Chapter 23 – So Numb
After receiving a second call from Koenma urging them to hurry, Kurama had decided against relying on public transport to relay his team to their destination, instead calling out the mode of transport Yusuke had conveniently left behind. Despite Kaisei and Akira having reservations about riding on Puu's back at first – Fubuki joked that it was the first time she had seen the two of them ever agree on something – all four settled onto Puu's back and he reliably flew them – far faster than any other mode of transport could have – to a small village a few miles outside of Tokyo. He landed in a rice field and the group dismounted, hopping over the fence and stopping on the narrow country road beyond. The village ahead of them was quiet, but the houses had all been demolished, and by the petering remains of a few rogue fires, it seemed as though whatever had caused the devastation had moved on some time ago. Kaisei signalled for the others to investigate and they split up, moving off individually to check the houses.
The first few Kurama approached had been reduced to piles of rubble and charcoal, but he diligently moved aside any roof beams or sections of wall in the off-chance that he might uncover any survivors. He found scant evidence of life – as though the residents of the village had all fled – which implied that the threat was from a large group of weak demons, as stronger demons would have succeeded in killing any humans they encountered. When Fubuki sorrowfully recovered the charred corpse of a pet dog, it occurred to Kurama that having Akira search for bodies was perhaps not the best idea. He stopped and looked around, shortly locating the emiko – mostly thanks to his striking hair colour – standing at the opposite side of the village, his hands hooked under a large section of wall. He lifted the wall effortlessly and moved it aside, placing it down again as though he was concerned about damaging it. He then paused, staring down at the area he had uncovered. Fearing the worst, Kurama hurried over, the smell of blood as he approached only quickening his haste.
"What does that mean?" Akira asked him as he stopped at his side.
Kurama frowned and tilted his head slightly as he found himself looking down at a pale embroidered rug, stained with a message written in blood.
"Brash and bold and never outspoken son, of the mighty king on a throne of light, simple and good intentions just like he, can stand strong before the red-eyed monster," Akira read aloud.
He turned to look up at Kurama through a frown.
"Why would someone write such an odd poem in blood here?" he asked. "And what's that odd shape in the corner?"
Kurama moved his eyes to the symbol Akira was pointing at. It looked vaguely like something from the old language of Demon World, but he did not recognise it. It had been many years since he had last read anything in the old language, but he was confident that he would still recognise something from it, and yet the symbol before him, despite looking like it ought to be something from the old language, made no sense to him.
"I'm not sure," he replied.
He waved to Kaisei and Fubuki to join him. They had to wait a little longer for Fubuki as she finished burying the dog she had found, but as soon as she started jogging over, Kurama continued.
"This message is of the same format as the one Yusuke's team found in Demon World," he said. "It's a message from the Dark Force. In itself, that's not a point of major importance. However, the fact that the Dark Force is able to leave such messages here, in the living world, is a sign that some of the victims of the enemy have started coming here."
"The Dark Force is here, in the living world?" Kaisei asked.
"I thought it only came here after it had taken over Demon World and Spirit World?" Fubuki added.
"The Dark Force has taken over Spirit World?" Akira echoed.
"No, that's not the case," Kurama hurriedly replied. "The presence of controlled demons here, in this world, merely tells us that the Dark Age has entered Stage Two."
"The fall of Demon World?" Kaisei offered.
"Exactly," Kurama confirmed. "This is bad news, and it means we will have to be extra vigilant. No more practise runs, because if Spirit World falls next, the enemy will come here, and we want to avoid that at all costs."
"It might not be the worst thing ever if the Dark Force goes to Spirit World and makes those dolts from the SDF torture each other to death," Fubuki muttered. "Right, Tet?"
Akira shook his head and Fubuki looked confused.
"It would be the worst thing for us if that did happen," Kurama corrected her. "Because the fall of Spirit World would mean the fall of the fighters defending it, and it would mean that we alone remain to stand against the enemy."
There was a short silence, and, looking around the others, Kurama could see that his words had had the desired effect, as all three looked quite anxious.
"So if this message is a sign of Stage Two," Akira began slowly. "And stage two is the fall of Demon World, does that mean that the fighters who were defending Demon World have fallen?"
