Chapter 46 – The Cunning Fox
Botan slowed abruptly as what she could only assume was the Winter Guardian came into her line of sight. She had felt it on her approach – it had been almost impossible not to – but, despite having felt the cold, pressing, dark presence, seeing the creature with her own eyes was still quite a jarring experience. In the small clearing in the forest that Akira sometimes retreated to, an enormous black wolf was standing next to a red stain the four Winter Wolves were licking at on the ground. Yukina was standing immediately in front of the giant black dog, partially facing it and casually petting its enormous nose with her tiny hands. Several feet away from her Hiei was standing staring at her in obvious disbelief and Akira was sitting on the ground as his side as though she had been dropped there and was too shocked to move; which, under the circumstances, was perhaps the case.
Botan circled around and landed at Akira's side, casting her a worried look. Akira glanced at her, but only briefly, before returning her attention to the giant ancient beast standing next to Yukina. Botan copied her actions of turning to the blue-eyed monster, her oar vanishing from her hand almost as a reflexive reaction when it sighed out faint clouds of icy air from its massive nostrils.
"So I see you managed to summon the rest of the wolves then Yukina," she said before stuttering out a short, nervous laugh.
"It's strange, I didn't think I would manage to," Yukina calmly replied. "It took so long to summon the red, yellow and brown wolves, and the white wolf didn't really seem to be answering to me when I sent the other three to aid Akira and Kurama."
"And the black one?" Botan asked, silently wondering why she was sweating despite the almost arctic air around her.
"This is the Winter Guardian," Yukina replied. "He responded to my call today."
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Hiei hissed.
Botan turned to him, the horrified look on his face concerning her slightly. She had been quite involved in most of what Yukina had been doing to prepare for the Dark Age, and she knew that some of the sacrifices the ice maiden had made were quite dramatic, but she wondered if perhaps there had been more than she was aware of, as Hiei looked unreasonably horrified – and as he was prone to not being horrified by anything ever, his reaction seemed all the more disconcerting.
"You can't have done any of this without some major sacrifices," Hiei continued.
"Of course not," Yukina replied. "Which one bothers you most, Hiei?"
Botan winced at Yukina's response, but Hiei and Akira appeared unaffected.
"You've relegated yourself to a shortened lifespan!" Hiei said.
"Yes," Yukina replied. "I expect I'll only live another forty to fifty years."
"And you're fine with that?" Hiei responded.
"That's about how long Kazuma will live," Yukina replied. "We will grow old together. The arrangement actually quite suits me."
"You've sworn an alliance to that thing!"
"Just as you did to the Dragon of the Darkness Flame."
"Blood sacrifices and a show of brutality only an Ancient would appreciate are also required. How did you fulfil those requirements?"
"I betrayed the residents of the ice village – losing some dear friends. I thought that fulfilled both of those requirements, but I suppose it only fulfilled the former, because it was not until today, until I saw and heard Officer Saito's behaviour for the first time with my own eyes that I truly desired the power to kill. I suppose that desire was my show of brutality. I called upon the Winter Wolves to kill him, and in doing so, the Winter Guardian arrived and offered to act for me."
Botan turned to looked down at Akira, holding out a hand towards her.
"What happened here?" she asked her.
"I don't know," Akira quietly replied, taking her hand and allowing her to help her to her feet.
"Is that, um…" Botan began, looking over at the stain the Winter Wolves were rapidly cleaning away any trace of on the ground.
"That is the disgusting SDF officer," Hiei said. "And that is also the first thing in this whole war that has actually ended the way it should have."
Botan turned to Akira again.
"Are you okay?" she asked her quietly.
Akira nodded.
"What happened?" Botan asked. "Did he follow you out here?"
"He was here waiting for me," Akira replied. "He was saying really strange things to me."
"He was talking to Akira the same way he usually talks to you, Botan."
Botan turned to Yukina. Her pale face was set straight, her eyes strangely cold and disinterested, and alarmingly the same shade of red as the mark on the ground that had once been Saito. Botan turned to Akira to ask her more about what had happened, but found herself looking at the same face she had just turned from. She turned to Hiei and found herself sighing: the three of them were so similar in so many ways, and at that moment, she could only think what a strange little family they all were.
