Chapter 21 – Kuwabara's Little Secret
Kurama nodded at Kaisei as he arrived to take over his shift on guard duty, and he started back towards the temple. He was distracted by the notion that he had reached the time when he would need to take his mother to the safe house and he was on his way to ask Fubuki if she wanted to join him and collect her parents at the same time: and so he was especially surprised when he reached the porch steps and found Akira standing at the top of them, dressed in his usual ninja clothing – albeit without the hood – looking surprisingly bright for someone with still obvious bruising on his face from the events of the day before.
"Akira, you're up early," Kurama said. "I've just finished covering your shift on guard duty, I don't expect you to work a shift today."
Akira pressed his hands together and bowed his head in what looked like a pre-fight gesture.
"I also don't expect you to train with me today," Kurama added.
"I know that," Akira replied. "But I want to train with you."
"I'm not sure that it would be beneficial right now," Kurama pointed out. "Not until you've at least healed your present wounds. The damage you'll take from the collar will only set your healing process back further. I would much prefer that you concentrate on getting back into fighting condition today."
Kurama started up the steps but stopped again as Akira sidestepped into his path. He paused, two steps from the top and on eye level with the emiko.
"Please Kurama," he said. "I want to do this."
"Any particular reason why?" Kurama asked.
"I know that you think I'm not strong enough to be a part of this team and that I have a bad attitude about it, and I know that what you saw yesterday probably made that seem true," Akira replied. "I looked really weak in that fight and I want to prove to you that I'm not weak."
"I know that you're not weak, Akira," Kurama assured him. "You're problem is not an inability to fight, it's a lack of motivation."
"Yes, I suppose that's true."
"Why don't you want to fight: be honest."
"I'm scared I turn on someone I care about, like I did with Master Ken. I don't remember how that happened, so I don't know that it won't happen again."
"That's why you hold back?"
Akira nodded.
"I understand and appreciate that," Kurama said. "And I appreciate your honesty. Now I have a question for you: that you have told me as much as you have, including the confession you have just made, can I assume that you trust me?"
Akira nodded again, looking quite earnest.
"That's good, because, as someone you trust, I need to ask something of you that will test just how much you do trust me," Kurama said.
"Okay…" Akira said, starting to look a little wary, but maintaining his determined stance regardless.
"I will train with you this morning, but only if you let me remove that collar," Kurama said.
"No, please, you can't–"
"Wait, hear me out: I can remove it in an undetectable way, and I promise that, as soon as we are done, I will replace it, and nobody but the two of us will ever know that I did it. And without the collar, you will suffer far less injury during our training and therefore not impede your recovery from your existing wounds."
"What you're saying makes sense, but what if I black out and kill you?"
"That won't happen. I trust you enough to know that that won't happen."
"Master Ken trusted me. I'd known him since I was a little kid, and we trusted each other and I still killed him!"
"Master Ken betrayed your trust when he did what he did to you. I will not betray your trust. And I hope that you will never betray mine."
"I don't know that it won't happen again!"
"Akira, trust me, no matter what you do, you will never kill me."
"How do you know that?"
"You're not strong enough to kill me."
"I killed Master Ken, and he was the trainer to the SDF! His power level is the equivalent of an upper A-class demon and I tore him apart in seconds!"
"First of all, you don't know that you tore him apart in seconds: if you can't remember the moment of his death, you don't even know for sure that it was your hand that caused his demise. And secondly, the power of an A-class demon – or a member of the SDF – pales in comparison to my strength, not to mention the fact that I have centuries more battle experience than you, putting you at an incredible disadvantage should you even want to make an attempt on my life."
Akira appeared to be thinking about what Kurama had said, which, Kurama thought to himself, was as close as he could get to an agreement from him, and so he decided to push the matter.
"Let's go to the old house you used as a training dojo before we assembled here," he suggested. "Once we are there, I'll take off the collar and you can decide what you want to do: you can either sit for an hour without the collar on, or you can spar with me. What do you say?"
"I-I guess if I just sat there I couldn't…" Akira began quietly. "I don't really know how strong you are, but…"
"You have to trust me, Akira."
"I do trust you. I don't trust myself. I don't know what I might do."
"Building trust is all about facing the unknown. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and push yourself in order to trust anyone, even yourself."
