A/N: Back after 6 years, this fic requires a lot of warnings (hey, it's not called "The Dark Age" for nothing), and even though some won't apply until much later in the storyline, I'm putting them all out there now to prevent anyone investing several hours of reading time into this only to be disappointed and/or irate later on. So here goes:
1. Rating is currently T, but will go up to M because of: bad language (infrequent), violence (the bloody and gory kind and the torturous emotional kind), sexual language and adult themes (unlikely to be anything too explicit, but putting a warning here to be safe).
2. This will be a very long and quite complex fic (expecting it to be my longest one yet and the complexity will come more from the plot shenanigans than actual challenging storylines). The storyline is also quite dark, in many different ways and in many different parts of the story.
3. This story will be mostly told from Yusuke and Hiei's point of view: because they are the only two characters I can promise won't be killed in this story. Which brings me nicely to my next warning: this story contains the deaths of several major canon characters, and often by quite gruesome means.
4. Anyone who has read any of my fics before may be surprised by this one because it does two things I usually avoid: this story contains highly involved and plot relevant OCs and major canon characters will die.
5. The romances in this fic are going to be highly influenced by the dark nature of the story in general. The Yusuke/Keiko romance is very bittersweet, the Kuwabara/Yukina romance has a weird twist in it and the Hiei/Botan romance is messy (if a tad cliché, as it's executed using a fairly common non-canon pairing tool).
Perhaps needless to say, this fic is set several years after the end of the anime. The basis of the idea came from a conversation between Koenma and Ayame in the (dubbed) anime during the Chapter Black arc regarding a "dark age" that would involve an uprising in demon world against the living world.
Finally, for this chapter, I am going with Keiko's birthday being in August (according to sources, it's either January or August, but I'm going with August).
Okay, after that overly long author's rant note, on with the actual plot…
Chapter 1 – The Demon World Tournament
The thought of another Demon World Tournament had seemed like a good one when Yusuke had woken up that morning. It had seemed like an especially long three years since the last tournament, and he was keen to try again, eager to push himself and to test himself. He had been optimistic that this time he might win; not because he wanted to take over as King of Demon World, just because he wanted to fight against the very best, and the only way to do that was to reach the final rounds of the Demon World Tournament.
But, that nagging idea that something had been amiss had grown as the day had progressed, and, as he reached the location of the tournament arena, where sign-ups for the next tournament were taking place, Yusuke started to realise that he had been underestimating the situation. That faint scent that had been lingering in the air, that distant drone of noise, that vague sense of something ominous had flared and turned into something decidedly ugly. The day was rapidly turning into one of those when Yusuke found himself wishing that Kurama and Kuwabara both lived in Demon World with him: the former because he would be able to explain what was going on and the latter because he would have been able to sense it all many months before Yusuke himself had.
In the past, the Demon World Tournament had been a raving success, and Yusuke had always been proud of himself for having conceived the idea of it. It had been a generally positive affair, before, during and afterwards. Everyone in Demon World had always thought it a much better, fairer, more democratic system for creating a figurehead for the realm: Yusuke had jokingly called it "demonocracy", though the phrase had not caught on.
But, that year, Yusuke found himself standing outside of the tournament arena feeling torn between anger, confusion and just a hint of fear. All the posters, garlands and signs advertising the tournament had been torn down and broken or set alight. The arena itself had mostly been demolished, and the remaining rubble and wall sections had been coated with graffiti – which, on close inspection, had been applied with various bodily by-products rather than paint. Yusuke had heard stories in the news – heard rumours whispered in marketplaces and clubs – about riots and raids occurring all over Demon World, but he had thought it was nothing more than a passing phase, or maybe a new group of B-class demons who thought themselves tough; during Yusuke's time in Demon World, he had encountered several such groups: groups of B-class demons who lived in the higher levels of demon world and had no concept of the A or S-class demons, and only when they travelled into the heart of a major settlement did they learn just how weak they actually were.
But this was different. This was horrific and uncivilised – even by Demon World standards.
"It's not often I see you deep in thought, Yusuke."
Yusuke smiled – mostly in relief – and turned his head to see that someone else had joined him in his position standing on the other side of the road from the remains of the arena entrance.
