Warnings: None

Notes: Chapter is set during the Artifacts of Darkness case. Inspired by the prompt "mirror" in the daily writing challenge I'm undergoing in October 2021.

RIOT CHILD

Chapter 07:

"Mirror"

Keiko shot off the bench the minute she saw Yusuke coming. "You got it?" she said, looking him over from top to bottom above the blue fabric of her mask. "The mirror?"

Yusuke fingered the Forlorn Hope where it sat in his pocket and said, "I did."

She visibly relaxed. Keiko had been almost as amped up over the Artifacts of Darkness case as Yusuke, even though she wasn't the one having to stick her neck out to fight demons and reclaim the items they stole from Spirit World. Not that she hadn't offered to help Yusuke do that, of course, but still. She didn't like his job for Spirit World and hadn't bothered to hide that fact, but she always had his back—of that, Yusuke had no doubt. That's why it hadn't surprised him one bit when Keiko helped him track down Gouki, nor had it come as a shock when she insisted on accompanying him to Meiou High School to confront…

Yusuke looked up at the hospital looming over the dark street corner where he stood with Keiko. The moon hung like a watching eye in the sky above the building, cratered and pale and bright. The demon who'd taken the Forlorn Hope was named Kurama… sort of? He went by Minamino Shuichi in his human life. Of all the things Yusuke had expected from this case, meeting a demon who'd been killed and then reborn in a human body hadn't been one of them. But Kurama (Shuichi?) had been nice enough. Mild mannered, anyway. Very responsible about his human mom. He was even better at being a human that Yusuke, but the looks of things.

Anyway. The first time Yusuke met Kurama, he'd decided to confront him over at Meiou—and Keiko had encouraged it. "Catch him off guard," she'd told him, "and don't wait for him to come to you."

The gamble had paid off. Kurama had looked freaked as hell to see Yusuke waiting for him at his high school's front gates. But although Keiko had cheered Yusuke's confrontation tactic, she had kept out of sight while Yusuke and Kurama talked. She waited at the end of the block, trying (and failing in her gloves, mask and glasses) to look unobtrusive while she spied on them from afar. Something told Yusuke that despite the distance she kept, she was pretty curious about Kurama, too. Yusuke understood where she was coming from, though. Wasn't every day you got to meet someone with as weird a backstory as that guy.

Plus, Kurama had been pretty nice. Yusuke got the sense Keiko and Kurama would get along fine if they ever met face to face. He just had a hunch, y'know?

When Keiko asked to see the Forlorn Hope, Yusuke handed it over to her without argument, watching in silence as she inspected the mirror's dark glass and bronze frame. She had been a mess of nerves when Yusuke went into the hospital to get the mirror back from Kurama, but now her shoulders were relaxed, fingers steady as they turned the mirror over in her hands. How she could see the thing through her coke-bottle glasses, Yusuke wasn't sure. The thought made him chuckle; Keiko glanced his way as they fell into step beside each other, heading as one toward the nearby train station.

"How much trouble did Kurama give you?" she asked, eyes still on the mirror.

"Not much, actually." Yusuke was still surprised at how smoothly things had gone—well, barring the unforeseen complications he'd somehow managed to navigate without getting his fool head killed. Bracing himself for the lecture sure to come, he said, "But you should know…"

Keiko listened to the tale in silence, but for some reason she didn't seem at all perturbed to hear about Yusuke jumping in to donate his life energy to save Kurama (and Kurama's mother) from a horrible fate. She just patted him on the back with one rubber-gloved hand when he was done. Despite the mask and glasses obscuring her features, he could tell when she smiled at him.

"Sharing is caring," was all she said. "Gotta divvy up that life energy for the common good, huh?"

Yusuke snorted. "You would make this about redistribution of wealth."

"What can I say? I'm predictable."

"You sure are, Kobun-kun."