"Probably yes," Kurama replied. "Though Puu's continued presence here and the fact that he managed to transport us here so efficiently tells us that Yusuke is still in top health, wherever he is."
"But the others might have fallen?" Fubuki asked.
Kurama paused, the look of bated concern on the three faces watching him reminding him how naïve all three of them could be: and as he could see that the situation was getting worse, he decided a dose of reality might be the best medicine at such a time.
"I know for a fact that two members of Yusuke's team have already been killed," he said.
Kaisei and Fubuki looked horrified. Akira looked slightly concerned.
"I think that Yusuke, and any others who have managed to survive, will now be detained somewhere in Demon World," Kurama continued. "The Dark Force will hold them there in a stand-off that will last either until we find the means to return the enemy to its prison or until the enemy succeeds in taking over all three worlds."
"What about Hiei?"
Kurama turned to Akira.
"Do you think Hiei's dead now?" Akira asked, looking and sounding far too flippant about the subject for Kurama's liking.
"He might be," Kurama replied.
Akira nodded, his expression unchanged.
"Don't you care about that at all?" Kurama asked. "I thought you told me you had always wanted to meet Hiei?"
"I did always want to meet him," Akira replied. "And then I did meet him and I realised he's just an asshole who messed my mom around for years because he doesn't care about his family, and now I don't really care if he lives or not."
"If you don't care, then why did you ask?"
"I know my mom will probably be sad when he dies, but maybe she'll be happier once he's gone."
Fubuki and Kaisei exchanged confused and startled looks as Kurama held back a biting retort.
"Let's talk about this later," he said instead. "First of all, we need to track down the cause of this destruction."
"It looks like it went that way, towards the road into the city," Kaisei offered, pointing out one end of the village.
"Go back to Puu, I'll join you in a moment," Kurama replied.
Kaisei nodded and started to jog back towards Puu. Fubuki and Akira moved to follow him but Akira stopped short when Kurama grabbed a hand around his arm. Fubuki carried on as Akira hesitated, looking down at Kurama's hand on his arm.
"I remember what you told me about your first experience of Hiei," Kurama said quietly. "But I believe that may have been a misunderstanding and now I need to know that you are not harbouring any resentment towards Hiei. Feelings like that will be used against you by the Dark Force."
Akira slowly looked up at Kurama.
"I don't resent Hiei," he said.
"Are you sure?" Kurama asked.
The slightly sulky look on his face implied otherwise.
"Yes," Akira replied. "I don't feel anything for him. Not even resentment."
Kurama did not believe Akira, but they did not have the time for him to argue the point. It was something that would have to be addressed before the Dark Age progressed any further: if Stage Two did commence, Yusuke and his team were likely to be driven out of Demon World at some point, and that would mean Hiei arriving back at the safe house, and, by the way Akira was behaving, it did not seem as though the two would be able to live under the same roof.
Yusuke stumbled to a halt so abruptly he fell down and rolled over himself. He finally came to a stop in a sitting position, covered in dirt and feeling even more humiliated when both Hiei and Touya stopped gracefully at either side of him, on their feet and poised and ready for action. He got back to his feet, patting the dust from his clothing and shaking himself off before looking over at the disturbance in the long grass they had been running through. The trio had been heading for the nearest portal to the living world – which was unfortunately not so nearby – but they had all abruptly stopped when something had fallen from the sky. All three began cautiously moving through the grass towards the newly flattened area, glancing round each other apprehensively as they approached. As the tallest of the three, Yusuke got line of sight of what had been dropped first: and he promptly stopped moving. Touya and Hiei continued on a few steps more before both stopping. Touya muttered something under his breath before his head snapped up and he began looking around the sky for the source of what must have thrown down what they were all standing before.
"Damn it…" Yusuke muttered. "Is he…?"
Hiei took a step forwards, and, as though sensing that he would be tactless about checking, Touya leapt in front of him and crouched down by Chu's side, checking him for any signs of life.
"I'm afraid so," Touya confirmed.
"We have to keep moving," Hiei said.
"No," Yusuke said. "I'm sick of people dying trying to protect me like I'm some sort of princess in a damn tower! I'm not moving from this spot until the bastard responsible for this shows his face and fights me!"