"What does this mean now?"
Botan turned to Akira, who looked up at her worriedly.
"I didn't mean to channel one of the Ancients," she continued. "I didn't try to do it. And now it won't stop happening. You didn't mean to do it either, right?"
Botan shook her head.
"I didn't know that was what I would be doing when I took the energy from the tree in Spirit World," she quietly replied.
"What about…?" Akira began, turning to look over at Yukina.
"I set out to learn how to defend myself," Yukina answered her. "I heard that ice demons could summon and control the Winter Wolves and that was what I did. I only more recently learned that what I was doing was drawing out the Winter Guardian: but I don't regret doing it now."
"Hiei?" Botan asked, turning to Hiei. "A-are we okay? After everything Kurama, and Koenma, and Ryuhi and even that loud-mouth Koto have said… Are we the enemy too? At first, wh-when Kurama spoke about what I'd done, I thought it was a good thing. I thought I was safe. B-but now I'm not so sure…"
"By aligning yourselves so resolutely with one of the Ancients, all three of you have sealed your fates," Hiei quietly replied. "Whether that means you'll fight for or against the Dark Force, I can't say. But I do know the decision is no longer your own to make."
"I have no regrets," Yukina insisted.
"Neither do I," Botan admitted. "But I am afraid of what lies ahead of us."
"We don't know what lies ahead of us," Akira pointed out.
"That's why I'm scared, pumpkin," Botan replied.
"None of us knew what was ahead of us coming into this," Hiei reminded them all.
"What about you, Hiei?" Yukina asked. "What will you do?"
Hiei carefully looked around all three.
"I will not discuss what happened here today with anyone other than the three of you," he concluded. "And I suggest the three of you do the same."
"Are you asking us to lie to everyone else back at the safe house?" Akira asked him.
"Yes," Hiei replied. "Is that something else you can't manage?"
"I don't like liars," Akira coldly replied.
"Neither do I, but the biggest clue to your fate lies in the hands of the most infamous liar ever to have existed across all three worlds," Hiei answered her. "If the three of you really wish to know your role in the upcoming war, I suggest you consult the riddles left for us by the Dark Force itself. Surely now the three of you are three of the eight it has spoken of, and so there must be some sort of clue in what it has written as to how it expects you to factor into its plans."
Botan carefully gathered a handful of Akira's clothing by her shoulder, holding her back as she appeared to be leaning closer to Hiei.
"We should do that," Botan said, glancing over at Yukina. "We should go back the safe house and decode those riddles. Now please."
"Is it likely anyone knew that was here?" Yukina asked, casting a purposeful glance at the wet mark on the ground as she said the word "that".
"Probably not," Botan said. "But let me deal with it if it comes up in conversation."
"Won't you get in trouble if you tell Lord Koenma what happened?" Akira asked her.
"Don't worry about it, it's fine," Botan assured her.
"Are you going to lie to Lord Koenma?" Akira asked.
"Yes, which is what you will do too if you have even a shred of self-preservation or any concern for those around you," Hiei warned her.
Akira's head whipped around and she scowled at Hiei, and Botan tightened her grip on Akira's clothing.
"Yukina, I could feel that thing from some distance away," Botan told Yukina. "You need to send it away before someone else comes out here to investigate."
Yukina nodded and Botan turned her attention to Hiei.
"What brought you out here?" she asked him. "Could you sense the Winter Guardian from the safe house?"
"I wasn't at the safe house," Hiei replied. "I was in the forest and I was disturbed by the sound of one of King Enma's finest saying things I didn't appreciate."
Botan carefully released Akira's clothing, and, despite not having acknowledged that her mother was holding onto her before, Akira turned to look back over her shoulder at her as she released her.
"You two go on back to the safe house," Botan said, keeping her eyes on Hiei as she spoke. "I'll be there shortly."
Botan flattened her hand against Akira's back between her shoulderblades and gently pushed her towards Yukina. Akira gave her a strange look, but did not resist, only slowing when she noticed that the Winter Guardian was still standing beside Yukina.
"Would you like me to show you how I call the Winter Wolves?" Yukina asked Akira.
"I don't know about that," Akira replied, looking up at the enormous black wolf towering over her aunt.
