So then. Here I am, back with another fanfic. It's been a while since I've seen and read YYH, so I remembered how badass it was. This one is kind of AU, taking place a few years after the barrier went down. This is probably going to be one of my most darkest fanfics ever. And yes, I changed the summary so it fit with the dark theme of this.
The barrier between the Makai and Ningenkai had gone down. Demons and humans were coexisting. There seemed to be no need for the Spirit World to even employ spirit detectives to solve demonic cases any longer. It was a time of peace between species that may have finally found the calm after the storm.
Yet there were no words to describe the macabre crime that had hit so close to home to the former spirit detectives.
Yusuke Urameshi bit his lower lip hard when Koenma had come to his ramen stand to inform him of an old friend's death. At first, Yusuke was in disbelief; surely Koenma wouldn't pull a stunt this sick. But the somber expression in his former boss's eyes proved that this was no joke.
It was then that Yusuke had called Kuwabara, Kurama, and had Enki send Hiei from the Makai to meet him. They were in Yusuke's home now, Keiko at his side with her eyes red from tears, as the ex-spirit detective exhaled a heavy breath. "Koenma's been to see me," he began slowly, waiting for the news to not catch in his throat before he spoke his next words. "Kari's dead."
Hikari "Kari" Tsukiyomi was a very dear friend to Yusuke and his friends for her ready smile and kind demeanor, in spite of the fact that she had a temper when necessary. She was no demon of any kind; she was just a human girl who had stumbled into the world of demons unintentionally when a stray demon that attacked her at her most vulnerable when the Reiki Tantei saved her. Yusuke could see the degree of shock on his friends' expressions: Kuwabara's mouth fell open, his dark eyes wide at the news; Kurama looked absolutely stricken, his own emerald eyes going wide and his face paling; Hiei's expression was stoic, but the caustic fire apparition was the one Kari was most closest to of the four of them. The sudden news, Yusuke could see in Hiei's eyes, was devastation.
"How?" Kurama's voice was soft, his emerald eyes fixed on some vague middle distance as he folded his hands in his lap. Yusuke fought down an urge to scream as Koenma had relayed details of Hikari's death. No. It wasn't simply "death". "She was murdered," he spit out, his brown eyes narrowed into slits as a fire burned inside of his body. "Koenma says the task force had heard of some weird demonic activity near where she lived and when they checked it out, her place was the only one that was touched. Completely ransacked. There was a trail leading toward the woods and Kari…" Yusuke fought down a lump that was constricting his throat. Kuwabara raised a hand to stop him, his eyes glistening when he muttered, "Kari was trying to fight them…?"
Yes, Koenma had mentioned that Kari must have fled the demons attacking before she was killed. Yusuke nodded and that was the answer Kuwabara needed.
"Whatever demon or demons they were, they brutalized her. She never stood a chance." Hiei's own voice was a growl, simmering anger underlying his cold tone. The Jagan master had read Yusuke's mind, had flipped through the mental pictures Yusuke had when Koenma delivered the news. "Brutalized may be even putting it too light," Yusuke muttered. "Kari's body was shredded. Blood was everywhere. Koenma's got evidence to believe that she was tortured horrifically, to the point where she would have been screaming in agony, had the assholes not slit her throat." That was the icing on the cake for Yusuke. Someone took the time to kill Hikari, and for what? She hadn't been involved with them since the Chapter Black job and she never uttered a word as to why her sudden withdrawal from them was.
"There was nothing those goons of Koenma's could have done? They were there, right?" asked Kuwabara, his hands clenching into tight fists. He had taken a role of an older brother type with Hikari and Yusuke could only imagine what his friend and former rival was feeling.
"Kari had to have been…" Kurama trailed off and Hiei gave off a grunt of irritation. "Neither of you can even say it now, can you? Hikari is dead and, frankly, she must have known it would come because of associating with us."
"Hiei," began Kurama firmly, but Yusuke felt another flare of irritation.
"You saying that Kari was asking for it, Hiei? Is that it? Because I know that's bullshit coming from you!"
"What is it that you want to happen, Yusuke? It was too late for her when we told her everything there is to know and she knew it was a matter of time. Unlike you and Kuwabara, the girl was no fool."
Yusuke's mouth snapped shut, his molars grinding together painfully. Keiko's expression was completely wounded before she murmured, "What about Sanzeris and Gia?"
The four males froze then. Sanzeris "Zeri" Myoji and Gia Hanabi had been Hikari's very best friends. Zeri and Gia knew about demons and Spirit World, as Hikari could never keep her friends out of the loop. They were the only anchors Hikari had in the world. Gia was a bold girl with hair dyed blonde with purple bangs. She always butted heads with Yusuke, but she got along fairly well with everyone and was Hikari's staunch defender whenever the latter female had become particularly withdrawn. Zeri was more quite, but always spoke her mind. The three girls were usually outside of the loop of Yusuke and the others, but always managed to catch up as soon as they were all in one room again. The remaining two knew that Yusuke and his team made enemies who would go after those closest to them, but were tougher than most. However, it did leave room for worry.