Akira looked down at his feet before smiling shyly and rubbing a hand at the back of his head in a way Kurama had often seen Kuwabara do when he felt bashful about something.
"My mom was right about you," he said. "You really do have a way with words!"
Kurama smiled.
"So then for me, and for your mother, will you do this?" he asked.
Akira lifted his head, chewing on his lip and searching Kurama's eyes as though looking for any sign of deceit or hesitation before finally nodding. Kurama turned and started back down the steps and Akira hurried after him, joining him on the lawn.
"Race you there?" he asked.
"What?" Kurama muttered, turning to Akira curiously.
He caught a brief glimpse of Akira flashing him an insolent grin before he vanished in a blur of motion that reminded Kurama exactly how agile an emiko could be: and that Akira was still a child. With a smile, Kurama ran after him, silently wondering as he went whether or not he should let Akira beat him there. He thought that maybe Akira needed the confidence boost of winning their impromptu race, but on the other hand he thought that maybe beating him, even after he had had the advantage of a head start, might make him appreciate that he had underestimated Kurama's capabilities.
The decision was taken out of Kurama's hands however when, running at the absolute limit of his ability, he managed only to maintain pace with Akira, and could not catch him to pass him.
Perhaps Akira was not the only one who would be learning a lesson that day.
Botan yawned wearily, stretching her arms above her head, as she left her bedroom. She had not slept well due to a combination of being unable to get to sleep and then having what little sleep she did manage to get sabotaged by nightmares. She was on an early shift of duty – which meant she would have to forego her morning tea with any other ferry girls who could manage to attend – and that thought had only made the start of the day seem to be harder to face. She had closed her eyes as she yawned, something she quickly regretted, as when she opened them again, she barely had time to stumble to a halt and let out a yelp of alarm as she found herself almost walking right into a figure standing leaning against the hallway wall immediately outside her bedroom door.
She paused, her eyes wide and her mind practically blank. The ferry girls all stayed in a wing of King Enma's temple, on the floor above the ogres, each with their own private bedroom and with shared bathroom, kitchen and common room facilities, with all rooms being merely doors off of a long corridor. The corridor itself was accessible by a stairway that was open and accessible by anyone at any time, but, as it was Spirit World – and, more specifically, it was King Enma's temple – there was no need to put up doors or to put locks on any of the doors that were present. Common courtesy kept the ogres from ever entering the ferry girl's quarters, and disinterest kept all other residents of Spirit World out; not even Koenma ever ascended those stairs to the domain of the ferry girls.
But, just as the entire population of Spirit World with the exception of the ferry girls had changed their opinions of Botan following her pregnancy, so apparently had interest in the ferry girl residence suddenly changed.
"You look like you've been up all night."
Botan tensed but tried not to let her anxiety show in her face. The SDF had always been inaccessible to the rest of Spirit World – including even Koenma – but during the last four years, they had gone out of their way to pry into Botan's life, and, of them all, Saito had, by far, been the most persistent.
"Makes me wonder who kept you up last night."
Botan fought back a sickening blend of despair, wounded pride and righteous anger.
"Remind me again: is any man fair game for you, or do you need the added danger factor of a demon to get your thrills?"
Botan clenched her fists at her sides, an action hidden from Saito's view by the excessive sleeves of her kimono.
"If I threatened to kill you or slapped you about a bit, would you spread your legs for me too?"
"That's enough!" Botan snapped.
"That's enough? Just slapping you about a little?" Saito asked.
"I may not out-rank you in this world, but I don't have to stand here – in my own home – and take this abuse!" Botan argued.
"You didn't have any problem "taking it" from Hiei," Saito casually replied.
"You don't know anything about what happened between Hiei and me."
"Actually I do. You had sex with him. And I know that because you produced a little girl who clearly wasn't fathered by anyone from this realm."
"That's not what I meant. And don't ever discuss sex in any form in the same sentence as my little girl."
"So what was it about Hiei that you couldn't resist? Because if it was power, you know I'm one of the strongest men in this world."
"Good for you."
"What else would I have to say or do to get you chasing after me with your underwear around your ankles like you did with that demon scum?"
"Hiei is not demon scum!"
"How is your "little girl" anyway? She's not really so "little" any more, right?"
