Chapter Thirty-Five

I don't want to be here, in this room, talking to both near and perfect strangers about things that shouldn't exist in real life. I want this to be a dream or a nightmare or, hell, a premonition (because seriously, how did I not see any of this coming?)

But it's none of those things. This is real life. And even worse, it's my life.

Yare yare.

Who knew being ordinary was such a disaster?

Magical Girls

"Good, you're all here," Kuwabara said once Kusuo and Hairo arrived. He was propped up on his futon with half-a-dozen pillows. His skin was ashen with dark bruises under his eyes, and he seemed drained—mentally, physically, spiritually. Even his red hair—the natural curls loose and limp around his face instead of up it its usual pompadour style—seemed less colorful and vibrant, as if it had been washed with gray-tinted shampoo.

Urameshi sat on the bare tatami mat floor, near enough to Kuwabara that they could talk quietly if needed but far enough to show concern through distance. Kusuo had met dozens of these manly-men types who couldn't admit out loud that they cared about each other even though their thoughts screamed it for kilometers. Urameshi and Kuwabara had the classic vibe—best frenemies who would fight and kill and die for each other in a heartbeat. And, if the Ghost Files Koenma was having them watch were even half true, both Kuwabara and Urameshi had done enough fighting and killing and dying for each other to last several lifetimes.

The third person in the room was one Kusuo hadn't met yet. His hair was a brighter shade of red than Kuwabara's bleached orange. It was a true red, blood rose red, and long enough to reach his waist. The top half of his hair was braided to keep it out of his face while the bottom half hung loose down the back of his white doctor's coat. He had on a pair of glasses with no prescription over his bright green eyes, and a simple shirt and tie combo with a pair of khaki slacks. He looked harmless, which put Kusuo on instant alert. Because he knew this man from the Ghost Files, though he was dressed and groomed differently than Kusuo knew.

Shuichi Minamino, also known as Youko Kurama, the infamous spirit fox thief. In the Dark Tournament Arc, he was shown to be the most ruthless despite his gentlemanly façade, and that was without releasing the demon within. A literal demon, or to be more specific, his demon half. Born a spirit fox in the Demon World, Youko Kurama enjoyed a thousand years or more as an A-Class demon thief know for filching the greatest treasures horded in all three worlds. It didn't matter how much security was in place, Kurama could get in and out like a ghost. Except for once.

Almost forty years ago, the demon fox was tricked, cornered, and hunted—killed by one of the Spirit World's special elite soldiers. As he was dying, Kurama used the last of his demon energy to transfer his consciousness into the unborn body of a human child: Shuichi.

Because they never finished the final arc, Kusuo didn't know much about this man's history as a human other than he had, at some point, come to truly love and revere his human mother to the point he was willing to die for her.

But that didn't make Shuichi Kurama any less dangerous. If anything, his willingness to go to any length for those he loved made the man even more dangerous. After all, Kusuo knew exactly what he was willing to do for Yuuta and Kokomi, and he didn't have an nth of the life experience possessed by this deceptively mild-mannered man.

"I'm certain you recognize everyone here," Koenma said—the fourth and final person present. He sat cross-legged on a floor cushion in his usual attire of a long, blue, tunic style robe over loose khaki pants. His ever-present pacifier and the usual black Jr. on the forehead of his teenage form were both gone, and Kusuo wondered how, when, and why that happened.

He did know that Koenma was now the King of the Spirit World, which might explain the missing Jr., but he didn't know what that had to do with ditching the pacifier. Maybe he felt it too undignified for a king?

Whatever the case, if either absence was ever explained in the Ghost Files, Kusuo and his friends hadn't gotten that far yet.

"However," Koenma continued, "it's only polite to introduce you properly." He motioned quickly between Urameshi and Kuwabara. "Yusuke and Kazuma, you have all met. This, as I'm sure at least some of you have guessed, is Kurama, also known as Youko in the Demon world, and Shuichi in the human world. Here, he's just Kurama."

Kurama sat in seiza on his cushion, which allowed him to execute an intimidatingly polite bow with his palms on his knees, and his back straight. "I have heard much of you from Yusuke and Kuwabara, as well as my wife."