"I just came here to sign up," Yusuke said. "I know I've never been the most popular guy, but I've never seen anyone put this much effort into stopping me from being a part of something."
"This really isn't the time for jokes," Hiei replied, turning his attention back to the wreckage ahead of them. "Or are you doing your usual: using humour to mask your fear and concern?"
"Funny you should ask that, Hiei," Yusuke said with a smirk. "I was just about to ask if you were doing your usual: you know, using sarcasm to mask you fear and concern?"
"Hn, I see your arsenal of quips is as tightly-loaded as ever."
"And I see your ass is as tightly-wound as ever. Now are you gonna give me some straight answers or not?"
Hiei turned to look at Yusuke again, the look of semi-amusement on his face slowly morphing into an expression of disgust and horror.
"Are you telling me you seriously have no idea what all of this signifies?" Hiei asked.
"Well, I did hear something about riots in the news," Yusuke replied, scratching a hand at the back of his head nervously. "And something hasn't felt right for a while now. But I wasn't expecting this. I wasn't expecting the arena to get trashed. Why'd they do it? Are they protesting something? I thought it was just another gang who were bitter about the outcome of the last tournament."
When Hiei did not answer him immediately, Yusuke started to feel concerned again.
"Yusuke, they destroyed the arena with everyone in it," Hiei eventually said, his voice suddenly much lower and quieter in tone. "You do know that, right? That's why you're here, isn't it?"
Yusuke refrained from telling Hiei otherwise, his concern only rivalled by his feeling of ignorance for not knowing even a fraction of what Hiei knew about the situation. He tried to console himself by considering that Hiei was in charge of the border patrol, and therefore more savvy to the general goings-on in the demon world; but another glance at the desecrated tournament arena quickly vanquished any positive feelings he had been trying to generate on the matter.
"Everyone in there perished," Hiei continued. "Everyone who was in there to sign up for the tournament was killed. Everyone."
Yusuke slowly nodded his head, partly because he did not know what to say upon hearing such dire news and partly because he was trying to figure out a way of asking Hiei exactly who "everyone" included.
"Hn, so you weren't even being sarcastic."
Yusuke turned sharply to Hiei, who had dipped his head, his eyes closed and his mouth bent into a crooked smirk.
"I don't know if that's hilarious or just deeply disconcerting," the fire demon added.
"Okay, fine," Yusuke reluctantly conceded. "I came here to sign up. I saw there'd been riots, I heard the fighting, I saw some of the fires and I could even smell some of the bloodshed and destruction: but I had no idea this was something so big. So who hates the tournament and why?"
Hiei lifted his head slightly and opened his eyes, moving crimson irises to glare up at Yusuke from the corner of his eyes.
"And cut the cryptic crap this time," Yusuke added.
"Yusuke, these events were not motivated by the tournament," Hiei replied.
"Good," Yusuke said tightly. "Nice to know this isn't my fault for once or someone after me for something I did."
"I said these events were not motivated by the tournament," Hiei said, his tone gaining an edge of tense irritation. "I didn't say these events have nothing to do with the tournament."
Yusuke frowned.
"Cut the cryptic crap," he began. "You basically did say this has nothing to do with the tournament–"
"What you see, hear and smell unfolding was a pre-determined event," Hiei cut him off. "These events would have happened regardless of whether your tournament was happening or not: whether Demon World had a single ruler who had earned the title by democratic means or whether Demon World was still divided into three factions and overseen by three bitter rivals."
"So I don't have to feel bad that my tournament caused this?"
Yusuke flashed Hiei an optimistic grin, but his gesture was met with a harsh glare and fanged sneer from the emiko.
"What you see, hear and smell unfolding is something that has occurred a few times before in Demon World history," Hiei growled. "It's a cyclical event that typically happens every 650 years. If you had ever listened to the advice I gave you repeatedly in the past, you would have learned a little of the history of our world, and you would know that the last time this happened was 566 years ago."
"Right…" Yusuke said slowly. "This happens every 650 years?"
"Yes," Hiei confirmed.
"And the last time it happened was 566 years ago?"