Botan paused as a sense of something sinister washed over her.
"The last time I saw her, she was much more of a woman than a little girl," Saito continued. "Do you think she knows that she's maturing, or do you think she needs a man to show her that?"
"What are you talking about?" Botan asked in a low voice.
"I'm just saying, some of my colleagues in the SDF have wondered if your daughter has all the same body parts as an ordinary woman…"
Botan took a step back, her mind really only thinking about exactly where her daughter was right then and trying to calculate how quickly she could get to her and if she would make it there before Saito or any other member of the SDF.
"We also wondered if she has the morals of a demon or a spirit," Saito continued. "Though even if she inherited her morals from you, her supposedly virtuous mother, you haven't exactly set her a very good example, have you? Were she to follow in your footsteps, she'd let the first ruthless demon she met impregnate her–"
"Don't say things like that about my little pumpkin!" Botan cut him off. "She's just a child, you horrible man!"
"And if she inherited her morals from her father, she believes casual sex with the emotionally vulnerable is fun," Saito carried on regardless of Botan's complaint. "Have you thought about that yet, Botan? Have you explained the facts of life to that girl yet? Or are you waiting for someone else to show her what the facts are?"
Botan stepped up to Saito, staring him straight in the eye.
"If you, or any other member of the SDF, so much as think anything even remotely sexual about my very young, very off-limits little girl again, I will make you regret it."
Saito smiled, his eyes raking over the length of Botan's body shamelessly.
"You're very sexy when you're angry," he said. "The way your chest is heaving up and down and your face is flushed with colour… It's exactly the same look a woman gets when she reaches the peak of sexual excitement. But you didn't need me to tell you that, right? You've had plenty of experience of the joys of sexual intercourse already."
"Get out of here or I will report you to King Enma," Botan warned.
"What will you tell him?" Saito asked mockingly. "That an officer of the SDF came to your bedroom to ask you for sex? He'd never believe you. I am one of King Enma's right-hand men and you are one of many pieces of fruit from a tree. And you're not even the sweetest or juiciest piece to be had, because someone else has already eaten away the best part of you."
"Get out of here!"
Saito held up his hands as though in defeat.
"Just consider this: if your valiant Hiei doesn't get the problem in Demon World under control, the Dark Force will come here next," he said. "And we all know what its first priority will be. If you want to live long enough to see your "little pumpkin" turn into a real woman, you're going to need a back-up plan. And maybe that's something I could help you with. I could protect you. Does that turn you on, or would you rather I threatened to hand you over to the enemy first of all, since that would be a really evil, demon-like thing to do?"
Botan did not answer him, mostly because she was close to tears and she refused to let him see her cry. He snorted in sarcastic amusement before finally turning and walking away, leaving Botan to once again repress her feelings and force a smile that left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Kurama hissed and retracted his hand, shaking it and wincing as he noticed faint traces of smoke around the tips of his fingers. He made to reach for the fastening of Akira' s collar again, noticing then that Akira was smirking – which was not something Kurama had ever seen him do before.
"Is this amusing you?" Kurama asked.
"Kind of," Akira replied.
Kurama shook his hand again and frowned at the back of Akira's head.
"Just because you're so clever and you always know the right way to do everything and you said this would be easy and now you keep messing it up," Akira added, glancing back over his shoulder with a more blatant smirk on his face.
"It's locked quite securely on," Kurama explained. "And I'm trying to be mindful not to make it obvious that it was tampered with, lest you get into any bother with anyone from Spirit World."
"I don't think anyone can remove it except the person who put it on," Akira concluded, turning his head away again.
"It can be done," Kurama insisted. "But out of curiosity, who did put this collar onto you? Was it Koenma?"
"No."
"You can tell me, I don't intend to ask whoever it was to come and remove it right now."
"It was my mom."
Kurama paused, his fingers hovering just over the catch of the collar around Akira's neck.
"Your mother?" he asked.
He thought that he must have misheard, since Akira's reply was quite illogical.
"Yes," Akira replied. "I think it was because they knew she would never take it off, because she made an agreement with Lord Koenma that if I kept it on, I would still be allowed to see her and the rest of my family."
"A promise that wasn't honoured initially though," Kurama pointed out. "Because you weren't allowed to see your family during the time you spent with the SDF, right?"