"Come on, it's not as scary as you might think," Yukina replied, finally looking and sounding a little more like her usual, gentle self again.
Botan watched Yukina move on, guiding all five of the demon wolves with a single wave of her hand, and Akira walking a little stiffly at her side. Botan waited until they had moved into the trees and the air had finally started to warm up a little before turning her attention back to Hiei, who she found to be already staring at her expectantly.
"How long has that been going on?" Hiei asked when she did not offer to speak first.
"Which part?" she asked carefully.
"Hn, all of it, I suppose," he replied with a tight, wry smile.
"Well Yukina started training after what happened on High Road," Botan replied. "And Saito started paying attention to me – and then Akira – after what happened on High Road. And Akira changed after what happened on High Road. And I've never felt the same after what happened on High Road. Hmm… I suppose I could have just answered you with two words…"
Hiei looked over in the direction Yukina and Akira had gone, watching that point there were fading into for a moment before looking down at the drying, fading mark where Saito had fallen, and then finally looking up at Botan again.
"Why did you come to Demon World that day?" he asked. "So much time had passed since… Why did you choose that day?"
"Well, it's funny you should ask that actually, because that's something I've been meaning to talk to you about," Botan began.
"Essentially we awoke the Dark Force that day," Hiei said. "And now, in light of what else we've all done, we look incredibly guilty."
"…What…?"
"I didn't want to say as much in front of minds as innocent as theirs, but I hope you are at least savvy enough to understand how this must look if anyone else were to find out about it. Equally, I now find it suspicious that Touya is taking credit for something he hasn't done: unless he genuinely does believe that he was the one controlling the Winter Wolves the last time they appeared."
"What do you mean about us looking guilty? Are you saying we're to blame for the Dark Age? Because it was going to happen anyway. I know we made it come early, but it's not like we asked for it, right?"
"If you were Kurama, or Koenma, or Touya, or Yusuke or even Kuwabara or that nosey vixen Koto, how do you think you would react if you found out that this Dark Age might be the one that never ends?"
Botan slowly shook her head. Her mind had gone blank.
"What are you talking about, Hiei?" she asked faintly.
"Is it just a coincidence that the Dark Force was awoken by one of its children, and all four of them have been gaining strength and are now gathering in the living world for stage four of this Dark Age?" Hiei responded.
"The Dark Force said something about the Shadow Wood being one of his children," Botan said carefully.
"You are one of his children now," Hiei replied. "And so is Akira. And, as of today, so is Yukina."
Botan shook her head.
"And, for whatever this may mean for us all, I soon will be too."
Botan opened her mouth, but words failed her. As though understanding what she wanted to ask and deciding to answer her non-verbally, Hiei quietly removed his cloak. Standing in just his vest, Botan could see that his right arm was bandaged – which was not unusual, as he had continued dressing it even after losing the Dragon of the Darkness Flame – but she could see scorch-marks on his skin at the top of the bandage halfway up his upper arm.
"I never really applied myself to trying to get it back after my early attempts failed," he explained. "But apparently the Dragon of the Darkness Flame had been contained by the same forces holding the Dark Force in its prison, and once the Dark Force was completely freed, so was the dragon. I've managed to summon it already and I'm close to absorbing it into myself again."
"How long have you been doing that?" Botan asked.
"Since I arrived here in this miserable world after the fall of Demon World," Hiei replied. "It seemed like a better use of my time than sitting around that house packed to the rafters with humans and spirits, most of whom I don't especially care for."
"What will happen once you've absorbed the dragon into yourself again?"
"Then I will be the same as you. And Akira. And Yukina."
"Does this mean we're the bad ones?"
"We need to understand more about this."
"Maybe you shouldn't continue training and trying to reabsorb the Dragon of the Darkness Flame until we do know more about this."
"You're telling me to wait until I know what I'm doing before proceeding?"
"Yes."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Did you know what you were committing yourself to when you took on those powers you now have?"
"Well, um, that was different–"
"Did Yukina understand that she would be summoning an Ancient dark being from the depths of Demon World when she started trying to learn some basic offensive skills?"
"No, but–"
"And what about that kid? Did she choose to become one of the Dark Force's children?"