"Wife?" Kuboyasu demanded.

Not surprising he's the first to challenge this man, Kusuo thought with a mental eyeroll. It's honestly amazing he hasn't challenged anyone to a 'man-to-man' fight yet.

"Yes, my wife Botan."

Kuboyasu's eyes went wide. "The fuck's and old-guy like you doing marrying a young chick like that? You some sort of sick perv—"

"Aren." Hairo dropped a hand on his shoulder before Kuboyasu could dig himself into a deeper hole. "Botan-san only looks young. Remember the Ghost Files? Botan-san a ferry girl, which means she's actually as old as Kurama-san himself, if not older."

"Eh?" Kuboyasu tilted his head in thought before understanding smoothed out the yankee lines and shadows on his face. "Oh, right. That bubbly, blue-haired, idiot chick."

Kurama's pleasant expression didn't change, but the air in the room became instantly dense and charged with an oppressive miasma of killing intent. "You would do well to never again refer to my wife in such impolite terms."

Kusuo forced himself to breath—however slow and stilted—through the intense press of power, but the others weren't anywhere near as lucky.

"Hey, man, did you know you suddenly got all glowey and stuff? You're not, like, radio wave or something, right?"

Scratch that. Kusuo scowled. Nendou is fine, as usual.

Kurama quirked an eyebrow at the idiot, and the killing intent lessened. "How…interesting." He looked to Koenma. "This is the one you told me about?"

"Astounding, isn't it?"

There was a shift then, though a shift in what, Kusuo couldn't say. Only that Koenma and the former Detective Team all felt it. Koenma looked at Kusuo as the last of Kurama's killing intent evaporated.

"You were informed that Kuwabara has some information on Akemi Homura?"

Kusuo nodded to the gatekeeper god, and Koenma nodded back before continuing. "It is unfortunate to say that what he learned isn't as much as we might hope, but it is still much better than nothing."

"There's a group of them," Kuwabara said, "all young and most of them girls. Little girls, but with enormous amounts of spirit energy. This part is a little familiar to us because we had that run in with Dark Reunion twenty years ago, but they've expanded a lot more since then. They're searching for a specific soul, waiting for her to be reborn into this world, and according to what I heard while held prisoner, they finally found her in a kid named Iridatsu Yuuta. Know him?"

Kusuo offered a grim nod.

"Figures," Kuwabara said. "Natsu told me you were born to protect someone you knew in your previous life. I'm willing to bet it was this Yuuta kid."

"But why are they after him?" Shun asked, his brow furrowed with helpless frustration. "Who could Yuuta have possibly been that people would be willing to kill to get their hands on him?"

Kuwabara shared a dark look with Urameshi before saying, "You guys don't know anything about being Reborn, do you?"

It was a rhetorical question, but of course everyone but Kusuo chimed in with some variation of a negative; some more timid (Shun) than others (Kuboyasu).

"The technical explanation can be quite complicated," Koenma said, "but the gist is that within our same universe exists a parallel world to which Ningenkai is connected. This world is not the same as Makai, which occupies the same space as Earth but is essentially an inverted plane—a mirror world, if you will. Rather, this is another Earth almost identical to ours in both population and history. One major difference, however, is the existence of beings known as Magical Girls."

If dropping a pin on a cloud made a sound, Kusuo could have heard it in the resulting silence.

"The fuck?" Kuboyasu said, his disbelief and annoyance rather eloquently put, considering the circumstances.

"Now hold on, you guys," said Hairo—Ever the peacemaker. "We should at least hear him out before writing him off."

"I realize this may seem surreal," Kurama said, his calm voice seeming to placate Kuboyasu's ruffled feathers at least a little. "But I assure you, this is no joke. While there is still much we do not know about the Earth to which ours is connected, we do know that all Reborn have souls that lived their first lives on that Earth as Magical Girls. This is knowledge the five of us attained firsthand, as we too are Reborn. Even Koenma."

"Sure," Nendou said, scratching his chin. "Makes sense."

In what universe does any of this make sense?