"Yusuke, you really shouldn't goad the Dark Force into fighting you face-to-face," Touya said.
"Why the hell not?" Yusuke snapped at him.
"Because you might not like the face it confronts you with," Hiei answered.
Up until that moment, Yusuke had been determined to get back to the safe house to make sure it was still a safe house; but suddenly he wanted to stay behind and fight the Dark Force alongside Mukuro. For a long moment, Yusuke, Hiei and Touya stood by Chu's side, looking between each other. Just as the moment started to feel uncomfortably tense, all three were thrown to the ground by a blast of wind. Yusuke landed on his side but he quickly rolled onto his back, seeing Jin approaching overhead. He started to sit up, but with a rattling snarl something collided with his chest, knocking him down onto his back again. He paused there, finding himself staring up at a wide-mouthed, furless wolf creature with fangs as long as his index fingers. He vaguely heard Hiei calling them "hell hounds", which seemed like such an oddly appropriate name, he wondered if that was their actual title or if Hiei was just cursing them by that name. When a globule of uncomfortably hot saliva splatted onto his cheek, Yusuke snapped back to his senses and grabbed the wolf by the shoulders and threw it off of himself before leaping to his feet. Before he had even landed on his feet however, another wolf creature jumped onto his back, sending him back down to the ground, face-first. He was ready to push himself up and throw it off, but it did not hesitate to bite into one of his shoulders. Although the bite itself was not especially tight, the length of the wolf's fangs were such that it was able to penetrate down into his bones.
For a horrible moment, Yusuke thought that he might be about to become the latest meal for a pack of the ugliest dogs he had ever seen.
"We have to leave now, Yusuke!"
Yusuke let out a breath of relief as the wolf released its hold of him and staggered away to one side. Hiei yanked his sword out of the animal's flank and waved a hand at Yusuke to keep moving. Yusuke nodded, but when he saw three of the wolves mauling Chu's body he started towards them.
"Yusuke, no!"
Yusuke ignored Touya and continued on, but he had to leap from his chosen path at the last possible second as Jin dived at him. He barely missed becoming a victim to Jin's tornado punch, and only missed a second blow because Touya kicked Jin over.
"Get out of here, Yusuke!" Touya told him.
"We can't let this bastard take Jin and we can't let these dogs eat Chu!" Yusuke argued.
"Go Yusuke," Touya insisted. "Go the living world, regroup, take what you have learned here, get stronger and be prepared for the fight when it comes your way again."
Yusuke opened his mouth to argue again, but stopped when it occurred to him that Touya's choice of words were slightly odd.
"You're coming with us, right?" he asked.
Touya looked down at Jin, who was grinning up at him and getting to his feet again.
"I can grant you the same grace that Chu did for us," Touya replied, turning to Yusuke again. "I will stay here and stall it and stop the wolves from following you. You and Hiei have to go."
Yusuke made a gesture to start telling him that he was being absurd, but when he saw that Hiei was actively trying to retreat from the fight – something he never did – he realised that, yet again, the team had made another decision without him and in spite of his intentions.
"I can't leave you here," he concluded. "We've lost everyone else, we can't lose you too."
"Please Yusuke," Touya said. "You and I will meet again later in this battle. And at that time, we will stand shoulder-to-shoulder, and we will fight to walk in the light. Do you understand?"
Yusuke understood nothing, but Touya had been the most informed about the enemy from the start, and he was old enough to have dealt with the Dark Force before, so if he had managed to survive a Dark Age before, perhaps he could survive one again.
"Yusuke, let's go!" Hiei roared, his voice rough but small as he was some distance away already.
"You better mean what you said," Yusuke said to Touya. "You better stand with me at the end of this."
"You and I will stand together and deliver the Dark Lord to his deserved fate."
Touya looked so determined that Yusuke decided to trust him. He nodded and reluctantly ran after Hiei: but as he joined Hiei and they continued towards the portal to the living world, Yusuke silently wondered why Touya had suddenly both referred to the Dark Force as the "Dark Lord" and said "his" after always insisting that the enemy did not have a specific gender.
Kurama gasped as he and his team halted at the brim of a sloping road down into the outer edges of Tokyo city. The scene ahead was one of absolute devastation, with buildings burning, sirens wailing in the distance, helicopters swooping overhead and a small hoard of demons tearing a pathway into the capital.
