Chapter 12: "The Howl of the Fright Hound"

Although Kuwabara had stepped between Yusuke and Scooby with a particularly dead-set expression on his face (one Yusuke recognized from that one time Kuwabara tried to let Toguro kill him, among other incidences; it was, of course Kuwabara's Most Annoying Expression Ever™), Kuwabara still gulped when Yusuke didn't immediately lower his Spirit Gun. He raised his arms wide, blocking Yusuke's approach, and over Kuwabara's shoulder Yusuke saw Scooby-Doo's face morph into a vision of pure and utter shock. Kurama, meanwhile, just looked vaguely annoyed, but that was his customary reaction to Yusuke and Kuwabara's shenanigans.

Yusuke's customary reaction to Kuwabara's shenanigans was to gape at Kuwabara and the lob insults. "Hey!" he barked. "What's the big idea, asshole?!"

But Kuwabara didn't rise to Yusuke's name-calling. "Oh, shut it, Urameshi," was all he said, and he waved vaguely behind himself at Scooby. "Can't you see?"

"See what?"

"Scooby-Doo." Kuwabara swallowed again, determination keeping his features firm. "He might be doing exactly what Kurama said and tricking everybody, sure, but… look close."

Yusuke grumbled something under his breath about Kuwabara being a supreme dumbass, but in spite of his misgivings, he did as Kuwabara asked—and his eyes widened.

"He's shaking like a leaf," Kuwabara said, tone firm. "Has been for a while now."

And it was true: Though Scooby-Doo still bared his teeth, he'd slunk low to the ground, belly very nearly touching the rotting floorboards of Onigumo Manor, and in his knobbly joints Yusuke detected a pronounced tremor. The whites showed all around Scooby's eyes, too. If Scooby hadn't already copped to being a demon, he'd be the very portrait of a frightened (but still misshapen) Great Dane.

Not that Yusuke would admit that to Kuwabara. "Yeah, so?" he said, not lowering his Gun. "Why should I care?"

"You should care because he's scared, Urameshi!" Kuwabara threw up his hands when Yusuke still refused to budge. "And he didn't ask us to leave him alone. He said us." Kuwabara shook his head, finding his words one by painstaking one. "He—he cares about Mystery Inc. If Scooby was a bad guy, he'd be trying to save his own skin, not take care of some random humans."

"Kuwabara," Kurama slowly said. "Did Scooby's brainwashing, perhaps, succeed in your case?"

"What?! No! Gosh, way to have faith in me, huh?"

"Apologies," Kurama said, though he didn't look particularly apologetic at all (Yusuke couldn't help but snigger). "But perhaps Scooby was scared due to the output of Yusuke's considerable strength."

Kuwabara stuck his nose in the air. "Nope. I don't think that's it."

"You don't—"

He threw up his hands again. "Would you just trust me, or what?"

Yusuke started to tell Kuwabara that he could take his cockamamie theories and shove them where the sun don't shine—but he couldn't bring himself to say that, because dammit, Kuwabara was usually right about mushy garbage like this, wasn't he? Time and again, Kuwabara had been right about their enemies' various unspoken motivations and complexities, and something about the unwavering glimmer in Kuwabara's eye told Yusuke that Kuwabara was pretty sure he was right about Scooby, too. Yusuke hated to admit it (because Kuwabara got particularly annoying whenever he proved Yusuke wrong about something) but…

Yusuke shot Kurama a sidelong glance.

Kurama sighed.

Kurama shrugged.

Yusuke lowered his hand, the Spirit Gun glimmering one last time before fading from view. Far as Yusuke was concerned, if Kurama was willing to humor Kuwabara for a minute or two, Yusuke would be willing, too. They could always try and catch Scooby if he ran away or something, right? Or—

Movement drew Yusuke's eye. He looked sharply down at Scooby-doo, gripping his wrist in case he needed to fire his Spirit Gun, but Scooby hadn't tried to make a break for it.

All Scooby-Doo had done with crawl on his belly toward Shaggy, so he could pillow his enormous head on the oblivious Shaggy's knee and stare up at him with huge, watery eyes in wistful silence.

Yusuke let his Gun fade again.

Well, shit. Maybe Kuwabara was right, after all.

Kuwabara didn't waste any time. He dropped to his butt and scooted across the floor toward Scooby, holding up his hands and stopping his approach when the dog spotted him and flinched. Kuwabara wore a big ol' smile on his face, encouraging and approachable like he was trying to charm a stray cat… or in this case a dog, dog demon, whatever.

"Hey, little guy," Kuwabara said. Baby-talking, like Scooby was just a mutt and not a demon capable of brainwashing humans into doing his bidding (or maybe Kuwabara was just conveniently forgetting that little tidbit so he could prove Yusuke wrong; ugh, that shithead). "It's OK. Why don't you tell us why you're here, huh?"

Scooby didn't move. His eyes flickered from Shaggy to Kuwabara to Yusuke and back again, roving in a frantic circle across the room.

"I don't think you're a bad perso—I mean, dog. I mean, demon. Um." Kuwabara scratched the back of his neck with a nervous, but genuine, laugh—and at that sound, Scooby's eyes widened again. "I just promise I'll listen to whatever you have to say. All right, Scooby?" He smiled even bigger. "Wanna talk to me, huh?"

Scooby stared at Kuwabara for a long while in silence.

Then, without preamble, the dog-who-was-not-a-dog burst into big, wet, gulping, hiccupy tears.

NOTES

Kuwabara is my favorite and this is why. Next time: The Truth of Scooby-Doo.