"Of the thousands of Magical Girls who existed on this other Earth," Koenma said, "my team has been able to track the Reborn of at least a quarter of them. All of these Reborn have two things in common. First, they are all in possession of a large amount of spiritual or demon energy, depending on which side of the coin they are born on this earth. Second, they are always male."

"Male?" Shun asked, his brow furrowed. "Why are they always male if they used to be Magical Girls?"

"Souls are gender neutral," Koenma said. "Gender identity is formed in the womb from the physical characteristics of sex—genitalia, DNA, hormones—and that gender imprints upon the soul to create spirit. That is why ghosts take on the form of their mortal selves unless they are processed for reincarnation."

Koenma must have noticed their eyes glazing over because he waved a dismissive hand and said, "But you're not here for a crash-course in Transcendental Physics. Just know that having female souls being reincarnated as male souls, and vice versa, is not unusual.

"What is unusual," Koenma continued, "is that all of these female souls are only ever reborn as male. By the laws of probability, at least a few of them should have become females again. The fact that they haven't means that their new lives are not being assigned randomly by the Wheel of Life; rather, some other being—some higher being—is assigning the male gender on purpose."

"Wait, wait, wait," Kuboyasu said. "Hold on just a damn second."

"Problem, glasses?" Urameshi demanded, an irritated scowl on his lips.

"Hell yeah, there's a problem." Kuboyasu jabbed a finger at Koenma. "Are you telling me that all these little Magical Girls become guys when they're reincarnated?"

"That's right."

"And all these guy reincarnations are called Reborn, or whatever?"

"Yes."

"And you're also saying that we—all of us," Kuboyasu motioned to their group of five, "are Reborn?"

"Your analytical and retention skills are astounding," Koenma said, his tone sarcastic.

"Shut the fuck up, Jr. I'm trying to think."

Koenma motioned benevolently with one hand. "By all means."

Kuboyasu signaled a huddle into which Hairo, Shun, and Nendou went without question. Kusuo rolled his eyes but allowed himself to be pulled in.

"Guys, I think these people are nuts. Like, the off-their-rockers kind of crazy."

"Why do you say that, Aren?" Hairo asked, tilting his head. "They seem pretty together to me."

"The fuck, man?" Kuboyasu jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. "That dude basically said we were all chicks, and sure, that would make sense in Shun's case—"

Shun squawked in offense.

"—but the rest of us? No, forget the rest of us; do you really think Nendou could have been a girl? And not just any normal girl, neither; we're talking Nendou as a Magical Girl."

They all shuddered. Even Nendou.

"Still, you guys, you gotta admit that what they're saying makes a lot of sense, you know?" Nendou said, his voice loud enough to carry around the room, though he probably thought he was whispering. "Plus, I just feel like they're telling the truth, and if you feel like a guy is telling the truth then you really can't go around accusing them of lying."

"What the hell kind of sense does that make?" Shun demanded, glaring across the huddle. "And even if you do feel like they're telling the truth, what good is that if none of the rest of us feel the same way?"

"They're telling the truth," Kusuo said, and everyone stared. He shrugged one shoulder but offered no other explanation. What could he say other than he could feel that what they said was the truth? Nendou already had, and they didn't believe him.

"Well, then," Hairo said, breaking the huddle. "I guess that settles that."

Shun, Kuboyasu, and Nendou all nodded in agreement, and Kusuo watched, dumbfounded, as his friends resumed their seats without another word of protest.

"I take it you guys are finished with your little girl scout meeting?" Urameshi sneered, and Kuboyasu sneered right back.

"We're finished," Kusuo said before a fight could break out.

"Excellent." Koenma had a cup of tea—conjured, apparently, from thin air—which he set aside to continue where he'd left off as if there had been no interruption.

"Now, there is more to go over regarding the structure of Dark Reunion, but that can wait for now." Koenma thought for a moment before adding, "I'll have Ogre write you all a pamphlet."

Ogre?

"Over the next week, the five of you will be paired, one-on-one, with the mentor who best corresponds with your individual talents—physical, mental, and spiritual," Koenma continued. "We will also try to connect you with your former Magical Girl selves. That all five of you are wrapped up so intensely with Akemi Homura indicates at least a few of you, if not all of you, have a past connection with her."