"This is much worse than I expected it to be," he admitted aloud.
"No shit," Kaisei said.
"Let's stand here and talk about it some more," Fubuki added sarcastically.
"You two go ahead," Kurama told them.
They nodded and darted off. Akira looked up at Kurama in a mixture of curiosity and concern. Kurama looked down at him, realising that the subject he had hoped to broach subtly was going to have to be something he forced.
"The fate of all three worlds is at stake here," he said. "The lives of everyone we love and care about are threatened. We have to fight with all we have, or there will be nothing left worth fighting for. Do you understand?"
"I promise I won't hold back," Akira replied earnestly. "I will fight hard. I won't let you down, I promise."
"Do you trust me?" Kurama asked.
"Yes, I do."
"That's good."
Kurama grabbed the collar around and Akira's neck and tore it loose effortlessly. Akira gasped and frantically touched his hands to his neck as though he expected to still feel the collar there, despite his widened eyes being on the collar in Kurama's hand.
"I need you performing at the absolute maximum of your ability," Kurama calmly explained. "And now you can do that."
"H-how did you manage to just take it off like that?" Akira wailed, meeting his eyes.
He looked like he might cry, but Kurama did not have time to be sympathetic.
"I put it back on you after our last training session," he pointed out. "As the person who applied it, I am the one who could remove it."
Akira's panicked expression slowly gave way to one of suspicion.
"You tricked me?" he asked in a small voice.
"No, I genuinely wanted to know what you were capable of without the collar," Kurama replied. "Only after I had put it back on did I realise that this would be the outcome. But you should rest assured that nobody from Spirit World can see you now and that I am in charge of this situation and I want you to prove to me that you meant what you said when you said you were loyal to our team."
"I am loyal to the team," Akira hurriedly answered.
"Then prove it to me," Kurama said, deciding to be a little manipulative again, as the situation was too desperate for any margin of error. "Fight with everything you have. I don't care how ruthless you are and I don't care if you use demon energy or not. Just don't let me down."
Kurama's last words had the desired effect, as he saw Akira visibly falter upon hearing them.
"I won't let you down," he said. "I promise."
Kurama nodded and then stuffed the collar into one of the pockets on his jeans before running after Kaisei and Fubuki. Akira ran after him, shortly passing him and then leaping up into the air. Kurama slowed as he joined the Sato siblings, all three looking about themselves.
"They all ran off all of a sudden," Kaisei explained when Kurama gave him a questioning look.
"We were surrounded a minute ago," Fubuki added. "I guess they sensed your arrival and took off, huh foxy?"
She smiled but Kurama did not share her confidence. Both the immediate lack of any enemies and Akira's disappearance were causes for concern. A swishing sound overhead drew his attention upwards and he started to shout out to Kaisei and Fubuki to prepare for an attack from bat demons: but he stopped when five bat demons fell to the road around them, one by one, each with a ninja star embedded in their necks. Akira landed on the road a few seconds later, looking directly over at Kurama.
"There's a really large demon up ahead," he said. "And some more demons about your size in the next street over."
Kurama nodded.
"Kaisei, Fubuki, you go over to the next street and take care of what's there," he said. "Akira, you come with me. We're going after the big one."
Everyone nodded and moved out as per Kurama's orders. As they continued along the road, Kurama realised that what he and Akira were pursuing was in fact an A-class demon: and although he was deeply concerned that an A-class demon had arrived in the living world, he was equally curious to see how Akira would hold up against such an opponent when fighting freely.
After the humiliation of running away from a battle and the irritating, constant interruptions from minor pests on the way to the portal out of Demon World, Hiei was already irritable when he arrived in the living world, and so arriving to feel the sickening presence of an A-class demon several miles away was enough to push him over the edge.
"What the hell is that?" Yusuke demanded, looking and sounding as irate as Hiei felt. "How the hell has something that powerful made it into this world and why didn't somebody try to stop it? Where the hell are Kuwabara and Kurama? They should be kicking that bastard's ass right now!"
"Maybe they are," Hiei grumbled. "Kuwabara is horribly out of condition and aging, and Kurama has grown weak from living in this world too long."