"I still sometimes got to see my mom, but they didn't let me see anyone else. It was really awkward when I saw everyone else again after two years. Even Aunty Shizuru couldn't hide how shocked she was at how bad I looked."
"I've seen the photographs of you on the wall of the temple, you always look very happy with your family."
"Yes but have you seen the photographs of me before my tenth birthday? It's really weird for me to look at them, because it's like I'm looking at pictures of someone else. It doesn't feel like that was ever my life."
"So things were easier before that day you ran afoul of Spirit World?"
"My life was great before then. The only thing I ever wanted was to meet Hiei. And look where that got me."
Kurama carefully placed his thumb on one side of the clasp and his fingers on the other.
"Do you blame Hiei for what happened to you?"
Kurama realised then that it was quite possible Hiei did not even know about his relation to Akira, or that he had only learned of it upon his recent visit to the living world.
"I don't really care about Hiei," Akira replied. "I don't even think about him any more. What's the point? I don't blame him for anything that's bad in my life, but I do think he's an asshole for all the pain he's caused my mom. She only ever wanted him to be part of the family and he always shut her out and refused to talk to her about anything. It really hurts her that he rejected her like that."
Kurama made another attempt to open the clasp of the collar, wincing through the pain of another jolt from the anti-tampering mechanism: but this time it finally yielded in his grasp, popping open. He lifted it away as Akira touched a hand to the part of his neck it had covered, wondering to himself when and how it was that Yukina had learned of her relation to Hiei.
"It feels weird…" Akira muttered.
"Yes, and I imagine it will feel even more unusual sparring without it," Kurama replied.
He decided that he could address the issue of Hiei's relation to Yukina with Kuwabara – who had also learned of it by some mysterious manner.
Akira shook himself off and turned around to face Kurama with a curious and vaguely anxious look – which Kurama was starting to learn was the boy's default expression – and, after a brief pause, both began to move. At first, the session went no different to any other, which left Kurama wondering if Akira was still intentionally holding back or if he was simply unable to consciously tap into the upper limits of his power. After twenty minutes had passed Kurama decided to become a little more ruthless, and he began using some of his lower level plant weapons beyond just his Rose Whip. Akira quickly adapted to them and did not have much difficulty dealing with them until he tried to chop the head off of a Weaver, which promptly caught his arm from the elbow done in a bind of interlocking vines. On instinct Akira pulled away from the plant, but, as soon as it tightened, he stopped, his eyes widening slightly as he paused in a brief moment of panic before evidence of his training kicked in and he began studying the plant more carefully. Within two minutes he had figured out how the plant was holding him and how to free himself, and when he did, he looked uncharacteristically pleased with himself.
"Why are you smiling?" Kurama asked him. "You didn't get rid of the Weaver. It still remains here as a hazard."
"I misjudged it, but don't tell me what I have to do to get rid of it," Akira replied. "I want to try to figure it out for myself."
"I wasn't going to tell you," Kurama said. "I want you to figure this out on your own."
"Okay, cool."
Akira's smile grew and Kurama's frown deepened.
"This is fun," Akira added, as though understanding the source of Kurama's look of confusion. "This is what it used to be like when I had lessons with Master Ken. It was always fun. He didn't just teach me to fight with my body, he taught me fight with my mind too."
"It's unfortunate that your lessons were not continued these past four years," Kurama replied.
Akira started to stalk around the Weaver, studying it through narrowed eyes. His attention was back on the task at hand, and so the flippant tone he used for his next response only made his words sound all the more bizarre.
"I've had lessons these past two years though," he said. "With Uncle Kazuma and Kaisei and Fubuki."
Kurama's mind went temporarily blank, and only when Akira threw a ninja star at the base of the Weaver and leapt back as it sprayed out a venomous sap did his senses return to him.
"What did you just say?" he asked.
"I had lessons with Kaisei and Fubuki," Akira replied, his attention still focused on the demon plant, which was faltering after his last attack.
"No," Kurama said as Akira launched another ninja star at the Weaver. "Before that."
"Before that…" Akira muttered. "I trained with them for two years?"
Kurama waited until the Weaver had wilted to the ground and Akira had given it an experimental jab with his toe to confirm it was no longer a threat before continuing.
