," Yusuke pointed out.
Touya's face changed then and he moved narrowed blue eyes to Hiei.
"Do you know what this means?" he asked.
"Hn, I know what you think it means," Hiei answered. "You think it means the Dark Force is controlling Jin and it was trying to take me out next."
"Might the Dark Force have a reason to want to target you, Hiei?" Touya asked.
Yusuke, despite still being quite irked with Hiei, straightened up defensively at Touya's last remark.
"What are you saying now?" he asked.
"We never addressed the issue that Risho raised," Touya told Yusuke. "Risho may have been controlled by the Dark Force when he spoke, but the fact remains that he spoke the truth: why does Hiei continue to patrol High Road if he has been ordered not to?"
"Hn, you saw the place yourself," Hiei casually replied. "It's a wreck, but it's also a honeypot for sneaky cretins like dragon fish to slip into the living world undetected. My duty was to stop traffic through the portals in either direction – and the most efficient way to achieve that was to continue to patrol the original route, along High Road. Left unattended, not only would the scum of Demon World passed through to the living world, but humans stumbling into Demon World would have landed right in that massive pit the Dark Force was contained within."
"Noble reasoning," Touya replied. "But I'm not convinced that was the motive for your actions."
"Come on mates, we can't be arguin' like this," Chu interrupted. "We can't be so suspicious of each other and we can't go sayin' Jin has switched sides before we've even found him."
"Yeah, Chu's right you guys," Yusuke agreed. "We need to do what we can for Suzuka, then we need to figure out a way to find Jin. Once we've found Jin, we can argue about what we want to do next, but until then, let's do the right thing."
Hiei turned away and Yusuke reactively grabbed one of his ankles, ignoring the way Hiei glared back over his shoulder at him.
"The right thing isn't running further into this place," Yusuke told him. "Come on Hiei, even an idiot like me knows this could be a trap. Let's help Suzuka out and then figure out a plan from there."
Hiei made a grunting noise but did at least slouch a little as though he intended to comply, and so Yusuke let go of his ankle. He turned back to Suzuka, finding himself oddly indifferent about the sight of another of his friends lying dead at his feet. He was not sure if he was just getting accustomed to what was happening – Rinku, Shishiwakamaru and Suzuka had all died within such a short space of time – or if the Dark Force was somehow changing the very air in Demon World, and just by being there and breathing it in, he was somehow changing himself. He no longer felt the same burning desire to do everything in his power to try to save his fallen friend, no longer had to turn away just to stop himself from donating his life energy in the hope of reviving the Dark Force's latest victim. His thoughts instead were primarily concerned with Jin's whereabouts and exactly what had become of Enki: Yusuke was starting to think that if it transpired that Jin was being controlled by the Dark Force and had turned into the same monster Risho had been and likewise Enki was the primary home of the Dark Force's power, then maybe it was too late.
Despite joking about doing otherwise, Yusuke had been listening carefully to everything Koenma had said about the previous Dark Ages, and how they always followed a pattern. From what information he had, as he sat on the floor of Yomi's desecrated temple home with what was left of his team, Yusuke had come to the reluctant conclusion that Stage One was already over: the Dark Force had already risen up and caused absolute chaos in Demon World, and recruited far too many as its puppets. And, as much as he was loathed to even consider it, Stage Two was already well under way: Demon World was falling. If Enki really was aligned with the enemy – obviously by force, Yusuke thought bitterly, as he would never have willingly aligned himself with something as warped as the Dark Force – and as the Dark Force seemed to be targeting the most powerful and influential demons like Yomi, control of Demon World was already in the enemy's hands.
And seeing three of his friends – and fellow S-class demon warriors – killed so easily was doing little to ease Yusuke's concerns. He believed that no enemy was invincible, and the Dark Force was definitely no different: Koenma had also said that it had been defeated many times, and most recently by Mukuro and Raizen, and that even though it often took over Demon World, it rarely got much further beyond that point.