"Your girls'll be getting one-on-one training too," Urameshi said, propping up one knee and draping his arm over it in a classic Yankee pose that made Kuboyasu straighten up in attention. "Touya tells me all three are doing good, but Mera is apparently a Judo 5th Dan, and Teruhashi has extensive training in kendo, so we're turning Mera over to Bui since he's mostly body, and Teruhashi will work with Rinku. Kid's a flirt, but he's one of the best there is at channeling spirit energy through a weapon, and that's something Teruhashi should learn to do sooner than later. Yumehara will stay working with Touya, and possibly Suzuka, if he gets back in time."

Kusuo frowned. Kokomi would be working one-on-one with that Rinku kid? He opened his mouth to—what? Protest? It's not like he really had a say if Kokomi was up to it, but he couldn't deny the thought made him feel…almostuncomfortable.

"Yumehara is going to be working with Touya-san alone?" Shun said, cutting Kusuo off. He was frowning but looked more confused than upset. "By herself?"

Urameshi quirked an eyebrow. "You got a problem with that?"

"N-no." Shun looked down at his hands as he pocked is first two fingers together. "It's just, well, Touya-san is very…um…" His voice drifted to a near silent whisper. "Very…good looking, and, well, Yumehara-san is a single girl, and…well…"

Urameshi laughed so hard he threw his head back before leaning forward to slap the floor with a too wide grin. "Chill out, kid. Touya is, like, two hundred years old, and he's married to boot. I promise he has absolutely zero interest in your little girlfriend."

Shun squeaked and turned red. "She-she-she's not my-my-my—"

"Yeah, I really don't care. Moving on!" Urameshi pointed first at Kuboyasu then at Kuwabara. "Four-eyes; you'll be working with Kuwabara. You have a lot of spirit and body energy, not to mention your street style of fighting. Kuwabara can show you how to put all that together and generate a spirit weapon. Trust me, you'll need it."

"Nendou will be working with me," Koenma said, "to help him gain better control over his spiritual powers. Natsuko will assist me with helping him channel his spirit energy, should we get that far in our lessons."

"What!" Kuwabara scowled and jabbed a finger at Nendou. "No one said anything about my Natsu working with this idiot bastard! No way! Not a chance!"

"Chill out, Kuwabara." Urameshi snagged the back of Kuwabara's yukata to drag him back down to his futon. "Natsu is way too proper to try anything, and I get the feeling this guy wouldn't know what to do with her even if she did."

"Huh?" Nendou asked, his left pinky jammed up his nose.

"I believe your name is Hairo Kineshi," Kurama said, neatly sidestepping the noisy segue. "Natsuko and Nadeshiko tell me that you have the ability to channel your aura into external objects."

"Huh?" Hairo said, looking to Kurama in surprise. "I do?"

"Ice blue over here will be with Hiei," Urameshi said, his voice turning impatient. "Which leaves Saiki for me. You got that?" He stared down each of the five friends with a frown. "You guys got a week to prove you're worth the time we're giving you, or you're on your own."

"Say what?" Kuboyasu demanded, half rising to one knee as he slammed his fist against the floor. "You jerks are the ones who dragged us out here in the first place! Why should we have to prove anything to you?"

"Because your connection to this Akemi chick is dangerous, and that puts this place in danger, and that," Urameshi paused, leaning forward even as his voice lowered with dark emphasis, "puts my family in danger."

He jabbed a finger at Kusuo before continuing. "I'm giving you guys a week because this guy saved my daughters' lives, but if you don't improve, I'm cutting you off because this guy," he jabbed his finger at Kusuo again, "is also the reason my daughters were almost killed."

Urameshi leaned back, and his dark expression softened just a bit as he looked the five of them over again. "You guys need training and discipline; I get that. I was right where you are twenty years ago. But my shit only put me in danger…well, mostly just me. If you've seen the Ghost Files than you know our wives have a tendency to drag themselves along. And I didn't like it then anymore than I do now."