"Damn it, we had it bad enough in Demon World, why can't they take care of something like this without us?" Yusuke ranted.
"Apparently they need us here," Hiei replied. "We'd better go: if we don't lend a hand, it will end in disaster. It's just as well we got here when we did."
"Right. Let's remind them how it's done."
Yusuke and Hiei took off at top speed, shortly reaching their destination, where they gradually slowed, until they reached the roof of a tall building partway into the semi-demolished human city. Hiei's anger sky-rocketed when he saw the two arrogant humans standing either side of Kurama on the road, all three watching on as the obnoxious little brat in ninja clothing stabbed a knife into the back of an A-class horse demon that was the height of a twelve-storey building and then slid down it's back, tearing open an enormous gash. He then leapt away and scaled his way up to the top of a smaller building in a few easy leaps, and, as though to really add insult to injury, he began gathering demon energy between his hands that swirled into the black light of the Darkness Flame.
"I don't remember that little kid being that fast…" Yusuke muttered. "Or that strong…"
Hiei did not care what Yusuke thought. The sheer arrogance of the kid was infuriating: after a messy attack with a knife, he was taking far too long to charge an attack that would ultimately be far too weak to have any significant effect on a beast as powerful as the one he was facing. The only thing more painful for Hiei than watching the bastard offspring of Kuwabara perform so poorly in battle was the way everyone else – especially Yusuke and Kurama – were just standing about watching on instead of jumping in and finishing the horse demon in the way the little brat would clearly never be able to.
Hiei sighed and drew out his sword, flinging aside his cloak and taking a running leap off the roof of the building he had been standing on alongside Yusuke. As he soared through the air in a downward arc towards the horse demon's large shoulders, he swung his sword out to one side, readying himself to slice through the creature neck from behind and remove its head with the momentum of his attack: but Hiei shortly found himself facing off against an entirely different opponent.
Had the blast of darkness flame hit Hiei as he landed on the horse demon, he might have been able to excuse it as poor aim from the clearly inexperienced young emiko: but the blow hit him in the chest long before he reached his intended target, and, looking up at where the kid was still standing, he had clearly altered the angle he was aiming to deliberately throw his attack – which was clearly still not even fully-charged – at Hiei.
Hiei was able to shake it off, but as he had not been anticipating the blow, it succeeded in knocking him off-course. He managed to land on a streetlight, whereupon he lifted his head once more to the building Akira had launched the attack from.
The kid was gone.
Hiei's elbow swung around before he even had the time to turn his head and he allowed himself a satisfied grin when the bone of his elbow collided hard with the kid's cheekbone and sent him crashing to the street below. Hiei hopped down, and, despite having landed on the underside of an upturned car, the kid leapt to his feet again, his face filled with rage and vigour. He had left an imprint of himself on the car chassis, but he appeared not to care.
"I suggest you stop now," Hiei warned him. "I could easily kill you if I wanted to."
"I know that," Akira replied without hesitation. "You already tried to kill me, remember? I don't care what you do to me. This isn't about me and this isn't about you. This isn't even about us."
Hiei frowned, Akira – and his choice of words – suddenly sounding strangely familiar.
"This is about all the pain you've caused my mother," Akira continued. "All she ever wanted was for you to love her and for us all to be a family. I know you're emotionally retarded, so there's nothing I can do to make you feel the same awful emotional pain you've inflicted on mom all these years, but I can cause you physical pain, and I know that's the one thing you do understand."
"You've got a very big mouth," Hiei growled. "It will get you in a lot of trouble."
"I'm only being honest," Akira spat back. "It's a trait I inherited from my mother."
"You're not being honest, you're being a blind, stubborn, arrogant fool, who thinks he's more powerful than he actually is," Hiei retorted. "And those are not qualities you inherited from your mother: those are qualities you inherited from your father."
"Ha!"
Hiei faltered slightly when Akira grinned in an expression of genuine amusement.
"It looks like we actually agree on something," he said. "Because I would absolutely describe my "father" as a blind, stubborn, arrogant fool, who thinks he's more powerful than he actually is."