'Kobun'—a word for a member of the Yakuza spelled with the same character for "child" that made up half of Keiko's given name. Yusuke had gifted Keiko the nickname so many years prior, back when they first met and Keiko's undisguised disdain for authority had convinced Yusuke's young brain that she must be part of a local Yakuza ring. She never argued against the name or protested its use, even after they got to middle school and she cleaned up her act (to a degree). Keiko seemed to find it funny, actually, and leaned into the whole "Keiko is Yakuza" rumor that still haunted her (and Yusuke, by extension) to this day at Sarayashiki Jr. High.

And a good thing, too, because when she'd nearly punched a teacher at Yusuke's wake, they'd been too scared of Keiko's fearsome reputation to kick her out. It helped that she rallied Atsuko's actual Yakuza contacts to park some big black vans around the school in an act of pure intimidation…

"So anyway." They were halfway to the train station when she handed the Forlorn Hope back to Yusuke, eyeing him while he tucked it in his pocket and out of sight. "What now?"

"Just Hiei and the Shadow Sword, I guess." Yusuke scowled. "Though I don't know how the hell I'm supposed to find—"

"Yusuke!" A voice rang out from down the sidewalk, back the way they'd come. "A moment?"

Kurama jogged toward them, feet light and quick against the sidewalk. Yeah, he was not what Yusuke had expected when Koenma had dumped this case in his lap. Kurama looked thoroughly, annoyingly human—a good-looking teenage boy with dark hair and flashing green eyes, the kind girls at school liked to gush over in magazines and whatnot. Those girls would faint if they knew this particular pretty boy was actually a dead demon in disguise, and the thought made Yusuke hold back a laugh. He'd have to share that idea with Keiko later. She'd get a merciless giggle out of it at the expense of their classmates, too.

Yusuke turned with a grin and waved, absently noting the way Keiko had gone quite still and quiet at his side. He ignored her, though, and strode ahead a few paces to intercept Kurama. He knew Keiko didn't like anyone coming near her. Running interference was Yusuke's specialty.

"Oh, hey, man. Sup?" Yusuke said. "Didn't expect to see you again so soon."

"Yes, I—" Kurama noticed Keiko for the first time; he stopped midsentence, lips pressing together tight. "Apologies. I didn't realize you weren't alone." He aimed a short bow in Keiko's direction. "Hello. My name is Mina—"

"Your name is Kurama." Keiko blunt voice was a muffled bark behind her mask. "I know everything, so don't try pulling the human act on me."

"I see." Kurama didn't look particularly happy about that, but his tone remained unerringly polite. "And you are an associate of Spirit World as well?"

"Fuck no." She almost spat the words. Keiko had distrusted Spirit World from the get-go and made no attempts to disguise her disdain for the way they 'used and abused' Yusuke after his resurrection; clearly she wouldn't be changing her tune around Kurama. Jerking a thumb toward Yusuke, she said, "I'm here to support this guy, not the toddler upstairs."

"Her name is Keiko, by the way," Yusuke muttered.

"It's nice to meet you." Kurama didn't sound like he meant it, though, because he pointedly turned from Keiko toward Yusuke. "I understand Spirit World will be sentencing me for my crimes against them in the coming days. I wanted to make it clear that I will make no attempt to run in the meantime. Do you know when they will be arriving to take me into custody? I would appreciate any forewarning so as not to take my mother by surprise."

"Shit. No." Yusuke rubbed the back of his neck. "They didn't tell me anything."

"Bureaucrats," Keiko huffed in the tone most people use to talk about infected zits.

But Kurama didn't commiserate. "Spirit World has much on their proverbial plate. I can be patient," was all he said with a sidelong glance in her direction. "I will wait for their word."

Yusuke grinned, sheepish. "Sorry I don't know more."

"It's all right. Thank you." A wry smile curled Kurama's mouth. "I suppose I'll be seeing you soon."

"Seriously?"