"Same," Kuwabara said, his voice gruff. He looked paler now and was almost fully reclined on the futon with only a couple pillows propping him up. "I don't mind helping you, Kami knows we wouldn't have made it to sixteen if Genkai wasn't around to pound some sense into our thick skulls, but you better put in the effort. Not just to protect yourselves, but to protect everyone else in the compound too." His deep brown eyes were penetrating as he said. "Don't forget that you guys all got people you care about here, same as us."

"We won't let anything happen to them!"

Silence fell heavily on the room as everyone looked to Shun in surprise. He wilted under the attention but didn't back down.

"W-we…I…want to get better. Stronger." He looked down at his lap where he'd twined his fingers into a tight knot as he fiddled with his thumbs. "I don't want to be…l-like this anymore. I want to be able to m-make a difference." He glanced up beneath his bangs, quivering like a chihuahua as he chewed his lower lip. "S-so you can stop trying to intimidate us and stuff, okay? Because if I'm in, these guys aren't going anywhere."

"Hell yeah, Shun!" Kuboyasu pounded Shun on his back, grinning roguishly. "You sure told them!"

"It seems we are in agreement, then." Kurama stood from his seiza, his movements so fluid as to be cat-like.

Or fox-like.

"You have tonight to spend with your loved ones," Kurama continued, meeting each of their gazes with his penetrating emerald eyes. "Inform them of your schedule and say your good-byes, because beginning at sunrise, you won't be seeing any of them until the week is over."

Protests went up—even Kusuo glared his dissatisfaction—but Koenma stepped in to explain the necessity of separating the five of them not only from their friends and families but also from each other.

"You all have a significant amount of spirit energy," Koenma said, his finger raised as he spoke. "But the amount of spiritual change you will be going through in the next few days will send shockwaves through the spiritual plane. So much so that anyone with even the slightest amount of spiritual awareness will be able to both feel you and track you. This compound has wards and dampeners in place, but they can only do so much. Fortunately, there is a system of caves beneath the compound where natural iron deposits can mask your spirit energy almost completely."

"Each group will grab a cave, an none of us will come up until the week is over or someone is dead." Urameshi grinned. "Any complaints? Good. Now get lost, would ya?

With training decided, there was nothing left to say. Kusuo exchanged a knowing nod with each of his friends before they went their separate ways. They all had a lot to think about, and Kusuo had just as much to tell Kokomi. He knew she wouldn't like being separated for a week—he certainly didn't care for the idea either—but what else could he do? Yuuta needed protection now more than ever, but without this training, Kusuo was more of a burden than an asset when it came to the boy's safety. His last encounter with Akemi Homura was proof enough that Kusuo wasn't enough as he was, and he had no one to blame but himself.

I'll fix this, Kusuo swore. Yuuta won't suffer any more because of my selfishness.

"—so you really won't do it?"

Kusuo paused at the sound of Yamato's voice floating through one of the closed bedroom doors. She sounded shocked, which was surprising on its own because Kusuo was sure Yamato Nadeshiko knew everything.

Or at least Yamato thought she knew everything.

"I didn't say I won't." That was Aiura. "Just that I need to think it over. It's a big ask, and you can't blame me for being hesitant, you know? Especially since he's, like, not even going to return the favor."

"We're talking about the life of a child," Yamato said, her tone shifting from surprise to disgust, "and who knows how many others, and you're worried about whose pussy is getting his dick wet?"

Kusuo stiffened, no doubt in his mind just who the 'he' was they were discussing. Rage coursed through his veins at their audacity. What he did with whom was none of their business, and it was certainly nothing they should be discussing where anyone could hear.

Before Kusuo could throw the door open and give them a piece of his mind, Aiura sobbed.

"You don't understand!" she wailed; her voice choked with heartbreak. "I gave up everything for him! My friends, my family, even my future! All I've done since meeting him is give and give and give, and now you want me to give him this? The last thing that I have? The thing that makes me who I am?"

"Look, Aiura…" Discomfort coated Yamato's voice. "I realize this has to be hard for you, and I'm sorry that I'm not more sympathetic; it's never been my strong suit. But you've seen the same things I have, at least some of them. You knowwhat will happen if you don't help him."

What will happen? Kusuo stepped closer, his heart thrumming with panic.

"I know," Aiura sobbed. "I know. But…but it doesn't have to be me, right?"