If Hikari was targeted purposely, it had to be a demon or a group of demons with a very bloody vendetta. It meant that Sanzeris Myoji and Gia Hanabi were not safe. "Spirit World wanted me gone," Yusuke muttered, folding his arms over his chest. "But if demons were able to track Kari down and kill her, they'll do the same to Zeri and Gia."
"Then we must bring them here at once," Kurama said, his tone resolute. "It would be beyond any doubt that they've already heard that Hikari is gone."
"So we're babysitting these females because of renegade demons that killed one girl." Yusuke could practically hear Hiei rolling his eyes in sarcasm, but it didn't stop the temper that bubbled so near the surface. "You know as well as we do that Gia and Zeri could possibly be in trouble if we left them alone without some kind of warning. Either that or they'd storm up here demanding why we didn't bother telling them some psychos are gunning for them."
"It isn't my problem, nor is it yours any longer." With that, Hiei flitted off.
A tense silence hung over them before Keiko broke it with silent sobs, tears falling down her cheeks in a steady rainfall. Yusuke went over to her side and hugged her, unsure of what to say to comfort her. Hiei was right; technically, it was no longer Yusuke's concern about demonic crimes. He wasn't a detective anymore.
But the crime had happened to someone who was everything to him and his friends. That was something he could never let go unpunished.
The next morning, Kurama had brought Zeri and Gia the next day, both girls dazed with grief. As soon as they caught sight of Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Keiko, they went to embrace them stoically. The girls were trying hard not to cry, which only made the situation worse for the male who brought them into Yusuke's and Keiko's home. "I still can't believe it," Zeri whispered softly. "Who would do this to Kari? She'd never hurt anyone."
"It's because we're involved with you guys, isn't it?" Gia asked coolly, her violet eyes half-mast. She wasn't addressing solely in regards to Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama; she was addressing their whole friendships in a slightly accusatory tone.
"Yeah." Yusuke's voice was heavy with grief, his own eyes still red rimmed from crying with Keiko last night. He looked to Gia and Zeri, at their detached expressions, and his mouth set into a grim line. "But I swear, I'll find out who did this. I'll find them and give them back every ounce of pain that they gave Kari tenfold."
"I know," Zeri said softly and Gia took her friend's hand. The much bolder of the two females looked toward Kurama. "I figured you would stay out of this, fox. You got your stepdad's company to worry about, right?"
"This is true, yet Hikari was our friend. It feels…numbing to know that she was taken from us." Kurama would have been blatantly honest about how angry he was that Hikari was taken from these two girls and his friends, but he didn't want to frighten them. Youko stirred with hot fury inside of him, the belligerence growing at the fact that the human girl continued to hover in her state of limbo without justice. Kurama was more or less a confidante for Hikari and was highly aware of the fact that she wasn't one to talk about her feelings very easily. Even so, he also wasn't honest about the fact that he and Hikari had stayed in touch after she had left to live her life away from them. It wasn't easy to get her to open up, but something she had said as her parting words stayed with him.
The fox hadn't told Yusuke or Kuwabara yet, but his latest correspondence with Hikari via letters had worried him. She was usually open in her letters with him, but the very last one—dated just two days before her death—had some information that may have been a clue as to her being targeted purposely. Kurama knew he would have to unveil this, yet in his mind, he didn't want to cause more turbulence that already stirred them all and darken the cloud of grief and pain that hovered over them.
A familiar demonic scent lingered outside and Kurama was sure that Hiei was outside, listening. He wondered what was running through the fire apparition's mind. Hikari had been fairly close with Hiei, enough that he tolerated her presence, but she had never pushed her luck. Hiei was a demon used to his solitude and maintained barriers that even Kurama couldn't breach in all their time knowing each other.
Zeri and Gia sat on the couch and Keiko had emerged from the kitchen with cups of tea. "I figured this might help a little," she murmured to them. Zeri smiled slightly in appreciation as she inhaled the steam from the cup of tea handed to her. Gia nodded stoically, her eyes closed, as she gripped her cup of tea tightly in her grasps. The silence was getting heavier by the second.
"Have either of you talked to Kari before…?" Yusuke trailed off, his eyes on the two girls occupying the couch as Keiko sat on the arm of the loveseat situated diagonally from them. Zeri shook her head, her light brown hair falling over her shoulder from the movement. Gia ground her teeth together, a muscle ticking in her jaw. "Yusuke," she began in a voice of steady fury, "do you have any idea how it feels, knowing that someone you're supposedly close to couldn't even come to you with the slightest concern?"