"Yes."
"Right. So it shouldn't be happening right now, because not enough time has passed."
"Exactly."
"If the last time this happened was 566 years ago, and it happens every 650 years, that means it's happening 106 years too early."
Hiei's face dropped.
"Basic mathematics never was your greatest strength, was it Yusuke?" he asked quietly.
"What?" Yusuke echoed.
"It's not happening 106 years too early, it's happening 84 years too early," Hiei pointed out.
"Okay, whatever, the point is it's happening too early, right?"
Hiei grunted.
"So what is happening, anyway?" Yusuke asked.
"A cyclical, apocalyptic event, due to occur only every 650 years is happening 84 years too soon," Hiei replied.
"I get that part," Yusuke sarcastically replied.
"It only happens every 650 years because that's usually how long it takes for Demon World to spawn a sufficient number of S-class and A-class demons to facilitate the event," Hiei said.
"Right, but it's happening early, I get it. I just don't get what "it" is…"
""It" is a war of the worlds: Demon World is entering into a phase of conflict and uprising against the spirit and living worlds."
"…Oh… Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"
"And "it" has been brought about early this time – for the first time ever in the history of existence as far as I know – because, in the last fifteen years, there has been an unprecedented and unnatural increase in the number of A-class and even S-class demons."
Yusuke tried to swallow but suddenly found his throat was too tight to obey his mental instruction. His eyes – which he found himself suddenly unable to blink – slowly scanned over the crumbled remains of the arena walls, decorated with slogans of hate and malignant threats written in the blood and viscera of countless bodies.
"F-fifteen years ago?" he said faintly. "That seems… Significant… To me…"
"As well it should," Hiei snorted. "It's no coincidence that this time has come about early, the acceleration of its arrival was clearly elicited by something you must surely be aware of."
Yusuke finally managed to gulp and blink, his eyes lingering on the phrase "the end is nigh, all humans must die", which had been written in the same blend of blood and offal as the other messages on the arena walls, but had caught his attention because it had been punctuated with the tip of an aqua-blue serpentine tail that could only have belonged to one of the tournament's beloved ring announcers.
"It's not only started earlier than it was meant to, it's evolving faster than it usually would," Hiei continued. "You don't have long to choose which side you will be on: and you will have to choose, because neither side of this battle will care for anyone who sits on the fence on this matter."
Yusuke slowly turned to look at Hiei, finding his friend already turned fully towards him and glaring up at him in a way that Yusuke had always found impressively intimidating for someone so short.
"What do you mean?" Yusuke asked.
"I mean we are facing an all-out war between Demon World – our home – and Spirit World and Human World," Hiei flatly replied. "You will have to choose which side you will fight on: will you fight to protect the humans and Spirit World, or will you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your demon brethren and rise up to bring about a glorious new Dark Age?"
"…I don't like the way you worded that."
Kurama sat down onto the park bench with a heavy sigh, his hands in his pockets and his eyes watching over a group of children racing paper boats along the canal. The sun was shining in an almost perfectly blue sky, a light breeze was rustling through the trees and carrying with it the lilting babble of cheerful voices and laugher that filled the park. People of all age ranges were enjoying the park, from young couples sharing romantic picnics beneath the shade of a tree to families playing on the giant wooden animal carvings to elderly couples strolling slowly along the gravel paths decorated with fallen sakura petals. The only hint that something was amiss was the conspicuous lack of birds in the trees and ducks in the water, and the dogs that were cowering or else snarling frantically as their confused owners tried to walk them through the park.
That and the myriad of demon insects swarming over the park and encroaching into the city beyond.
Kurama did not so much as blink when a large hand grabbed at a fanged dragonfly by his face, crushing the insect effortlessly into a pile of dust. As the owner of the hand sat down at the other end of the bench along from Kurama, the fox demon vaguely wondered if any of the humans in the park thought it odd that, despite the pleasant weather and the warmth of the sun, two men were sitting on a park bench bundled up in winter coats and huddled over as though it was the height of winter.
"It gets worse every day."
"I hope you're referring to the insects," Kurama commented.
From the corner of his eye, Kurama saw Kuwabara nod.