There was a long pause before Yamato sighed. "No. It doesn't have to be you."

Aiura sniffled. "I…I promise I'll think about it. But anything more than that…"

"I understand." The sound of shuffling filtered through the door. "Get some rest. We have a long day of training tomorrow too."

The door to Aiura's guest room slid open just enough for Yamato to step out. She spotted Kusuo immediately, and her mouth pinched into an irritated pucker around the lollipop in her mouth. Stepping through the door, she slid it firmly closed behind her and motioned with her chin for Kusuo to follow her down the hall.

"What all did you hear?" she demanded once they were out of earshot of Aiura's room.

"You said something about how she needed to help me," Kusuo said, then, because it churned his stomach, he added, "And that I slept with Kokomi."

"You did." Yamato offered a dismissive shrug as she opened the door to another bedroom—this one more personal than the guest rooms; it was decorated with warm tones, a frilly cream bedspread, and sheer blue curtains—and stepped back so he could enter first. "I also said it was none of Aiura's business."

Kusuo glared at her, hating that anyone but he and Kokomi knew about their private business. And how did Yamato know, anyway? Did Natsuko say something.

"Natsu didn't tell me anything," Yamato said as if reading his mind; something Kusuo (almost surely) knew she couldn't. She rolled her eyes. "You may be blank-faced to everyone else, but my Uncle Hiei is the apathy master. If he can't fool me, you never will."

"What were you talking about with Aiura?" Kusuo demanded, stepping into the room if only so he could close the door; not that it would help if someone passed by. It seemed the doors weren't as soundproof as Kusuo was led to believe.

"Nothing that concerns you," Yamato said, crossing her arms. "Not yet, anyway."

"You were talking about Yuuta too."

Yamato tilted her head to the side in an almost nod. "True, but it won't affect him yet, either."

Kusuo gritted his teeth as Yamato took a seat at the short table at the center of her surprisingly feminine room.

"It's a work in progress," Yamato allowed, her usual top-bitch attitude leaking away to show just how tired she was beneath the façade. "I'll keep you posted if anything major changes, okay? But for now, it's honestly best for everyone if you don't know."

He could make her tell him, he wouldn't even have to hurt her to do it. But there was something in the exhausted lines of her face, the sallowness of her skin, and her stress-dimmed eyes that made Kusuo hold himself back. Whatever she was hiding, it was weighing on her down to the soul, and Kusuo wasn't sure he could handle that kind of weight right now. Not with everything else he already carried.

"Fine," he said at last, narrowing his eyes at her in emphasis. "I'll let it go for now. But if there is even a chance that Yuuta will be in danger—"

"I'll tell you," she said. "You have my word."

Staring at her for a moment longer, Kusuo finally nodded and left her room. He felt exhausted, his weariness bone-deep, but he still had so much to do tonight before he could sleep. Kokomi needed to be told what he'd learned and that he would be gone the whole next week, and Yuuta deserved some one-on-one time before they had to leave.

The poor boy had been overly clingy since learning about his parents, not that Kusuo could blame him, and it would break his little heart to know his Aniki would be gone for so long. Kokomi too. She had her brother to visit, but he was being isolated to protect his gunshot wound from infection, and Kusuo's mother still refused to leave her room. Even Kusuo hadn't seen her once since the day she first arrived.

Yare, yare, Kusuo thought, passing a hand over his face. How had his ordinary life become such a disaster?

Kaliea: Hello all! I am so sorry it took me so long to get back to this story, and even more sorry that I probably won't be able to update as fast as i would like since i don't have a buffer. Fortunately, my life is finally getting back to a semblance of normal after the accident, so i should have time to get some writing done over the summer.

I want to give a shoutout to everyone who wished me and my family well. My mom is doing much better with a 98% clear bill of health (she has some PT she has to do at home). I also graduated on time with my masters and was accepted into a PhD program, so things are looking up :)

That said, I don' know when my next update will be, but after a year of silence, I didn't want to leave y'all hanging any longer than needed. It's just a shame that my comeback chapter is so exposition heavy ^-^; But! We should be getting back into the action again soon.

Thank you all for your patience and for sticking with me this last year!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!

-Kaliea