"What did you call Kuwabara?" he asked.
Akira's head snapped up and he fixed Kurama with a fearful, guilty look, as though he thought that the question was somehow accusatory.
"Nothing bad," he said.
"Say it again," Kurama said. "Because it sounded to me like you called him "Uncle Kazuma"."
"I did call him Uncle Kazuma," Akira replied, still looking scared. "I've always called him Uncle Kazuma. Is that wrong?"
Kurama was unsure where to even begin explaining to Akira why what he had said made no sense.
"Is it weird for you to hear me call him that because you call him Kuwabara?" Akira asked. "Uncle Kazuma told me everybody calls him Kuwabara, but people in his family call him Kazuma – like Aunty Shizuru does – so I call him Kazuma too. Because he's my uncle, and we're family. And he likes it when I call him Uncle Kazuma."
"I wasn't aware that Kuwabara was your uncle," Kurama carefully replied.
"Oh," Akira said, nodding his head. "But obviously he is, right?"
"Right…" Kurama said, despite not really agreeing with or understanding the logic behind Akira's claim. "I think the issue is that some people – like Yusuke and I – thought that Kuwabara was your father."
Akira looked horrified by Kurama's response, which only made the situation all the more awkward and difficult to fathom.
"It would be really cool if Uncle Kazuma was my father," Akira said. "No, wait, it would just be weird if he was… I guess what I'm trying to say is it would be really cool if my biological father was the same as Uncle Kazuma. That would be awesome."
"Right, yes, you and Kuwabara seem to be very close."
"Yeah, Uncle Kazuma's awesome. He's really funny and he's really honest. He doesn't lie to me or hide things from me and that's important to me."
Kurama nodded slowly.
"So, do you…" he began, the wide-eyed look on Akira's face only making his next question all the more difficult to vocalise. "Do you know who your father is?"
"Of course I do!" Akira replied, suddenly screwing up his face as though Kurama had just said something ridiculous.
"Right," Kurama said. "Have you ever met him?"
"Yes, obviously," Akira replied, his face twisting further still.
"But… You don't… Live with him?"
"No, of course not!"
"You just live with your mother. And your Uncle Kazuma."
"Right."
Kurama nodded, but Akira was still looking at him as though he was the one saying startlingly illogical things. He wanted to ask who Akira's father was: because the fact that Kuwabara was not his father meant that Yukina had been with another man at some point, and yet she had still married Kuwabara, who treated Akira like family. It was not surprising to Kurama that Kuwabara would take in Yukina's child as his own under such circumstances, though it was surprising that Yukina had been with anyone else. It perhaps also explained why Kuwabara and Yukina had married three years after Akira's birth, as Kuwabara – being the traditional sort of man that he was – would surely have married Yukina before ever trying for a child with her.
"Do you remember your uncle's wedding?" Kurama asked.
"Yes, of course," Akira replied, giving Kurama the sort of confused look Kurama felt that he ought to be wearing himself. "I was there. And so were you. Aunty Shizuru asked you to dance with her but you said you couldn't because you weren't very good at dancing."
Kurama could genuinely not remember any children present at Kuwabara's wedding – however he could remember Shizuru teasing him when he had told her that he had two left feet on the dance floor – and as it was unlikely that Akira had heard such an insignificant story from anyone else, his knowledge of it did seem to verify his presence there.
"You weren't part of the ceremony," Kurama said, more to assure himself that there had not been a three year old child standing at the altar with Kuwabara and Yukina than to get a response from Akira.
"Not really," Akira replied. "I was a little kid."
Kurama decided to add this issue to the list of items he needed to discuss with Kuwabara.
"Shall we continue?" he asked. "We still have almost half an hour left."
"Okay," Akira said, looking surprisingly cheerful.
As they returned to starting positions, Kurama silently wondered who Akira's real father was: and where he was and if he would surface and cause problems during the coming weeks as the Dark Age progressed.
Hiei had a bad feeling. It was not unexpected that he would have a bad feeling during such an unpredictable time in Demon World, but it was the sort of bad feeling that warned him there was more to be concerned about than what was immediately in front of and around him. Along with Yusuke and Touya, he was running towards Mukuro's headquarters, which was what he had wanted to do for some time, and yet, somehow, it suddenly felt like a bad idea. It was not that he suspected Mukuro or any of her men to have fallen prey to the Dark Force or even that he expected to encounter a lot of bother from more of the Dark Force's victims en route: it was a feeling related to actually returning to what was effectively his home and facing Mukuro.