"It's accelerating faster than I would have expected," Kurama continued.
"Yeah, looks like Koenma called this one about as well as he called Sensui's little tunnel digging operation," Kuwabara replied, slapping a hand onto his own shoulder to squash another Demon World bug.
"It won't be long now," Kurama said. "I finished my job yesterday."
Kurama saw Kuwabara turn his head to look directly at him, but the fox demon kept his eyes forward.
"I haven't told my mother," he continued. "I'm not sure how to. I want to tell her to go somewhere safe, but…"
"Nowhere is safe, right?" Kuwabara responded.
Kurama nodded solemnly.
"I have a very bad feeling about all of this," he said.
"It's basically the end of the world, Kurama," Kuwabara replied. "You'd have to be crazy to not have a bad feeling about it."
"That's not what I meant," Kurama corrected him. "I meant Koenma's confidence has not inspired any hope in me. I believe he has grossly underestimated how quickly this will occur and how severe it will be. He is ill prepared. He wasn't alive when it happened the last time. This will be the fourth dark age of my lifetime."
Kuwabara shifted in his seat awkwardly.
"So, um, which side were you on for the other three times?" he mumbled.
Kurama turned his head slightly towards Kuwabara, giving him a hard look that he appeared to understand as he flared his nostrils and frowned in an expression of alarm.
"Don't concern yourself, I have no doubts where my loyalties lie this time around," Kurama assured him. "I will defend this world with my life. The only reservation I hold – that you should surely appreciate – is that we will need strong allies to stand alongside us if we are to stand any chance of protecting our loved ones and salvaging what we can of their homes."
"Hey, you're sitting here feeling sorry for yourself because you just quit your job to start preparing for this," Kuwabara tightly replied. "How the heck do you think I feel? I had to quit my job four years ago to start preparing for this! And this last year has been really difficult for me and Yukina."
Kurama nodded sympathetically.
"Yes, that little spanner Koenma threw into the works was both unexpected and unpleasant for the two of you, I'm sure," he said.
Kuwabara nodded.
"If I had any doubts about fighting in this myself, they disappeared over this last year," he said through a wry half-smile, his tone dripping with bitter irony. "I can hardly send three kids in to a fight I'm not gonna stand up and join myself, right?"
Kurama nodded again.
"Now that I have more spare time, I shall join you in your preparations full-time," he offered.
"You don't trust me to train those kids?" Kuwabara asked. "I maybe haven't fought in your Demon World Tournament, but I haven't lost my edge, y'know."
"It's been a long time since I've seen you fight to the limit of your abilities," Kurama said.
"Exactly," Kuwabara said with a hint of smugness in his tone
"And it's been equally as long since you have witnessed the extent of my abilities," Kurama added darkly.
Kuwabara's smile vanished and Kurama stood up from the bench, his hands still in his pockets, mostly to keep them warm from the cold in the air that seemed so far to only be affecting animals and those with heightened spiritual awareness.
"I think it's about time I met your students, Kuwabara," he said.
Kuwabara stood up.
"Wh-what, now?" he asked.
Kurama paused, his nose twitching slightly as a change in the air reached his delicate olfactory senses.
"Perhaps not right now," he corrected himself. "Perhaps right now we should start towards Genkai's temple."
"Genkai's old place?" Kuwabara asked. "Why?"
Kurama turned to look directly at Kuwabara, waiting a few seconds for the human to notice what he had too.
"Oh right," he eventually muttered. "They're on their way. We should get there before Urameshi eats all the best cakes."
"Amn't I little too old for party hats?"
"Nonsense! You're never too old for party hats!"
Keiko paused, one hand around the brightly coloured party hat Botan had handed her, the other stretching out the elastic strap attached to it. Her eyes watched as Botan, wearing a miniature. fluorescent pink, plastic cowboy hat spun around the kitchen. Her eyes then moved to Shizuru, who was opening another bottle of vodka.
"Shizuru…?" Keiko said slowly. "Don't you think we've got enough alcohol out already?"