Botan shook her head.
"Akira is innocent in all of this!" she said. "Yukina and I didn't know what we were doing, but we did it with the intention of gaining strength and power and we were prepared for there to be consequences: Akira didn't ask for what happened to her and she has no control over it!"
Hiei nodded.
"We can teach her to control it," he said.
"We can?" Botan asked.
"We'll have little better to do after the four of us depart."
"D-depart?"
Hiei pulled his cloak back into place and met Botan's eyes with a strange look.
"Once I've completed what I have to do, the four of us will need to leave the others behind," he said.
"Because you think we'll turn evil and want to join the Dark Force?" Botan asked.
"I don't know what will happen," Hiei replied. "But I do know we lose everything if we let it happen in the presence of what hope any of our worlds has left to defend it. We have to concentrate now on ensuring that those able to step up and do what they have to do to end this."
"Yusuke, Kurama, Kuwabara and Touya?" Botan asked.
Hiei nodded.
"Are you saying the Dark Force planned it this way?" Botan asked. "Are saying that thing planned to put you, me, Akira and Yukina against Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama and Touya?"
"I'm as astounded as you are."
Botan could not tell if Hiei was being sarcastic or not, as he neither looked nor sounded anything close to "astounded".
"I'm not surprised that it targeted Yusuke, Kurama or you," she began. "And I suppose it's not ridiculous that it went after Kuwabara and Touya: but why Akira? Why me? And why Yukina?"
"Do you really need to ask that?" Hiei responded. "After what you've just witnessed Yukina doing, do you really need to ask why she might be a target?"
"But… But Yukina is so sweet and kind and innocent!"
"And she's directing the most amoral creature ever to have emerged from Demon World."
"Well that's… Um… That was… Is that big scary wolf really any worse than the Dark Force?"
"Perhaps not. At least it kills quickly."
Botan looked down at the fading mark on the ground, her face twisting involuntarily.
"But you think we can teach Akira how to control what happens to her?" she asked, hoping to find a positive in what felt like an increasingly dark and negative conversation.
"She should have been taught to control it long ago," Hiei replied.
"It's difficult for her," Botan explained. "Like everything else, she was too young when it happened to her. She wasn't ready."
"She should have been raised in Demon World," Hiei flatly replied. "She's confused because she doesn't belong anywhere else. She lacks self-control because she's never had the right guidance or been in the correct environment to understand and control her powers."
"Hiei, I wasn't around when the decision was made not to let her go and live in Demon World," Botan said.
She was not really sure if Hiei even knew that. He sounded angry and bitter, as though he thought she was the one who had refused to allow Akira to leave Spirit World. She was not really even sure if he knew that she had been dead when that decision had been made, by Koenma, in her absence.
"I'm not blaming you," Hiei said. "I'm not blaming the girl's mother, I'm blaming her father. He's the one who held her back because of his own selfish desires to keep her out of Demon World."
"Oh," Botan said softly.
"Assuming Kuwabara even is that child's father," Hiei continued. "I suppose he might as well be, though biologically it can't be possible. It also still doesn't explain why she's female…"
"Oh," Botan said, a little louder than before. "Well, Hiei, Kuwabara isn't Akira's father."
"Of course he isn't," Hiei said. "But no doubt it was his decision to keep her in the living world all her life."
"Akira didn't always live in the living world."
"I hope you're not about to tell me that she lived in Spirit World at any point."
"Well…"
"Because that's worse. Do you understand what happened out here? One of those supposedly "honourable" guards of King Enma's empire was out here trying to coerce her into sex – and she appeared to have absolutely no understanding about what his intentions were: which would actually be consistent of someone who had been brought up in Spirit World, naïve beyond belief."
"Yes, well–"
"I just don't understand why she didn't just destroy him herself. She didn't hesitate to attack me when she didn't like something I was doing. She acted subservient to him as though she had been raised that way – was that child raised in Spirit World?"
"Yes."
Hiei looked outraged, which, given some of his earlier remarks, was making less and less sense to Botan.
"Hiei, if you're so angry about it all," she said carefully. "Why did you come out here to stop what was happening?"
Hiei gave Botan a very strange look, as though she had just insulted him somehow.
