Chapter 16: "A Demon Scare is No Fair"
Somehow, even through the barrier of the screen between them, Koenma managed to glance at Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara in turns, pinning them each with an incensed glare. "Scooby who?" he demanded, tiny toddler arms crossing. "What on earth are you three blathering on about over there?"
"Nothing!" Yusuke yelped, and he gave a nervous laugh. "Why don't you tell us more about the big scary monster, huh, Koenma?"
"If you insist." He dove back into his explanation with gusto. "The energy signature that tipped us off to the presence of a demon seemed quite a bit smaller than what you would expect of a creature like this, admittedly, but in local legend, a demon of this description was said to wander the forest when Onigumo Manor was first constructed. It stands to reason this must be the demon you're looking for."
"I see. So you think this demon is the one abducting hikers in the area?" said Kurama.
"Yes. It does appear to be the man-eating type."
(Kuwabara ducked to one side, out of view of the mirror. "You, uh… you don't eat people, do ya?" he whispered at Scooby-Doo.
Scooby's nose wrinkled. "Ruh-ruh. Ruh-ruh. Rew. Ross!")
"Demons are long lived as a general rule, of course, so my theory is that the demon returned to its home recently." Koenma sat back in his chair, stroking his chin in thought. "Naturally it resided near Onigumo Manor before the barrier between the worlds was first erected, and now it has come back to—"
Kurama looked away from the mirror, but Yusuke was too busy trying to commit everything Koenma was rapid-fire telling him to memory to figure out why. He just grunted when Kurama muttered "Yusuke" in a low voice, the urgency in his tone not really registering at all.
It didn't register with Koenma, either. "Don't interrupt me, Kurama; I'm not finished." Koenma cleared his throat. "As I was saying, the demon you're looking for will most likely resemble the depiction I showed you. I suspect that the demon has returned—"
"Uh." Kuwabara cleared his throat, too. "Yusuke?"
Koenma kept talking through gritted teeth. "—has returned to its ancestral lands after the barrier came down again in recent years, because even demons are capable of homesickness, and—"
"Roo-suke," Scooby said, teeth chattering.
"What?!" Yusuke said. He tore his eyes from the screen to glare at his friends, but then he saw that all of them were looking at something across the room—and when he looked, too, the bottom dropped out of his stomach. "Oh," he said, because there was little else to say.
"Oh? What do you mean, oh?" Koenma snapped. "I said that don't like being interrupted, Yusuke, so—"
Yusuke turned the Communication Mirror around to give Koenma a view of what the rest of them were looking at.
For a beat, Koenma said nothing.
Then: "Ah. I see." He picked up the folder with the demon's picture and tapped against the desk to settle the papers inside. "Well, Yusuke. I think it goes without saying that you ought to start running now." His brow lifted. "Wouldn't you agree?"
Yusuke snapped the Mirror shut. He slipped it into his pocket, eyes fixed on the enormous red demon standing in the doorway—and as Yusuke clocked the way the demon's sharp horns brushed the very top of the door's tall frame, the creature loosed an infuriated roar.
NOTES: Double demon trouble, eh Scoob?