Shizuru looked across the room at her in a way that seemed to suggest she thought Keiko was the one being ridiculous. Keiko moved her eyes to Botan again, watching as she finished her glass of punch with a smile. The ferry girl's face was flushed pink, and her hair – which had been styled into a gorgeous French plait – had become a little untidy, with stray strands of blue poking out of her head in every direction. She looked down at the empty transparent plastic cup in her hands, drawing Keiko's attention in that direction too, whereupon she noticed that the cup was covered in lipstick marks and sweaty fingerprints.
"Here it is," Yukina said sweetly as she entered the kitchen, her arms cradling the ornate glass bowl Shizuru had brewed the punch in earlier that day.
"Why is it empty?" Keiko asked. "Did someone spill it?"
She cast Botan a suspicious look, but her attention quickly moved to Shizuru when she heard her friend snort as though amused by her questions.
"Yeah someone spilled it," Shizuru said, moving over to the bowl as Yukina placed it down onto the worktop surface. "Someone spilled it all down their throat."
From her adjusted position behind Botan, Shizuru arched her eyebrows at Keiko in a way that made her realise exactly what had become of the punch.
"Ah," she said, nodding her understanding.
"Oh dear!" Yukina said suddenly. "Look at the time!"
Botan's head whipped around and she staggered slightly, her eyes squinting up at the clock on the wall.
"Oopsie!" she said, grinning lazily. "Excuse me ladies: places to meet, people to be."
Keiko, Shizuru and Yukina watched the ferry girl stagger from the room before all turning to exchange wary looks as they heard her stumble out the front door and then take off on her oar, wobbling past the kitchen window before correcting her flight path and shakily taking off over the trees.
"Will she be alright?" Keiko asked Shizuru.
"Of course she will. She's a professional."
Keiko turned to Koenma, who had appeared in the kitchen doorway, looking older than usual in his adult form. He was unusually tense and his humour had gained a distinctly dark edge to it of late; though she could well understand why.
"Come on ladies, don't look so glum," he said, attempting a smile from behind his pacifier. "This could be the last party we have for a very long time, so let's make the most of it, right?"
"I just wish it didn't have to be this way," Keiko said morosely. "Or this day…"
"Cheer up, sweetheart," Shizuru said to her. "Pretty soon the others'll be here too and we can just enjoy one last night of freedom."
"I don't like that my birthday has to be our "last night of freedom"," Keiko said with a sigh. "And even if it is, it's still no guarantee Yusuke will bother to show up. He didn't bother coming to my birthday party last year, and that was a pretty big birthday for him to miss."
"I'm sure he'll come, Keiko!" Yukina said.
"He better come," Koenma said. "After all, it's partly his fault we're in this mess."
Keiko felt the colour draining from her face, but Koenma appeared not to notice her horror as he continued with his speech.
"After all, if he hadn't created the Demon World Tournament and encouraged every demon in Demon World to get stronger and then put the S-class demons into the tournament in front of the entire population of Demon World – showing them all exactly what an S-class demon looked like and was capable of – we wouldn't be in the situation we are now, with an off-balance of high-powered demons that has inevitably led to the early dawning of the… Dark… Age…"
Koenma's voice slowly trailed off as he glanced back and forth between Keiko's pale and shaking visage and Shizuru's stern and threatening glower.
"Not that I blame Yusuke for any of this," he added quietly.
Yukina hurriedly pulled out a bar stool from the breakfast bar and positioned it behind Keiko as she slouched backwards in a partial collapse.
"I hate this," Keiko said faintly, her eyes unfocused. "I'm so scared…"
Koenma nodded.
"We all are," he said.
"Hey short stuff, you still haven't answered me," Yusuke said as he and Hiei clambered over another rocky ledge and onto the last long stretch of path leading to the steps up to Genkai's temple. "Whose side are you on?"
"Hn, you shouldn't even need to ask that question," Hiei scoffed.
"Yeah, well, I am asking it," Yusuke said. "So just answer me already!"
Yusuke moved around to stand in front of Hiei, blocking his path onwards towards the temple.
"I mean it, Hiei," he insisted. "I don't understand what's going on, but I'd feel a lot better about it all if I knew for sure you were on my side in it all."