However, Yusuke also remembered that Koenma had implied that just how powerful the Dark Force got to be depended on how many S-class and A-class demons there were in Demon World, and that, thanks to Yusuke's Demon World Tournament, there was a record high number of the top two tiers of demons available for the enemy to exploit. That, he concluded, meant that the enemy he faced this time around would be much stronger than the enemy Mukuro and Raizen were able to overcome, and that meant that he would need to be stronger than Mukuro and Raizen in order to win the fight. And, with that thought in mind, Yusuke concluded that the only option left was to find Jin and then recruit Yomi, Shura, Mukuro and her top men and get Kurama to Demon World: because only then would his team stand any chance of stopping the Dark Age from progressing into Stage Three.
Kaisei cursed openly as he parked outside of Genkai's temple. At first Kurama was not sure why: but when he noticed Fubuki waiting for them on the porch with another ferry girl, he thought he understood.
"Well, you did say you wanted more action," Kurama said to him.
"It's about my turn to take over guard duty," Kaisei answered him as he took the key out of the ignition and spun it around his finger. "I'm pissed off because I'm gonna have to miss this one."
Kurama paused as he considered the condition of their two team-mates in the backseat.
"I guess it will just be Fubuki and me attending this one," he concluded.
He looked out the window at his side and held up a hand to Fubuki, who was waving at him.
"I can come with you too, I'm not on guard duty."
Kurama was glad that Akira did not have line of sight of him as his face twisted.
"You need to rest," Kurama advised him. "You're not fit for any more excitement today."
"Pfft, that's what you think."
Kurama started to try to turn in his seat, but Akira had managed to crawl out of the car already and was attempting to haul Kuwabara out with him. Kurama looked over at Kaisei, who shrugged.
"Still a new moon, I guess," he whispered, before leaping out of the car and jogging around to take Kuwabara from Akira.
Kurama sighed and then stepped out himself as Yukina joined them by the car, worrying over Kuwabara and offering Kaisei her help to carry him indoors. Kaisei politely refused her offer, but she tailed him back indoors regardless, reaching for Kuwabara the whole way. As Fubuki and the ferry girl joined them, Akira stood up straight, despite looking pale and sweaty.
"Got another one for you, foxy," Fubuki said to Kurama.
"The last one didn't go so smoothly," Kurama told her.
"No kidding," she commented, nodding after Kuwabara.
"He's out and so is Akira," Kurama explained. "And it's time for Kaisei to start his shift on guard, so it looks like it will just be you and me. What are we up against?"
Fubuki nodded at the ferry girl at her side, who smiled politely.
"Nothing too complicated, I hope," she began. "I was on my way to–"
"I can come with you."
Kurama, Fubuki and the ferry girl all turned to Akira.
"I'm fine," he insisted.
"We'll discuss that later," Kurama said to him, before turning back to the ferry girl. "My apologies, you were saying?"
The ferry girl hesitated, her eyes lingering on Akira before she slowly seemed to realise that Kurama was waiting for her to continue.
"Um, yes, sorry," she recovered. "I was on my way to the hospital when I noticed a house on fire. I know that probably sounds insignificant, but even though there were firefighters trying to calm the blaze, something kept reigniting the flames. I felt something there, not something very powerful, but it was something malicious."
"That sounds like a fire goblin," Kurama concluded. "They are low-level pests, but with their control of fire, they are capable of causing devastation in this world."
"Then I should definitely come with you."
Kurama turned to Akira, hoping that a stern look would deter him: but he found Akira returning his look with one of stubborn determination.
"It's okay Akira, we can take care of this," Fubuki said to him. "You should stay here and get some rest and look after Kuwabara for us, right?"
Akira softened slightly at he looked at Fubuki, but there was still no sign of acquiescence in his countenance.
"We won't be long," Fubuki added.
"Then you won't mind me coming with you," Akira replied.
Fubuki turned to Kurama for support.