"I couldn't let that continue," he eventually answered, pointing at the mark where Saito had fallen.
"I thought maybe you were trying to protect her because you cared," Botan said quietly.
Hiei looked up at Botan, looking quite unimpressed. For a long moment they stood in silence, until Hiei finally ended the moment by turning away.
"We should return to the safe house," he said as he started to leave. "It's best not to linger here. We are already in a difficult situation with the rest of our team, we don't need to have to explain this to them."
Botan nodded and followed after Hiei, shortly summoning her oar and taking to the air as he gradually picked up his pace and she rapidly fell behind him. She only stopped again when Hiei did, as he caught up to Yukina and Akira, standing at the end of the temple lawn, by the gate. Botan quickly landed and joined them, just as Hiei began to address Akira directly.
"If Koenma or anyone else from Spirit World asks you if you have seen that bastard, you tell them you haven't seen him since we left the campsite in the hills," he told her.
"But that's a lie," she flatly replied.
"It's not really lying if you say it a certain way," Botan offered. "If anybody asks you if you've seen Saito recently, you just say "no, I haven't seen him recently". Because "recently" could mean five minutes ago. Did you see him five minutes ago?"
"No," Akira replied.
"Then there you go!" Botan said cheerfully.
"By that time he was just a mark on the ground."
Botan sighed and Hiei groaned.
"It's wrong to lie," Akira insisted. "I can't believe you're not only telling me that it's okay to lie, but now you're trying to tell me how to lie, too!"
"Sometimes it's necessary not to say certain things to certain people," Yukina tried. "Sometimes you have to, to protect those people and yourself. It's like a secret, rather than a lie."
"Keeping secrets is wrong too," Akira flatly replied.
"If you don't lie about this, you will put us all in danger," Hiei warned her.
"It's just a small thing," Botan added. "And besides, don't you think it's okay to lie about this? Saito was a bad man, and what happened to him wasn't really wrong, it's just that right now, some people – especially the rest of the SDF and maybe Lord Koenma – might think that it was wrong. You just have to tough this out until the Dark Age is over. It's just one more thing."
"It's always "just one more thing until the Dark Age is over"!" Akira snapped.
Botan found it hard to argue that point with her: she was right, after all. Every time something bad or unfair had happened to Akira, Botan had told her exactly those words. Botan herself was growing weary of saying it, so she was certain that poor Akira must be tired of hearing it.
"There are two types of liars," Hiei said after a short silence has passed. "There are liars like that bastard you were cornered by back in the forest, who deliberately distort the truth to cheat and to facilitate their vile behaviour whilst maintaining an image of being someone respectable. And there are liars who choose to conceal information to protect others. It's very easy and selfish to be the first kind of liar, and it's very difficult and burdensome to be the second kind of liar. You don't have to like it, you just have to decide what is more important: do you want to protect people you care about or do you want to stick to your principle of always being honest?"
Akira was looking at Hiei the exact same way she did when Botan told her something she did not like, and so Botan tensed, expecting a negative outburst from her at any moment.
"I suppose you think you're the second kind of liar," she said, sounding calmer than she looked. "And you describe it that way to make yourself feel better about the lies you tell."
"This isn't a complicated moral issue," Hiei replied. "You simply have to choose whether you want to tell the truth to Spirit World and condemn us all or whether you want to stay quiet and grant us time to figure out what we should do next. What exactly do you think that Saito would have done if he had witnessed his fellow officers killing you?"
"He would have lied about it," Yukina said.
"Or bragged about it," Botan added bitterly.
Akira looked at Botan for a moment before turning to Hiei again.
"Okay, just this once, I can make an exception," she conceded. "But I don't appreciate it."
"The Dark Age is all about doing what we have to – even if that means compromising some of our usual morals and standards – to survive," Hiei answered her. "Remember that."
Akira looked displeased, but she said no more: which, in Botan's experience, usually meant that she was reluctantly agreeing to do something she was unwilling to. Just like how Hiei went quiet and scowled when he was coerced into doing something he did not agree with. Hiei nodded at Yukina and Botan and then continued across the lawn Yukina waited until he was halfway towards the temple before starting after him. Botan turned to Akira, who still looked quite displeased, and gently touched a hand to the top of her head.