Hiei's eyes wandered to something above and beyond Yusuke's head, an amused smirk gracing his lips.
"It's little wonder you need the reassurance of knowing I'm "on your side"," he said. "Since it seems as though your side needs all the help it can get."
Yusuke started to ask Hiei what he meant, but the sound of cracking tree branches and a shrill cry of alarm caused him to turn on the spot, his legs moving and his arms outstretching on instinct. His feet stopped an instant after a weight caught in his arms and he looked down at first in alarm at the limp female body in his arms, dressed in an exceptionally exquisite kimono and looking almost graceful were it not for the fact that she had lost one sandal and her pale blue hair had mostly fallen out of the tightly woven style it had been trained into.
"Botan?" he said.
The ferry girl lifted her head, grabbing a handful of his shirt to help herself up.
"Yusuke!" she said cheerfully. "It's so good to see you again!"
Yusuke started to frown as he noticed the glazed look in her normally crystalline pink eyes and he realised that the stench of alcohol in the air was emanating from her breath.
"Like I said: it looks like "your side" needs all the help it can get," Hiei said as he walked past Yusuke.
Yusuke lifted his head to watch Hiei continue onwards at a leisurely pace, as though their visit to the living world was purely a social one. Yusuke only looked away again when Botan reaffirmed her grip on his shirt, drawing his eyes back down to her.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked her quietly.
"Lord Koenma says everyone deals with grief in different ways, Yusuke," she replied.
"Grief? What are you talking about?" the mazoku asked.
Botan shook her head and began struggling in his arms. As she narrowly missed smacking the underside of his jaw with an elbow, Yusuke roughly planted her on her feet, ignoring the way she held up her foot that was missing a sandal after inadvertently stepping onto an especially sharp rock.
"I knew it would have to happen," she muttered, grabbing at Yusuke's arm to steady herself as she tried to balance on one foot; something that was proving particularly difficult for her as she was barely able to balance on both feet in her current state of inebriation. "I knew this time would come and I knew it would come early because of what we did, but… It just isn't fair…"
She released Yusuke's arm and covered her face with her hands, mumbling out an "ouch" as she was forced to stand onto her unprotected foot again. Yusuke sighed as he spotted her sandal.
"I don't have a clue what's going on, Botan," he said as he started towards her dropped footwear. "I was hoping you might have some answers. The last thing I was expecting was to find you drunker than my mum on Golden Day…"
Yusuke held out Botan's sandal towards her, waiting patiently for her to accept it back. At first she did not seem to notice his gesture, her face still pressed into her hands; but eventually she lowered her hands and her eyes moved to her sandal. She reached a shaky hand out towards it, but instead of taking the sandal, she placed her hand over Yusuke's and looked him straight in the eye.
"I never meant for this to happen," she said faintly.
"Chill out, Botan," Yusuke dryly replied. "Chicks lose their shoes all the time when they get drunk."
She smiled, but her eyes looked infinitely sadder. Yusuke sighed again and lowered himself onto one knee in front of her. He grabbed her ankle with one hand, causing her to yelp and place a hand on his shoulder to steady herself as he lifted her foot from the ground.
"Kurama's here though, right?" he said as he manoeuvred the sandal back onto Botan's foot.
"I haven't seen him," Botan replied.
Yusuke placed Botan's foot back onto the ground and stood up again.
"Why are you here?" he asked her.
"I came here with Lord Koenma to say goodbye," she replied.
"What?" Yusuke echoed.
"I said I came here because it's Keiko's birthday party."
Yusuke froze.
"Ah damnit!" he groaned. "She's still pissed I missed her sixteenth birthday party…"
Botan snorted and smiled genuinely for the first time that day.
"I'm glad you think it's funny, Botan!" Yusuke said, rolling his eyes. "I didn't even get her a card! Maybe I could pick her some flowers before I get there…"
Yusuke began scanning around the forest for signs of anything flowery that was not a prickled weed or a buttercup.
"Sixteenth birthday party!"