He had no reason to be apprehensive about facing Mukuro. He had no reason to care what – if anything – Yusuke and Touya might say to her. He was optimistic that he would find her well prepared for something as dire as the fate that had befallen Yomi. He was optimistic that she would have men to spare and he knew which were the best to recruit into the team, both in terms of strength and loyalty. Although he was not the sort to indulge in excessive optimism, he could foresee no reason to be pessimistic about going to Mukuro.
But he still had a bad feeling about it.
He supposed that a large part of his negativity was in relation to the fact that nobody other than Mukuro knew that he no longer had the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, and he suspected that she might try to coerce him into admitting his weakness to his team-mates. Under normal circumstances she would of course never tell anyone or suggest that he reveal his situation, but they were not facing normal circumstances and Mukuro, more than anyone, would prioritise the needs of her empire and Demon World as a whole over Hiei's own needs.
He also had an increasingly bad feeling about the fact that he and Yusuke kept getting on each other's nerves – he was actually glad of Touya's presence to mitigate any further altercations. He felt that, at some point, they would end up on opposite sides of the battle, and lately it had felt as though that time had already arrived. The Dark Force had not even needed to take control of either one of them to pit them against each other: though that, Hiei supposed, was part of the enemy's powers. The enemy had the ability to manipulate anyone without even taking control of them, and that was the one thing all who had stood before it had struggled with in the past. It seemed inevitable to Hiei that the Dark Force – who was surely focused on Yusuke – would end up consuming Keiko and using her to torture Yusuke, which would lead to Hiei and Yusuke fighting over how to handle the situation, because Yusuke would refuse to let any harm come to Keiko regardless of what she might become or be capable of at that time.
In that sense, Hiei was glad that he was not so attached to so many as Yusuke was. He had accepted that death was an inevitable part of life, and anyone he did have any consideration for was strong enough to defend themselves and would not allow themselves to fall victim to an enemy like the Dark Force: because nobody he cared about was naïve. Except Yukina, but she was unlikely to be a target for the Dark Force anyway.
As they crossed the border into Alaric, Hiei started to feel a little more at ease just for being closer to home. The trio continued into a wooded area, where Yusuke waved a hand for them to stop, which Hiei thought was odd, as there were no signs of any potential threats or obstacles nearby. When Yusuke approached a tree and started loosening his clothes, Hiei promptly turned away. When he heard Yusuke rustling through some undergrowth and then calling out that he "might be a while", Hiei sighed. Touya sat down on an old tree stump and looked infuriatingly calm, if a little pensive, and so Hiei turned his thoughts to the path ahead. It would take another day of travelling – or possibly a little longer, if Yusuke kept stopping for such base reasons – and Hiei was simply too impatient to wait that long to verify whether or not the bad feeling he had was justified. Moving around the other side of a tree – so as to avoid either Touya or Yusuke seeing his facial expressions – Hiei removed his bandana and began looking ahead to their destination.
Within seconds, Hiei had confirmed what, logically, he had already known would be the case: Mukuro had everything well in hand. There were no signs of chaos around her headquarters, no indication of any treachery or deceit in any of Mukuro's top men, and Mukuro herself was calmly reviewing a document in the comfort of her own office. All the Border Patrol guards were attempting to maintain some form of control over both the area around Mukuro's headquarters and along some of the key patrol routes. Alaric was clearly faring far better than Gandara and even Tourin. Hiei closed his third eye and lifted his head.
He still had a really bad feeling about continuing on to meet with Mukuro.
He replaced his bandana and moved back around the tree, joining Touya as Yusuke finally surfaced from the bushes, messily fastening his pants back into place. Looking at Touya and Yusuke did not make the bad feeling he had any worse, but nor did the presence of his team-mates reassure him any that something terrible – something far worse than killing one of his allies only to be proven to have wrongly judged him – lay ahead of him.
"Okay, let's go," Yusuke said with a nod of his head.