Hiei paused, wondering if, by the way Akira had said "father", he actually knew that Kuwabara was not his biological father. He had assumed that the kid had been raised to believe that Kuwabara was his father, especially since Yukina had married the oaf. But he did not have long to contemplate the matter, as Akira fearlessly – and frankly rather stupidly – threw a knife at Hiei.
Hiei batted aside the attack with his sword and the two charged at each other, exchanging blows briefly before Hiei managed to kick the kid in the gut and flatten him to the ground. He quickly grabbed a hand around Akira's throat and pinned him down, though that did not stop the little brat from violently flailing around, trying to kick Hiei with his legs and clawing at Hiei's arm with both his hands.
"Maybe if you hadn't lived a coddled life under Kuwabara's over-protective parentage, you might have proved to be something of a challenge for me," Hiei told him. "But as it is, you are out of shape, lacking in experience and your arrogant sense of entitlement makes you a very sore loser."
Akira paused, his legs resting still against the ground and his hands lessening their grip on Hiei's arm.
"You know nothing of my life," he said quietly.
"I know you weren't raised in Demon World," Hiei replied. "Which you should have been, because only in Demon World could you have actually amounted to anything worthy."
"Did you seriously just say that I should have been raised in Demon World?" Akira shrieked, his voice suddenly rising an entire octave and sounding hysterical.
"Yes," Hiei confirmed.
"Really? And who would have raised me in Demon World? Because you certainly wouldn't have, would you, Hiei?"
"You're not my responsibility."
Akira's anger vanished in an instant, his mouth falling open and his eyes growing wide. He looked horrified and borderline tearful, and it was a look Hiei found quite difficult to behold because, despite the kid being his sister's child, he somehow had exactly the same eyes as Hiei did, and it was difficult for Hiei to look at Akira's face without seeing a much younger version of himself.
"If I let you go, will you stop acting like a brat?" Hiei asked.
Akira's expression hardened and his grip on Hiei's arm tightened again.
"Don't blame me for your parents' inability to raise you properly."
Akira's eyes pinpricked and his mouth tightened and, for the briefest moment, something about the look in his eyes seemed familiar to Hiei, and not just because it was the sort of expression he himself often wore when he was outraged by something.
"Fuck you!"
Hiei was momentarily shocked at the little kid's words, and, in that moment of brief distraction, he failed to notice that Akira had released his arm. Hiei only realised that Akira's hands were suddenly directly in front of his chest when he felt the heat of a blast of energy colliding with his torso. And he was unsure if he was horrified or actually slightly impressed when he found himself flying backwards through the air.
Hiei crashed into a mailbox but he quickly got back to his feet. His chest ached and burned in a way it had not done for quite some time: apparently Yusuke's initial assessment had been correct, apparently the kid had been holding back his power somewhat in the past. But, as Hiei made to march over to Akira again, Yusuke leapt into his path.
"Whoa, we're all on the same side here, right?" he asked.
Hiei leaned to one side to see past Yusuke, watching as Kurama approached Akira, who suddenly looked panicked.
"Are you okay?" Kurama asked him.
"Put it back on!" Akira wailed at him. "Quickly! You have to put it back on before it happens again!"
Kurama reached into a pocket and produced what looked like a Spirit World prison issue collar.
"Put it back on before they get here and see that you took it off!" Akira cried.
"Okay, if that's what you want," Kurama replied.
Hiei screwed up his face in disbelief as Kurama put the Spirit World device onto Akira.
"So me and Kurama took care of the giant horse," Yusuke said as Hiei continued watching Kurama and Akira. "You know, while you were here, beating the crap out of your sister's kid. You're welcome, by the way."
The two humans who had been training with Kuwabara joined Kurama. The boy began asking questions and the girl approached Akira. She put a hand on his shoulder and he tensed, but when she opened her arms he stepped into her embrace, winding his arms around her waist and holding onto her tightly.
"Hn, miserable little brat," Hiei grumbled.
Yusuke looked back over his shoulder at Akira as Fubuki gently stroked his hair and muttered something to him.
"What's your problem with the kid?" Yusuke asked, turning back to Hiei. "Sure he's kinda creepy and annoying and maybe a bit arrogant, but, you know, so are you. And the rest of us don't go around trying to strangle the life out of you… Not even when you probably deserve it…"
"Shut up, Yusuke!" Hiei snapped.