Yusuke slowly turned back to Botan, watching as she giggled and snorted into the sleeve of her unusually fanciful red kimono. He took a moment to notice the fancy way Botan's hair had been styled – prior to her binge drinking ruining it – and the fancy kimono she was wearing – the kind she usually only wore to very special occasions – and the hint of rouge on her cheeks, the slightly smudged mascara on her eyes and the remains of pink lip gloss at the edges of her mouth.
Yusuke cursed.
"This isn't an ordinary birthday…" he grumbled. "Damnit, not only did I forget again, but I forgot a special one, too!"
He sighed.
"How old is she now anyway?" he mused.
"She's still the same age as you, silly!" Botan replied. "Don't you remember how old you are?"
"Time moves differently in Demon World!" Yusuke snapped back at her. "Now shut-up and let me think… Let's see here… Her sixteenth was right before the first Demon World Tournament we had… Then we had the next one three years later, where Enki won again… Then we had another one another three years later, where it ended in a draw between Shura and Mukuro – damn, that was fun… Then we had another one three years later where Kokou won, and that was real fun for the next three years, before we had another one that Enki won again, and now it's time for another one… So there's been five tournaments, and this year would have been the sixth one, and there's three years between each tournament, so six times three is nine, and Keiko was sixteen at the first tournament, so sixteen plus nine is twenty-three… Huh. I don't get it Botan. What's so special about Keiko turning twenty-three?"
Yusuke moved his eyes to Botan expectantly, but instead of finding the slightly worse for wear ferry girl he found Kuwabara standing in her place, looking back at him with a distinct air of apathy.
"Damnit Urameshi, you never were any good at math, huh?" Kuwabara muttered as their eyes met.
"It's nice to see you again too, Kuwabara," Yusuke replied.
"It's been fifteen years since the first Demon World Tournament," Kuwabara said. "Fifteen plus sixteen is thirty-one: you missed the special birthday last year."
Yusuke's face dropped.
"Keiko was really disappointed that you didn't show up for her thirtieth birthday," Kuwabara continued. "Especially since it was the same day two of her friends from high school had their baby showers."
"Keiko's thirty-one already?" Yusuke echoed.
Kuwabara nodded solemnly.
"Gees, I can't believe I'm in my thirties already!" Yusuke said, shaking his head. "When I was thirteen, I was sure I'd die before I turned thirty! Damnit, I didn't even remember to celebrate my own thirtieth birthday! Hey Kuwabara, what did you do on your thirtieth?"
Kuwabara's face remained strangely dark and stern, and Yusuke started to wonder if he had said something inappropriate.
"I spent my thirtieth birthday the same way I spent the last three birthdays before it: preparing for the Dark Age."
Yusuke sobered then, his mind draining of anything other than the last two words Kuwabara had spoken.
"Right, yeah," he said quietly. "So… You knew about this "Dark Age"?"
Kuwabara nodded.
"I maybe haven't been in Demon World to see it all starting up like you and Hiei have, but I've been here, feeling it, knowing it was coming," he said.
"Kinda wish you'd told me sooner if you've known about it for three years already…" Yusuke muttered.
"I've known about it for four years, Urameshi."
Yusuke frowned and Kuwabara nodded again.
"You should have visited more often," he said. "Though I guess you have good reasons for not visiting. Some of the things I've had to do these last few years have been real difficult. I guess it must have been much worse for you, in Demon World, right in the middle of it all, right?"
Yusuke nodded numbly, though the look on Kuwabara's face suggested that his old friend had been through far worse than arriving at a tournament arena and finding it debased with the remains of a few defenceless demons.
"Koenma's back at Genkai's place already," Kuwabara continued. "As usual, Spirit World got their calculations wrong again: he said we'd have another year before the fighting started, but I don't think we've even got another week before it all kicks off."
Yusuke tried to smile, but the persistently dark look on Kuwabara's face promptly snuffed out any sense of good humour he had been trying to inject into their conversation.
"Let's go hear what the brat has to say then," he said instead.
Kuwabara nodded, and together they started towards the temple steps.
Hiei kept his eyes on the temple gate – which he had a good view of from the porch of the temple – though from the corner of his eye he could see Kurama standing at his side and the dithering ferry girl standing on Kurama's other side, hanging onto the fox demon's arm to keep herself upright.