Touya stood up, still looking quietly thoughtful but otherwise unreasonably calm. Yusuke had a look on his face that implied he had been partially hoping that Touya or Hiei might suggest they should turn back and recover Chu and attempt to free Jin from the clutches of the Dark Force. It seemed that yet more disagreements lay ahead of them, but Hiei tried to focus on the fact that they would soon be aided by some of Mukuro's best men – ideally some of the crew he usually performed his patrol duties with – and that should be sufficient to diffuse any further petty bickering between himself and Yusuke.
But he still had a really bad feeling about going to Mukuro.
After twice wandering around the temple and surrounding grounds and then finally asking Keiko and Shizuru, Kurama gave up searching for Yukina. He had considered it a preferable option to discuss the matter of Kuwabara not being Akira's father with Yukina, but as he had been unable to locate her, he reluctantly sought out Kuwabara, finding him tentatively walking about the temple with Kaisei.
"Hey Kurama, I can put my weight on my leg now," he said as he caught sight of Kurama approaching. "I don't know what that weird smelling stuff you made me to soak my leg in is, but it really works!"
"It's probably some sort of demon brew," Kaisei suggested. "Probably made with herbs from the demon realm and infused with demon energy."
"Yes, that's mostly correct," Kurama said as he joined them.
Kuwabara leaned one shoulder against the wall, subtly moving his weight onto his uninjured leg in a way that he probably thought made it look as though he was not uncomfortable trying to support his weight with his wounded leg.
"It's got icky things in it too, doesn't it?" he asked, his face twisting slightly.
Kurama started to confirm that he was correct, but stopped when Kuwabara shook his head.
"Never mind, I don't want to know," he said.
"It worked, I guess that's the main thing, right?" Kaisei said cheerfully.
"I guess so," Kuwabara replied.
"Kaisei, would you please give us a moment?" Kurama said to Kaisei.
"Sure," Kaisei replied, his face darkening slightly. "Though if it's because you want to talk about what happened yesterday with that training session you set up, I'd just like to go on record as saying those two guys you hired were major assholes. I'm not Akira's biggest fan, but he's a little kid – in every sense of the word, because he's physically small too – and they were way out of order to beat on him the way they did. Especially two on one like that. And they weren't even trying to challenge me or Fubuki, they were just being assholes. My mom warned me about people from Spirit World, she said they're not always the good guys, and now I know exactly what she meant."
Kurama nodded.
"The events of yesterday were unfortunate," he said. "We are all on the same side, and I don't believe those two remembered or honoured that."
"Damn right they didn't…" Kaisei grumbled, before nodding at Kuwabara and then taking his leave.
Kurama watched him go, waiting until he could no longer hear his footsteps, as he had left Kurama standing in an open hallway with Kuwabara, and he did not want to risk anyone overhearing what he had to say.
"I guess your plan for the training session worked."
Kurama turned to Kuwabara, finding a strange look on his face.
"You said you wanted Kaisei, Fubuki and Akira to work better as a team, and it looks like what they went through brought them closer together," he added.
"It was never my intention to create such a traumatic situation for anyone," Kurama pointed out.
"Yeah, I know," Kuwabara said. "And I still wish it hadn't happened – I wish you'd told me you were planning on using guys from the SDF – but at least Kaisei's not ragging on Akira so much right now."
"Yes, well, there is something I need to discuss with you."
"No more SDF officers at the safe house."
Kurama smiled.
"No, it's not that," he assured him. "It's about Akira. Or, more specifically, it's about your relationship with Akira."
Kuwabara faltered slightly.
"You think I'm giving Akira preferential treatment because we're family?" he asked.
"No," Kurama replied (though he did suspect as much). "It's more about the fact that you and Akira are, as you say, family. And yet your relation to Akira is not a blood relation."
Kuwabara gave Kurama an incredulous look, but it did not last long as he suddenly switched to a look of guilt and then concern.
"Look, um, Kurama, I don't like keeping secrets from my friends," he muttered. "I know what it's like to be the one in the dark about things, but we all kind of agreed we wouldn't talk about this until the Dark Age was over."
"Would it help you if I told you that I know you're not Akira's father?"
Kuwabara looked so horrified that for a brief, sickening moment, Kurama thought that perhaps Kuwabara himself did not know that he was not Akira's father.