"Alright, the three of us will go," he said. "But Akira you should know that this will delay your recovery from your earlier injuries and it will surely exhaust you to the point of uselessness. Despite that, I still expect you to take your turn watching guard when it's time for you to do so and I still expect you to train with me for an hour afterwards. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I understand," Akira tightly replied.
Kurama was almost certain he would end up carrying Akira away from the next battle scene, which would probably lead to a repeat of his panicked performance in the car earlier, but he hoped that the experience might humble Akira into being less stubborn and help him understand that he had his limitations.
"Fubuki, could you get the car key from your brother, please?" Kurama said.
Fubuki nodded and ran off.
"Thank you, can you let Koenma know we are attending to this matter?" Kurama said to the ferry girl.
"Certainly!" she cheerfully replied as she summoned her oar.
As the ferry girl took off, Kurama turned to Akira to tell him to get back into the car: but he stopped when he noticed the way Akira was watching the ferry girl leave. He did not take his eyes off of her until she was completely out of sight, at which point he turned back to Kurama, his expression softened somewhat. The two stood looking at each other in silence for several seconds, the moment only ending when Fubuki returned to them.
"What are you waiting for, boys?" she asked. "I call shot-gun."
She threw the car key at Kurama, who caught it easily, earning himself a smile from Fubuki. She hopped into the front passenger seat and Akira quietly moved into the back of the car.
"I trust things were uneventful in our absence?" Kurama asked Fubuki as he drove away.
"Things were pretty boring," Fubuki replied.
"We need to plan to move the remaining nominated people into the safe house," Kurama reminded her.
"Yeah, that should be fun trying to convince my mom," Fubuki said with a smile.
"At least your mother could handle a pest like a fire goblin, should one come her way," Kurama pointed out.
"Is it time to move everyone into the safe house?"
Kurama glanced at Akira's reflection in the rearview mirror – he still looked pale and pathetic, looking like a smaller featured, lilac-haired version of Hiei after he had used the Dragon of the Darkness Flame – but nevertheless, the look on his face was one of genuine interest.
"I would say so, yes," Kurama replied.
In the back of his mind he was still aware that Hiei had told him the Demon World team had already suffered two casualties, and before they had lost two fighters in such a short space of time, the situation there was surely quite dire, which meant that the Dark Age was quite likely to reach Stage Three before they could hope to slow it down, far less put an end to it. With that bleak thought in mind, Kurama was glad that their journey was not a long one, as they shortly reached the burning house, located in a slightly remote location beyond the city limits. It was a large house clearly belonging to quite a wealthy family, and, as they drew closer, they could see that the fire brigade were in attendance and doing all they could, and the huddled group of people by the top of the access road told Kurama that the residents of the house had all been successfully evacuated. Not wishing to draw too much unwanted attention, Kurama parked at the side of the road and indicated for Fubuki and Akira to walk with him the rest of the way, using the many giant topiaries in the gardens to reach the house itself undetected.
"We find the fire goblin, and then we leave," Kurama whispered to the others as they reached the last sculpted shrub.
"There's only one?" Fubuki asked, frowning up at the large house as a roof beam collapsed under the intensity of the flames.
"Yes, and as soon as we've eradicated it, we go," Kurama replied.
"We're not gonna help put out the fire?" Fubuki asked.
"No," Kurama replied. "There are professionals here to deal with the fire and they will quickly get it under control once we remove the fire goblin."
"What about the people who live here?" Akira asked.
"They're all safe," Kurama replied. "Didn't you see them all back there?"
"How do you know that's all of them?" Fubuki asked.
"They didn't look panicked as though they were missing anyone," Kurama said.
"Maybe they've resigned themselves to their loss because they were forced to stay away," Akira suggested.
"That's right," Fubuki agreed. "The firefighters probably forced them to stay down there so they're out of the way and to stop them trying to get back in to rescue anyone left behind."
Kurama blinked.
"I can't believe we're even having this discussion."
