Chapter 19: "The Backstage Rage (of the Fire Demon, Part 2)"
To Hiei, it had become apparent that for all Scooby-Doo claimed he had met Shaggy accidentally, the dog had selected (or, perhaps, molded) his humans with care.
While Scooby distracted the demon with his brainwashing tricks, the humans got going. The two women and the blond man didn't waste time watching their friend Scooby work (not the way Yusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara did, standing in the doorway to ogle Scooby's illusions with jaws dropped). The three aforementioned gaijin instead began a thorough and methodical search of Onigumo Manor, moving from top to bottom and from back to front as if they'd planned their attack beforehand. "Jinkies! It's a clue!" the woman with the spectacles at one point proclaimed, but Hiei wasn't interested enough to note whatever it was she'd found. Instead he preferred a more holistic view of the proceedings, noting the ease with which they coordinated their search as Scooby kept the demon occupied. For all that Scooby's actions spoke of improvisation, it was clear to Hiei that the gaijin and their 'dog' had done things like this a thousand times before.
The tall gaijin with the goatee knew what he was doing, too. When the demon finally realized how Scooby had turned the tables on it, it let loose a roar and began to pursue Scooby through the halls—but the tall gaijin with the ridiculous name was ready. When Scooby turned a sharp corner, Shaggy hauled Scooby into the shadows of a suit of armor and threw his voice into a door across the hall. The demon followed the noise into the room (that idiot!), and together Shaggy and Scooby took the suit of armor's sword and used it to barricade the door behind the demon.
Neat. Simple. Practiced.
These gaijin were more than just some meddling kids. Or at least it seemed that way to Hiei.
These gaijin were capable. And Hiei was not the sort to dole compliments out to humans without them having earned it.
His impression only solidified when the two women and the blond man, on the other side of the house, began to scheme. As Shaggy and Scooby kept the demon corralled, barricading the door with all the furniture they could find as the demon battered at the door from within, the other gaijin began to construct a trap within the bowels of the house. It was a needlessly complicated trap that involved greasing the floors and rigging chandeliers to fall when a tripwire was triggered, but something told Hiei that the construction of horrifically complicated traps, too, was something at which the gaijin excelled.
Yusuke, however, had less confidence in the gaijin than did Hiei (a notion Hiei most assuredly would have scoffed at before that night; Hiei, having more faith in humans than Yusuke? Preposterous!). As they laid their trap, the Detective stepped in to intervene, wresting the chain of a chandelier away from the woman with the red hair.
"Hey, give that back!" she said. "We said we could handle this!"
As Yusuke snapped a comeback at her, Hiei darkly muttered, "Yes, Detective. That gaijin is right. There's no need for you to intervene." He crossed his arms and shot a scowl at the absent Yusuke. "And not just because I wish to see a chandelier fall on that demon's head, either."
As the gaijin and the Detective began to quarrel far off in the depths of Onigumo Manor, Hiei's lips curled into a cruel smile.
"No," he said to himself. "There is another, more important reason you needn't worry—but far be it from me to do the detective work for you."
Off in his tree, Hiei shut two of his three eyes.
In the darkness, he watched.
In silence, he waited—both for the demon to break free of Scooby's prison, and to see if Yusuke and his friends would ever realize what it was, exactly, they thought they were protecting the gaijin from.
NOTES: Needlessly complicated Rube Goldberg Machine to trap a ghost/monster/demon/man in a mask? Check! OF COURSE WE FUCKING HAD TO HAVE ONE OF THOSE. And what is it Hiei has observed that Yusuke seems to have missed? Find out next time!