"So fox, how long ago did you see this coming?" Hiei asked sarcastically as Yusuke and Kuwabara finally appeared by the top of the temple steps at the other end of the lawn.
"A lot sooner than you did, that's for sure."
Hiei stole a sideward glance at Kurama: his answer had been unusually biting and dark.
"It's no coincidence that this Dark Age has come early," Hiei said as he moved his eyes back to Yusuke. "As our resident old man, why don't you tell us if this has ever happened before?"
"This has never happened before," Kurama flatly replied. "As well you already know."
"This Dark Age may only truly be dawning now, but essentially it began fifteen years ago," Hiei commented.
"That's the part that hurts the most."
Hiei's lip twitched in a brief sneer of displeasure at the ferry girl's inane interjection.
"Placing blame is a fruitless exercise now," Kurama said to her. "And of little help. What's done is done. We must deal with it and move forward."
"I wasn't placing blame," Hiei said. "I just find it interesting that in the history of Demon World, no Dark Age has ever come ahead of schedule until now. Surely such a unique event warrants some sort of recognition."
"That depends," Kurama said.
"On what?" Hiei asked.
"On the size of the ego of the person asking the question."
Hiei smirked as he watched Yusuke swaggering towards the temple, apparently genuinely unaware of the fact that his meddling in Demon World politics and strategies had created the perfect conditions for another Dark Age, some eighty-four years ahead of schedule. Yusuke had broken many records and standards in all three worlds, but this one had to be, by far, the most impressive in Hiei's eyes.
"I wish it didn't have to be this way."
Hiei tried to ignore the drunken ferry girl's words.
"If it was us who caused it to come about early, why shouldn't it also be us – and us alone – who have to fix it?" she rambled on. "Why do innocents have to get hurt in the process?"
"Don't waste your energy on guilt," Kurama advised her.
"I suppose there is room to debate exactly whose fault it is," Hiei said. "But we all know the real reason the Dark Age has come early: it's just the final consequence of the ripples Yusuke's been creating in Demon World ever since he became a spirit detective."
"There Botan, you see?" Kurama said. "Hiei doesn't blame himself and so neither should you."
"Hn, I'm not so arrogant that I think my influence on Yusuke led to him bringing about the early dawning of a Dark Age," Hiei snorted. "Is that what the rest of you think of yourselves?"
Hiei looked up at Kurama expectantly, but he forgot his argument entirely when he saw the fox demon looking suddenly oddly tense, his eyes locked onto something ahead of them. Hiei turned in the direction Kurama was looking and found his eyes landing on Kuwabara. Hiei smiled humourlessly as he waited for the human to make some embarrassing attempt at a witty remark: but the moment never came. Instead, Kuwabara stood silently staring back at Hiei, his mouth set at an odd angle, his eyes unevenly narrowed.
"Aw c'mon, you guys!" Yusuke said in a mockingly cheerful tone. "Aren't you both past that whole love-hate thing you do with each other?"
"Hn, I don't know what you're talking about," Hiei said smugly.
"Yeah you don't."
Hiei faltered slightly at Kuwabara's gruff response, his momentary lapse in concentration allowing Kuwabara to catch him off-guard as he started across the porch towards the front door, his elbow crashing into Hiei's shoulder in a way that set him back a step. Hiei was so shocked at both the audacity of Kuwabara's action and just how much force he had put into it, that he did not even attempt to retaliate, instead watching over his shoulder as Kuwabara continued indoors, before finally turning to the others. The ferry girl had one hand loosely covering her gaping mouth, the other clutching her kimono by her heart, Kurama was still watching Kuwabara's retreat with the same tense look on his face and Yusuke looked as puzzled as Hiei felt.
"I just don't like this!" the ferry girl gasped, her voice hushed yet dramatic.
She darted indoors with surprising agility given her physical state, and, his anger starting to mount and the blow to his pride acknowledged, Hiei started indoors himself, intent on finding Kuwabara and putting the idiot back in his place.
Next Chapter: Koenma explains what the Dark Age is and the gang try to enjoy Keiko's birthday party: though they all have other matters on their minds. Chapter 2 – The Dark Age