Yusuke gave him a strange look, but he shortly looked away as Kurama joined them.
"I assume your arrival here is a bad sign," the fox demon greeted them. "And it's just the two of you?"
"Yeah," Yusuke replied. "We lost Rinku, Shishiwakamaru, Suzuka and Chu."
"They died?" Kurama asked.
Yusuke nodded solemnly.
"And what of Jin and Touya?" Kurama asked.
"We left them fighting each other in Demon World," Yusuke replied.
Kurama looked horrified – and especially so as it was rare that he showed any extreme expression of emotion.
"It wasn't my idea to leave them there beating each other's brains out," Yusuke grumbled.
"Jin was being controlled by the Dark Force," Hiei pointed out. "And Touya offered to stay to fight him to allow us a swifter passage back here to the living world."
"So would it be safe to say that the Dark Age is well into stage two?" Kurama asked him.
"Yes," Hiei replied. "We came here because we had genuine concerns about the ability of those left behind here to keep the safe house safe. And by the looks of things, it's just as well that we got here when we did."
Hiei cast a pointed glare over at Akira, who was still standing with Fubuki. He was standing back from her, but she had his face in her hands and she was talking to him like he was something precious and not a powerful half-demon.
"Keep that little pest away from me," Hiei added, turning back to Kurama.
"You were very wrong to attack that child the way you did, Hiei."
Hiei's face twisted in disbelief at Kurama's response.
"You know nothing of the horrors that child has endured," the fox demon continued, looking decidedly resolute in his conviction. "It was wrong of him to attack you, but surely you understand why he did: the first time he met you, you tried to kill him."
"Because I held my sword to the back of his neck?" Hiei asked. "I only did that because he jumped me in the forest and I thought he was one of the Dark Force's puppets!"
"I'm not talking about that incident, Hiei," Kurama replied.
Hiei could still not believe how angry Kurama looked and sounded.
"I'm talking about the day you met Akira on High Road, four years ago."
Hiei relaxed a little then.
"So it was him that came to Demon World that day with the ferry girl," he muttered, speaking more to himself than answering Kurama. "I was doing my duty. He was fighting dragon fish over the site of the Dark Force's prison. For all we know, it's his fault the Dark Age came early!"
Hiei glowered at Kurama, waiting for him to acknowledge the accusation he had just levied at the irritating child: but instead, Kurama turned slightly pale, his eyes grew slightly wider, and his mouth shrank as though he had something bitter in his mouth. Hiei growled in frustration and stomped off: apparently Kurama really had been spending far too much time in the living world if he could not see what a menace the kid was.
Kurama was unable to move or speak as he watched Hiei walk away. He felt both incredibly stupid for not having noticed the truth before and torn between being angered at Koenma for banning anyone from enlightening him and sympathetic as to why Koenma would want to keep such a secret concealed. The Dark Force was going to delight in exploiting it, and it was just yet another reason the enemy could not be allowed to venture into the living world.
It was also clearly why Koenma had strategically placed Hiei in the team defending Demon World, Akira in the team defending the living world and kept Botan in Spirit World.
Kurama moved his eyes to his side as Akira joined him, looking up at him through eyes filled with uncried tears and anxiety: a look that was doubly unsettling to see in eyes that were identical to Hiei's.
"Excuse me Kurama," he said softly. "May I please borrow your communication mirror?"
"To call your mother?" Kurama asked.
Akira nodded.
Kurama reached into his pocket and produced the Spirit World communicator, pausing briefly to look down at it.
"Koenma didn't let you have one of these because he didn't want you to have contact with your mother?" he asked, his eyes still on the device.
"He said it was too dangerous for mom and I to be together during the Dark Age," Akira replied. "He said the Dark Force would come between us, because we're so close."
Kurama nodded and passed the communication mirror to Akira; but as Akira took hold of it, Kurama tightened his grip. Akira looked up at him worriedly when he failed to release it into his possession.
"Why do you call Hiei by his name?" Kurama asked.
"Why not?" Akira replied.
"Well, you call your mother "mom"," Kurama pointed out. "Wouldn't it be appropriate for you to call your father "dad"?"