Kurama turned to Akira, who had spoken in unison with him.
"So the plan is: get the fire goblin, then check for survivors, right?" Fubuki asked.
As Kurama replied no, Akira replied yes, and before Kurama could repeat his instruction, both of his team-mates had taken off.
The lack of control both he and Kuwabara had over the three new recruits was starting to irritate Kurama – a sentiment he only felt more keenly when he saw Akira dive through a blown out window on the top floor and Fubuki charge through the back door of the burning house.
Botan tried to peer across the desk at what Oho was writing, but when the SDF soldier noticed her actions she quickly hooked an arm over the page, hurriedly finished her work and then turned the piece of paper she had been writing on over to hide her words from Botan's view.
"Okay Botan," Oho said. "Captain Ootake has asked me to carry out a little investigation."
Botan knew that she ought to be concerned that the SDF were investigating something and that she was the first person they had sought to interview, but she was more desirous to know what Oho had already written down and she was distracted by the striking physical resemblance Oho bore to Shizuru.
"We're trying to establish why the Dark Age came early," Oho explained. "Because if we can figure that out, we can figure out what the Dark Force is looking for and how to stop it getting what it's looking for."
"That makes sense," Botan said.
"Our initial thoughts are that this is what the Dark Force is looking for."
Oho placed a piece of paper on the desk and slid it towards Botan, who glanced at it briefly before whipping her head back up.
"I just wondered what your thoughts on this were?" Oho asked.
"I think you're wrong," Botan quietly replied.
In her mind, she was trying to forget what she had seen on the piece of paper, trying to still her suddenly racing heart, trying to sit still despite the urge to get up and run from the room.
"Maybe we should talk about a different aspect of this matter for now," Oho suggested.
"Yes let's," Botan agreed.
She made to take the piece of paper from Oho, but the soldier effortlessly whipped it out of her reach, stowing it into a folder full of papers Botan was suddenly desperate to see.
"The Dark Age is progressing rather quickly this time around, and we believe it's because of the abnormally high number of A-class and even S-class demons there currently are in Demon World," Oho continued. "And we believe the reason why there are so many strong demons is that they have all been working harder than usual to build their strength thanks to the Demon World Tournament."
"So now you're blaming Yusuke for this?" Botan asked.
"No, I just want to talk to you about the Demon World Tournament," Oho replied. "I've never been to one, but I know Koenma has never missed one, and you and George always accompany him there. It's a little difficult for me to question King Enma's son and the ogre is too skittish to speak sense, so I was hoping you could enlighten me on a few matters."
Botan was vaguely suspicious that she was being set up, but she pretended not to notice and forced a smile.
"Certainly," she offered. "What would you like to know?"
"First of all, is it true that you attended the entirety of the very first Demon World Tournament, instigated by Yusuke Urameshi?"
Oho was holding a pen over a blank piece of paper, her face on the page, apparently ready to write down Botan's answer. Under such circumstances, Botan accepted that she did not have long to consider how she should reply, and whether she chose to be honest or to lie could prove quite decisive in not only the remainder of her interview with Oho, but also in any future dealings she had with the SDF and Spirit World as a whole.
"I did attend the first Demon World Tournament," she carefully replied.
"And you were in the audience through to the final round?" Oho asked.
"Even Lord Koenma himself was not in the audience through to the final round," Botan pointed out.
Oho scribbled something down, but again used her free arm to keep her writings infuriatingly out of Botan's line of sight.
"Okay, so you didn't witness the entirety of the first Demon World Tournament?" Oho asked.
"No I didn't," Botan quietly replied.
"So you didn't see the battle between the finalists? You have no idea what the fight between the two finalists looked like?" Oho asked.
Botan relaxed a little as Oho's questioning began to veer away from the direction she had feared they were leading her.
"No, I didn't," she said. "Though I'm sure it was a spectacular display."
"Did you witness the final round of any of the subsequent tournaments?" Oho asked.