"Akira's real father doesn't deserve to be called a father," Kuwabara eventually replied. "I don't get what his problem is, Akira's a great kid – she's great in spite of him, not because of him… Heh, that's what Shizuru says anyway…"
"Okay, I understand that this is a sensitive subject for you," Kurama said carefully. "I can plainly see that you and Akira are very close and I appreciate if you don't want to be specific with your reply, but it appears that you do know who Akira's father is, and I'm concerned that he may cause unnecessary stress and drama for Akira and for you if the Dark Force takes control of him or else brings him here."
"You don't have to worry about that," Kuwabara replied, looking relatively confident about his reply. "Akira genuinely doesn't care about him and I can control myself. I think he should be ashamed of himself for never acknowledging his own kid, but I'm a real man and I know how to use self-control to not behave like a dirty rat."
Kurama felt no more reassured by Kuwabara's response, as whilst it seemed to imply that Akira would be immune to any emotional torture from his real father, Kuwabara seemed to be incredibly vulnerable to such an attack, and that was an enormous weakness that an enemy like the Dark Force would relish capitalising upon.
"Don't push yourself too far too quickly," he reminded Kuwabara. "Let your leg heal at its own pace."
"It's almost back to normal already, I'll be fine," Kuwabara replied, despite still blatantly standing most of his weight on his good leg and leaning quite heavily against the wall.
"Well, take care," Kurama said, before turning to take his leave.
Kurama continued back through the house, intent on moving outside to find Fubuki to discuss their plans for collecting their parents to bring them to the safe house: but, as he reached the last stretch of corridor towards the front door, he saw something that momentarily made him forget all about his plans.
Yukina had just entered the temple, her hands and the ends of her kimono muddy, and a streak of faint muddy marks across her forehead. She was visibly and audibly breathless, her hair was sticking the sides of her sweat-glistening face and she had a small, leafy twig lodged in her hair near the back of the top of her head that she appeared to be unaware of. She took a moment to notice Kurama and when she did, she stopped abruptly, her eyes widening ever to slightly before she straightened up and made an obvious effort to conceal how inexplicably exhausted she was.
Between learning that Kuwabara was not Akira's father and being suddenly very aware of Yukina's prolonged absences from the house, Kurama suddenly found himself suspicious.
"Yukina," he said as he approached her. "Is everything alright?"
"I'm fine thank you, Mister Kurama," she politely replied.
"You seem a little flustered," he replied.
"I was gathering herbs in the forest."
Kurama stopped directly in front of Yukina and deliberately ran his eyes over her.
"I put them away already," she added, apparently understanding what his look had meant.
"That was very efficient of you," Kurama replied. "I hope you're not wearing yourself out running around tending to Kuwabara and keeping the house here."
"No," Yukina said quietly. "But thank you for your concern."
She started to walk past Kurama and he had been prepared to let her go, but, for some reason, as she passed and he noticed the little twig in her hair again, he decided to test whether she might be more forthcoming than Kuwabara.
"Akira has been talking to me about his father."
Yukina stopped, a step behind Kurama, and he saw her lift her head slightly.
"I have concerns that Akira's father might cause a lot of turmoil, were he to come to this house," he added.
"I don't think Akira has told you anything," Yukina said in a low voice. "And as we are family, and family is very important to me, I will not discuss this with you."
Kurama turned around, intent on responding to Yukina's unusually stern response: but she started to walk on, at a faster pace than before and with slightly heavier footsteps, in a manner than implied that she would say no more regardless of what he said next. He sighed in defeat, silently wondering if there was anyone else who could enlighten him on the issue of Akira's father.
Next Chapter: The (remainder of the) DW team reach Mukuro, and Yusuke is immediately suspicious when Hiei and Mukuro go off for a private meeting without him or Touya. Mukuro reveals something shocking to Hiei about the High Road incident that makes him realise he is vulnerable in the fight against the Dark Force for more reasons than because he lost the Dragon. The DF sends another poem/message to the DW team by a means that tells them Demon World is rapidly falling. Back at the safe house, Shiori tries to bond with Akira, but is interrupted when the team are called to another disturbance. Yusuke and Hiei have to make a decision about the next direction they both take. Chapter 22 – The Dragon Slayer