"This will be the last unreasonable thing you will have to do," she said. "…I hope… But there's something I need you to be very honest with me about now. Was today the first time Saito ever approached you that way?"
"Yes," Akira plainly replied. "He used to just call me names and spit on me when I was training with the SDF."
Botan paused.
"I didn't like him," Akira added. "I didn't like the way he spoke to you. I know it's wrong and I don't want it to get you in any trouble, but I still think he deserved what happened to him."
"So do I," Botan agreed. "But I don't know if it's okay for us to think that way."
Akira nodded. Botan was not really sure that Akira understood exactly what she was saying, but she decided to discuss the matter of their potential allegiances at a later time.
"What exactly did Saito say to you anyway, pumpkin?" she asked instead.
"Just weird things," Akira replied. "He was asking me about how it felt to be a demon."
"Well technically speaking, you're only half-demon," Botan pointed out.
"And then he said we ought to both take off our clothes."
Botan froze.
"He was really weird," Akira continued. "I don't like seeing a body getting torn apart normally – it just reminds me of what happened with Master Ken – but I didn't feel anything when it was happening to Saito."
Botan was torn between being horrified that Saito had actually attempted to molest her daughter and wondering if Akira's apathy was another symptom of what she had already feared was happening to Yukina and even herself: were they all turning into the Ancients they represented?
"Let's go back inside," Akira suggested. "I'm hungry."
Botan's hand slid from Akira's head as she walked on. Not only was it unlike Akira to be fine with seeing someone being torn apart, but it was also unlike her to have an appetite any time soon afterwards.
She really hoped that it was not that her daughter was turning into the Sacred Darkness.
"Is everybody here?" Yusuke asked, looking around the room.
Nobody looked especially happy to be gathered in the living room of the safe house, but Yusuke had neither the patience nor the inclination to ask any of them why they looked so miserable.
"Seems like we're missing a few people…" he added.
"Like my dad?" Fubuki asked him.
Yusuke hesitated upon seeing the genuinely pathetic look on her usually fearless face: but he quickly moved on as her words reminded him of something else.
"Where's your mom?" he asked her. "Come to think of it, where's my mom?"
"Keiko took the moms upstairs," Shizuru offered. "We didn't think they needed to be a part of this conversation."
"That was very wise," Koenma said sagely, before his face twisted and his eyes moved to another part of the room. "I just wish Keiko had taken that coward with her too."
Yusuke followed the direction of Koenma's glare to find his ogre butler cowering by a tall houseplant.
"Okay, is anybody else missing?" he asked.
"We've lost one of our officers," Rinbai replied.
"He joined the bad guys, didn't he?" Yusuke asked, quirking an eyebrow to match his expression to his sardonic tone.
"We're not talking about Shun-Jun," Oho replied. "It's Saito. We haven't seen him since we first arrived back here at this temple."
Yusuke slowly scanned around the room. Judging by the flat indifference in all the faces around him, it looked as though everyone else present cared as much about this latest piece of news as he did.
"Which one was Saito?" Yusuke asked, deciding that he ought to at least pretend to be interested, even if only for a moment.
"The really sleazy, slimeball one," Kuwabara replied.
Yusuke gave a small smile.
"Well, that really narrows it down…" he commented.
"Saito was perhaps not always the most upstanding amongst our ranks," Ryuhi said. "But his absence is a cause for concern nonetheless: he was the third strongest of our group – second strongest with Captain Ootake gone – and he may well have been taken by the enemy."
"So if we see him again, we fight him, because he's no longer on our side," Yusuke concluded.
"Isn't that a little harsh?" Sorai asked.
"Are you really in any position to decide what's "harsh" treatment?" Kuwabara asked him coldly.
"It is harsh, yes," Touya offered. "But unfortunately, at this late stage in the Dark Age, as we are firmly in the grips of stage four, it is our only option."
The four remaining SDF officers – Ryuhi, Rinbai, Oho and Sorai – all turned to glare at him.
"I am not singling you out," he assured them. "This is something we must now apply universally."
"What are you saying?" Yusuke asked.