"What do you mean?" asked Kuwabara, looking at Gia.
Gia's eyes sharpened like blades. "You guys can be so stupid. Haven't you ever wondered why Kari maintained her distance for almost two and a half years?" she asked with the barest inflection.
"What in the hell are you talking about?" Yusuke bit out.
Gia had a silver tongue, but she had never before seemed this vicious. "Look, I don't know how much you thought you knew about her, but Kari had her reasons for being so withdrawn. The fact is, she kept something from us and I can bet that's the reason she died."
"You seem sure of this, Gia," observed Kurama. "I would figure you would be sensitive about this, especially with how detached Zeri has been." His green eyes flickered to the brunette, who jolted when her name was spoken. Gia turned her head to Zeri. "Zeri?"
Zeri lowered her gaze to the tea. "Don't direct this at me," she murmured softly. "It's bad enough to lose someone and then have an opinion of how and why they were taken from us."
"Zeri, you knew Hikari the longest, haven't you? She never got in touch with you?" Keiko whispered.
Zeri shook her head. "Not once. But before she became so…well, you know…she was with Gia and I, remember?" Her dark eyes flickered to Gia. Gia nodded. "Yeah, before you guys took out that one guy, the one who wanted to make the giant hole between our world and Makai. We were all at my place and Kari just sort of…seized."
"Seized?" Kuwabara and Yusuke chorused.
"She had a seizure?" asked Kurama, raising an eyebrow.
"No, not an all out seizure. She just sort of…blacked out with her eyes wide open. Then she started freaking out and she had run out the door. That was the last time we ever saw her," mumbled Zeri. "She was so pale and she just mumbled something to herself…"
"Has Botan guided her soul into the Reikai?" Kurama turned to Yusuke.
"Dunno. I haven't seen her yet," Yusuke replied, crossing his arms at the mention of the bubbly, blue-haired guide. "Though if we are going to get to the bottom of this problem, if she hasn't taken Kari's soul, we can figure out what happened."
"Then we should go to Koenma, right?" asked Kuwabara, raising his eyebrows. "He should be able to let us, right? Since Kari's our friend."
"Perhaps. However, Yusuke's no longer a spirit detective and as such, he may not be able to ask for such a thing. I'm sure Koenma even giving details of how Kari died was the extent of courtesy," Kurama said, averting his eyes toward Yusuke. Yet he wanted to know the truth of the matter from the girl's soul if it was possible. He could sense that his friends wanted the truth as well. When he shut his eyes, Hikari's cryptic last sentence in her final letter drifted into his mind.
"Have you ever been afraid of something only you can see?"
From his place outside, Hiei's crimson orbs opened halfway. He was aware of Kurama bringing the other two human girls who knew the one that they had lost.
The one they lost. Hikari Tsukiyomi, the human girl who had the audacity to try to become annoyingly close to him. It annoyed Hiei even more so to think that the girl had succeeded in her endeavor to try to understand him.
Hiei knew that Kurama had kept in touch with Hikari even without the use of his Jagan eye. While the fox was clever in his own right, Hiei could easily sense it. Concern was Kurama's favorite human trait and the girl's sudden disappearance from them all sparked an attempt to reach her.
However, the fire apparition had sensed something within the few moments where the girl had sought him out. He had sensed a rising Reiki, uncontrolled, fighting to reach a higher scale. Hikari had a sixth sense that wasn't potent as theirs and her two friends, and they all had known this. Yet something had changed within her that caused her to be taciturn even around Hiei, who had taken the cake in not being the most loquacious.
Out of his own volition, Hiei had used his Jagan to try and probe the girl's thoughts with use of telepathy and was shocked to find barriers barring him from doing so. Her friends were right to be concerned; she was fiercely trying to hide something and if Hiei couldn't even wrench an answer from the recesses of her mind then something had to have been wrong.
And her expression… even on a human, Hiei had never been so unnerved by one lowly human girl's expression and was not quick to forget it in spite of his biting comments from the day before. Her long, ebony hair framing her face, the expression upon it was grim, stoic, her lips a thin line. Her eyes—a strange, solid ember, like fire—weren't shining in that odd way of hers; they were dulled exponentially, unfocused on the now.
They were the eyes of the dead. And it had shaken something deep inside of Hiei that he kept locked away even from him himself.
Her words were just as chilling, enough so that Hiei had been surprised to feel an acute shudder race down his spine. "So that's it. It's in your eyes."
What in all the hells was wrong with that girl? was his thought.
It's in your eyes...
What in the hell did she see?
Have you ever been afraid of something only you can see?
"What exactly were you capable of, girl?" Hiei growled, anger heating his blood at not having the answers.
What irritated him even further was that the one who could answer the questions could never speak for herself again.