"I would call him that if he knew how to be a dad," Akira coldly replied. "But clearly he doesn't."
Kurama released the communication device and Akira flipped it open. His fingers started for the call buttons, but stopped just short of their target, his jaw falling open and large red eyes lifting to Kurama.
"You didn't know that Hiei is my father?" he asked incredulously.
"Nobody told me," Kurama replied.
"I know nobody is allowed to talk about it," Akira replied, starting to look and sound irritated. "And I could understand some people not knowing, but I thought you were supposed to be Hiei's best friend? How can you not know that he's my father if he's your best friend?"
"Nobody told me," Kurama repeated.
Akira looked furious – and undeniably like Hiei's child.
"Yes, well, I suppose I should have figured it out for myself," Kurama hurriedly added. "You're clearly not a full emiko, and not just because you can use spirit energy. The fact that you don't create hiruiseki when you cry also indicates that you're not the child of an ice maiden and a man. And I did know, after you told me, that Kuwabara was not your father, and it did seem odd that Yukina would have been with another man–"
"Hiei didn't tell you about me?" Akira cut him off.
"No."
"You're his best friend, and he didn't tell you about me? In the last fifteen years, since he first got my mom pregnant, he never bothered telling his own best friend that he was a father?"
"No."
"So I'm right. He's the worst excuse for a father in the whole of existence, and he's ashamed of me, and he tried to kill me on High Road that day because he'd rather I died than he had to admit to being my father! He's an asshole!"
Kurama did not know what to say. He was still reeling from what he had just figured out – and had confirmed – and he was still trying to guess when Hiei and Botan had ever had such an intimate relationship.
"Akira!"
Kurama snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of Botan's voice through the communicator.
"Hi mom," Akira replied. "I need to talk to you."
"Is everything okay, pumpkin?" Botan's voice asked.
"No, it's not!" Akira said. "I just had a fight with Hiei."
"What?"
"I swore at him."
"What?"
"You weren't there, mom! Everything's been really difficult here lately, and he was being such an asshole!"
"Akira, don't call your father that word!"
Akira visibly faltered.
"Sorry mom," he said awkwardly. "But I can't think of a better word to describe him."
"Well you'd better think of one very quickly, because there's no excuse for using language like that!" Botan snapped back. "I didn't teach you to use language like that!"
"Mom, it's like almost the end of all three worlds right now, I don't think anyone cares if I call Hiei an asshole."
"It might well be the end of all three worlds, but it's not the end of civilisation!"
"It kind of is though…"
"But it's not the end of civilised behaviour! You better apologise!"
Akira's face changed instantly, and he went back to looking exactly like Hiei.
"To Hiei?" he asked. "I'm not apologising to Hiei! He should apologise to me for trying to kill me! And for being a lousy father! He didn't even tell Kurama about me! He's so ashamed of me, he doesn't even admit that he's my father!"
There was a long pause before Botan answered.
"Is Kurama there with you, pumpkin?" she asked.
"Yeah, he's right here," Akira replied, pointing at Kurama in a way the communication mirror would not have been able to pick up on.
"Where are you right now?" Botan asked.
"Tokyo?"
"I'll be right there."
Akira opened his mouth to argue, but the glow of the mirror faded and he was left staring at a blank screen. He slowly lifted his eyes to Kurama, looking a little embarrassed then.
"So um…" he began, closing over the communication mirror. "I'm sorry I used the F-word and I'm sorry you heard me calling Hiei an asshole."
Kurama accepted his communicator back, unable to ignore Akira's choice of words.
"You're sorry that I heard you call Hiei an asshole," he said. "But you're not sorry that you called Hiei an asshole?"
"No," Akira plainly replied. "I'm never sorry for speaking the truth."
Kurama nodded and returned the communicator to his pocket.
"I can see this is going to be an interesting night…" he muttered.
Next Chapter: Botan arrives in the LW and panics that she has more reasons to worry about Akira than just the fighting. Yusuke catches up with Kurama and reveals that he has been doing a little detective work that Kurama understands the results of better than Yusuke himself does. Botan and Kuwabara fill in a few gaps for Kurama, and suddenly the potential for the Dark Force to cause absolute ruin seems all the more apparent. Chapter 24 – Family Ties