"He's saying that if any one of us is split, individually, from the group and not reunited with us immediately, we cannot trust that individual," Kurama explained. "It was important to hold together before, but now it is crucial. The Dark Force took Shogo right from under our own noses. Its influence spread into this supposed safe haven, and stole one of our own."
"Then by that logic, even if we do all stick together, there's no guarantee for our safety," Koenma quietly pointed out.
"That's true," Kurama replied, remaining oblivious to the few gasps that followed his blunt response. "But we stand a better chance of noticing any unusual behaviour in each other if we stay together and keep our numbers up to objectively view each other and any challenges we face."
"Okay, that sounds smart," Yusuke said. "And another smart thing – that surprising was Koto's idea – was that we should try to figure out what all the riddles from the Dark Force actually mean."
"I have plenty of smart ideas, you prick," Koto grumbled. "And if the sixth Demon World Tournament had went ahead like it was meant to, you would have seen just how smart I can be!"
"Okay, don't get your tail in a twist," Yusuke replied. "We're going to try to figure out the messages that sick bastard left for us right now, but first we've got to make sure we can remember them all – because there were plenty of them, and I wasn't exactly taking notes when we found them."
"We believe there were nine riddles in total," Kurama offered. "An initial one, found by the team assigned to defend Demon World at the very start of this battle, and then eight subsequent riddles that all seemed to follow a theme."
"Right, but I'm blanking on the first one," Yusuke said. "In fact, I'm blanking on all of them. All I can really remember is that the first one mentioned "the chosen eight": because back then, we thought that meant the eight of us in charge of protecting Demon World."
"I think I can remember it," Touya offered.
"The search was short, it was easy to find; what was needed, spirit, heart, soul and mind. Now after fourteen years it's far too late; this is how it ends, just the chosen eight.."
Yusuke looked across the room at Hiei. He looked irritated and edgy – more so than usual.
"Did you memorize that?" Yusuke asked him.
"No, I wrote it down," Hiei sarcastically replied.
"I asked because I wasn't sure if you remembered it or if you were able to read it again with your extra eyeball," Yusuke said. "And while we're on the subject, can you read any of the messages with your extra eyeball? Like can you see any of them from here?"
"No," Hiei answered.
"I was only asking," Yusuke reminded him. "Because it would have been really useful if you could have."
"I can't."
Yusuke wondered whether Hiei could not do it or would not: but he tried not to linger on the matter too long. He felt that Hiei was still trying to antagonise him – just as he had been doing from the very start – and he still had a sneaking suspicion that, before the Dark Age ended, he would end up coming to serious blows with the emiko.
"Okay, so, Koto, since you're the resident expert on all things Dark Force, what does that little attempt at poetry mean?" he asked, turning his attention to Koto.
Koto winced and pointed at herself.
"You expect me to understand how that freak's mind works?" she asked.
"Isn't that why Touya took you with him in the first place?" Yusuke replied. "Because you're supposed to know about this stuff?"
"I know about the Dark Force," she replied, looking unreasonably offended. "I know things about it, but that doesn't mean I understand it or why it does what it does!"
Yusuke sighed and looked around the room.
"Anyone else want to take a guess?" he asked.
"I think it's pretty obvious what it means," Hiei replied. "Clearly the Dark Force is implying that this Dark Age and the future of all three worlds will hinge on the actions of "the chosen eight"."
Yusuke again held back the urge to argue with Hiei.
"I agree with that analysis," Kurama said.
"Me too," Touya added.
The others began to nod and murmur and Yusuke reluctantly agreed with them.
"Is someone writing this stuff down?" he asked.
"Why did you look at me when you asked that?" Koto asked him.
"Well, you're the journalist around here," he replied. "And you're the one who likes learning about things like this. Get a pen and paper and get on it, already."
"Contrary to what you seem to think about me, I'm not some wannabe journalist who opportunistically wanders around with a pen and flip-pad, pouncing all over anything scandalous and–"
"Just get out the pen and flip-pad we all know you're concealing somewhere about your person and do what he asked!" Hiei snapped irritably.
Koto growled but, much to Yusuke's amusement, she retrieved a pen from behind one of her ears and pulled a cut-off flip-pad from the back pocket of her shorts.