Yusuke's head whipped toward Keiko. She stood with hands on her hips, a glare apparent even through the mess of material hiding her face. He knew that tone well enough to fear the dressing-down that was sure to follow, but to his surprise, she wasn't looking at him. She was sneering at Kurama.

Huh. What could she possibly be getting on Kurama's ass about, of all people? That was weird. Granted, Keiko was always pretty fuckin' weird, but this…

Kurama had only met Keiko a minute prior, but it seemed like he could pick up on the weirdness as well. "I beg your pardon?" he said as one dark brow hitched high upon his forehead. "Is something wrong?"

"Weren't you some badass demon thief in your past life?" Keiko's hand lashed the air as if striking at a buzzing fly. "A running-from-the-law, 'I spit in the face of the powers that be,' anti-establishment rogue?" Despite her facial covering, Yusuke could picture the way she bared her teeth. "And now you're just gonna sit here and wait for Spirit World to come and fetch you like a good little demon?"

Kurama bristled; Yusuke fought the urge to take a step backward. "I am not a good little anything," he said, voice paradoxically tranquil despite the look of thunder on his face. "But for the sake of my mother, I will comply."

But Keiko, ever the bulldog, wasn't satisfied. "You could at least try and put together a defense or something," she argued, gloved hands once more waving through the air. "Not just roll over and make it easy for them!"

"With all due respect, you know nothing about my situation." Kurama looked Keiko over through cold eyes, disdain dripping from every smooth syllable. "So I would suggest keeping your opinions to yourself—what was your name, again?" He pretended not to remember, apologetic smile not the slightest bit sincere. "Meiko? Keigo?"

"Keiko. But it's Yukimura to you," came Keiko's cold-as-ice reply, and then she spun on her heel and marched off toward the train station.

Whelp. So much for those two getting along. Yusuke bid Kurama a hasty goodbye, promising to be in touch the minute he knew anything, and ran off after Keiko. He caught up with her at the station doors, grabbing her by the elbow as he skidded to a halt at her side. She wrenched her arm away and backed up with a growl. Yusuke winced and put his hands in his pockets to give her space.

But he wasn't about to let her off the hook. "What the fuck was that?" he said. "You bit the guy's head off!"

"Feh. A disappointment, that's what that was." She stared straight ahead, head inclined and eyes blazing behind her glasses. "The great thief Kurama doesn't live up to my expectations at all." Here she shrugged, words turning the barest bit sly. "At least he's nice to look at, I guess…"

Despite this obvious attempt at a joke to lighten the mood, Yusuke knew Keiko well enough to realize she was covering something. More than likely the emotion she wanted to hide was anger, which he saw burning in her gaze like banked coals, and which she hadn't bothered to hide when she lashed out at Kurama the way she had. But underneath that, Yusuke sensed something else. Something darker, something sadder—and that was something he did not understand in the least.

NOTES

She wanted an anti-establishment friend, but Kurama (who's trying to reform for his mother's sake) doesn't fit the bill anymore. Boo. Maybe one day they'll have a talk and she'll cut him some slack, but I don't think their first meeting would go well at all.

In case it's not obvious, NQK doesn't get sent to Kurama's school in this version of events, so they basically have no relationship at all before the Artifacts of Darkness case. Once they get to the Dark Tournament, they develop… well. It's definitely not a "friendship." Kurama regards Keiko as a taciturn gremlin and she thinks he's a toothless Spirit World lapdog and they basically don't speak to one another unless absolutely necessary. When they do talk, they basically just needle at each other and try to get on one another's nerves. "Frenemies" is probably the best word for it.

Sorry, Keirama shippers: It's possible this could evolve into a "frenemies to lovers" scenario or something, but it's more likely they're just begrudging allies who barely tolerate each other. I'd have to write more scenes with them to really figure that out.

Thanks to those who read the previous chapters (Convoluted Compassion, Kaiya Azure, Call Brig on Over, Lady of Chaos)! Tomorrow's entry in my daily prompt responses involves Not Quite Kagome.