"No," Botan replied.
"Why is that?"
"The same reason Lord Koenma didn't witness the final round of any of the subsequent tournaments, I suppose: after those I had gone to support lost, I saw no reason to stay in Demon World for the remainder of the tournament."
"So you only attended to support specific competitors in the tournament?"
Botan began feeling suspicious about where the conversation was leading again.
"Well, yes," she said.
"Like Yusuke Urameshi?" Oho asked.
The SDF officer had her head down and her pen was poised over the page again, her words still infuriatingly hidden from Botan's view.
"Yes," Botan answered.
"And Hiei?"
Botan gulped and twitched.
"Yes."
Oho began writing frantically.
"And Kurama," Botan pointed out.
"When was the last time you saw Hiei?"
Botan opened her mouth to give what she thought was an honest answer before it occurred to her that the answer to the question was not really straightforward, as she had recently seen Hiei's face during a conversation they had shared via their communication mirrors.
"Let me put that another way," Oho tried when Botan did not answer her. "Did you see much of Hiei during your stays in Demon World when you were attending the last five Demon World Tournaments?"
Botan froze. She suddenly found herself in a very awkward position: outside of Koenma, nobody in Spirit World knew that she had not actually attended all five of the previous Demon World Tournaments. She had still been absent from Spirit World for the duration of the tournaments, but, in reality, she had only attended the first and second Demon World Tournaments – and she had barely attended any of the second tournament matches. When she was permitted time off to attend the third and fourth tournaments, she had taken extended vacations in the living world under the pretence of attending the Demon World Tournament with Koenma and George.
During the fifth Demon World Tournament, she had remained in Spirit World – and that was something even Oho ought to know, Botan thought bitterly.
"I don't see that it's any of your business how and when I spend time with my friends," she eventually answered. "And when I did, or didn't, see any of my friends certainly has no impact on this terrible situation we are all now in."
"Are you saying you don't believe your visits to Demon World to see your "friends" have anything to do with "this terrible situation we are all now in"?" Oho asked, narrowing her eyes in a way that made her look like Shizuru's evil twin and made Botan want to cry.
"I know what you're referring to," Botan said, make a conscious effort to hold her emotions in check. "You're talking about my visit to Demon World four years ago, on the fifteenth of June, when I went to see Hiei."
"I think we all know that was a significant factor in the situation we are now in," Oho replied. "So much so that it doesn't even require investigation: it's fact. I was actually referring to your visits to Demon World during the very first Demon World Tournament, and some of your erratic, unsanctioned visits to Demon World shortly thereafter."
Botan bunched her fists around the fabric of her kimono at her thighs as she fought back her anger.
"Does Lord Koenma know you're asking me about this again?" she asked.
"This matter is out of Koenma's hands," Oho replied. "He could have dealt with it at the time, but he chose not to, so now King Enma has put the matter back into the hands of the SDF."
"Back into the hands of the…?"
Botan suddenly felt numb, as though her soul had left the room.
"This is really only a formality," Oho said. "Some of my colleagues think that you should be convicted for your part in all of this, but the others – myself included – think that you were incapable of making the right decisions due to your naivety and general insensibility."
Botan stood abruptly.
"This interview is over," she said.
"No it's not," Oho said.
"Yes it is!" Botan snapped.
She ran from the room before Oho could even attempt to stop her, hurriedly recovering her communication mirror as she went. Without breaking stride, she slipped open the communicator and waited impatiently for an answer to her call.
Next Chapter: After blatantly ignoring orders, Kurama then has to deal with Fubuki making light of the mission at the burning house and Akira fleeing with Botan. Thinking that Hiei has changed, Yusuke remembers back to the last time Hiei was his old (good) self, and he recalls it was some time around the beginning of the first DWT, right around the time Yusuke played a little practical joke on Hiei and Botan. Back in the present day, Keiko and Botan have a heart to heart that is cut short. Chapter 16 – Out of the Fire