"I'm writing it down," she mumbled sulkily, scribbling frantically as she spoke.
"Okay, what's next?" Yusuke asked the others.
"I believe the team in Demon World found the next riddle," Kurama replied.
"Yeah, I remember that," Yusuke agreed. "It was in two parts and it sounded like he was talking about me. I don't really remember how it went though."
Hiei sighed.
"The young child who carries a great burden; must someday step into the father's shoes; to walk in the light of destiny great; and surpass the winter guardian's might," he said.
"Something like that, yeah," Yusuke said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Hiei.
"When the snow falls gently on leaves of green; what has been seen cannot be forgotten; and joining the darkness of bonds of blood; to try to topple a king from his throne," Hiei added.
"And you're definitely not reading this stuff with your third eye?" Yusuke asked.
"Definitely not," Hiei replied. "I committed it to memory because I knew it would be of significance."
Yusuke was not entirely convinced by Hiei's response, but he tried to put aside his suspicions and focus on the task at hand.
"Any takers?" he asked the others.
"As there were eight riddles such as these two, all following an initial passage referencing "the chosen eight", I would assume that each one will contain a clue as to who each of the chosen eight are," Touya offered.
"Right, and I'm not sure what the second passage meant, but I think it's pretty obvious who the first passage is referring to," Koenma said.
"Yeah, it's obviously me, right?" Yusuke said.
"No," Koto snorted.
Yusuke scowled at her.
"You just shut-up and keep writing this stuff down!" he scolded her.
"She's right, Yusuke," Koenma said.
Yusuke snapped around, staring wide-eyed at the prince.
"I don't think that's a reference to you," Koenma continued. "I think it's a reference to me."
"Huh?" Yusuke echoed.
"Think about it," Koenma said. "It mentions carrying a burden, stepping into father's shoes and facing a great destiny: those are all references to how my father fell with Spirit World and I have had to take his place."
"You're one of the chosen eight?" Kaisei asked.
"You don't have to sound so shocked about it," Koenma grumbled.
"I thought the chosen eight would be made up of eight individuals actually capable of opposing the Dark Force," Kaisei explained.
"You think I'm not capable of opposing the darkness?" Koenma asked.
"I didn't mean it like that man, calm down!" Kaisei replied. "I just thought this was gonna be about people who can actually fight."
"Like you, you mean?" Koenma asked.
"Well, honestly? Yeah," Kaisei replied.
"Well maybe you can put your pride to one side for a moment so that we can finish analysing this thing."
"It's not a matter of pride. I'm not saying I'd be proud to have some ancient evil writing poetry about me in blood."
"But you're disappointed that it hasn't?"
"We don't know that it hasn't. We haven't heard the rest of it yet."
"Are you two seriously having this argument?" Yusuke snapped.
"Yeah, come on you guys," Kuwabara added. "Pull yourselves together."
"The Dark Force doesn't just target strong fighters," Hiei said. "It targets individuals it feels can strengthen it – and consider that can mean a strong fighter, an influential leader or a self-righteous bag of emotions it can feed off of."
Yusuke – and just about everyone else in the room – gave Hiei a strange look upon his last remark, but still he remained unaffected.
"Let's move on," Kurama suggested after a short, awkward silence. "Let's at least try to figure out which eight of us the riddles refer to and then perhaps we can focus on attempting to figure out what the riddles imply the Dark Force has planned for the eight of us it has chosen."
"Right," Yusuke agreed. "Can't wait to hear that part…"
Next Chapter: The team continue their attempts to analyse the riddles – without very much success. Hiei however understands it all a little better than anyone else, and he confides his findings in Botan, Yukina and Akira. As Yusuke and Co. hire outside assistance to critically decipher the Dark Force's riddles, Shizuru starts to formulate a plan of her own. When Yusuke's group get some answers, Hiei realises that the time has come to act, and, together with Botan, Yukina and Akira, he is forced to do just that. Finally, Shizuru, Keiko and Koto make a little discovery that may better explain why the Dark Force chose the eight individuals that he did. Chapter 47 – End of Our Days
A/N: I'm bringing forward something else in this story. As a hint, I'll go ahead and say chapter 48 will now be the one called "Total Recall" – probably obvious what that's referring to.