Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Yu Yu Hakusho characters. If I did,
Puu the blue penguin would be mine!
Thanks to my reviewers for reading chapter five – Yavie Aelinel for your encouragement, SakuraAngel04 you're a darling, and Raiko Gotal – I know, I know, Botan's hair IS officially blue, but I just can't write that down because it makes me think of those little old ladies years back who used to use a blue rinse solution on their grey hair to make it look more white. And in the earlier episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho, Botan's hair does have a more silvery tint to it, so I decided to go with the word "silver" to describe her hair.
CHAPTER SIX: HIEI INTERROGATES
At Kuwabara's house, Shizuru handed around a tray of snacks while Team Urameshi sat on the floor of Kuwabara's room, cramming in around the Wind Slasher, their former foe.
The girl sat on her knees in the center of the room, head bowed, hands clasped in her lap. She shook her head when Shizuru offered her the tray.
"I think Hiei should question her." Offered Botan. "He knows demonish really well."
"Yeah, but he killed the last demon he questioned." Yusuke objected.
"Yeah, what about that?" A still-miffed Kuwabara seconded.
Hiei sniffed.
"Well, yes, that's true, but there will be no killing of anyone this time." Temporarily side tracked, Botan lost her momentum. "After all, if Kurama saved her life, it would be silly to take it now, especially since she isn't fighting us anymore and..."
Kurama broke in. "I have no objection to Hiei conducting the interrogation."
"Then that's settled. Hiei?" Botan smiled encouragingly.
Hiei uncrossed his legs and got off the bed where he'd been perched and dropped to a seat before the silent girl. He asked questions in demonish, while Kurama translated both questions and answers for those who didn't understand.
Hiei: "Who hired your team to enter the tournament?"
Wind Slasher: "I don't know."
Hiei: "Why not?"
Wind Slasher: "They not tell me."
Hiei: "Did you see the man who hired your team?"
Wind Slasher: "No. Mist Master goes, comes back. Says job."
Hiei: "How much did he pay you?"
Wind Slasher: "Don't know. I don't get paid."
Hiei: In Japanese. "She's useless."
"Perhaps you could read her mind?" Suggested Kurama.
Hiei grunted. "Pointless. She doesn't think in either demonish or Japanese."
"So what language does she think in?" Asked Keiko interestedly.
"How would I know? Human languages don't interest me." Hiei got up and returned to his perch on the bed, to distance himself from the group.
"Well, this isn't exactly going as I'd planned." Botan sounded depressed. "But it's not a total loss." She gazed at the silent girl speculatively. "Shizuro, you know how to cut hair, don't you?"
"I've cut my own and my friends' hair for years." Kuwabara's lanky big sister said, leaning on the doorframe of her brother's room.
"A makeover!" Keiko smiled.
Botan jumped to her feet. "It's just the thing to get our minds off our problems." She grabbed Wind Slasher's hands from out of her lap and used them to propel her to her feet and down the hall to the bathroom, an amused Shizuru and Keiko following.
While they were gone, Hiei and Kurama conferred quietly as Yusuke and Kuwabara took turns defeating each other on computer games.
"Ta Da!" Twenty minutes later, the Wind Slasher was shoved into the room by a beaming Botan.
"Wow." Kuwabara's mouth hung open.
"What do you think?" Asked Botan, placing her hands on the girl's shoulders and turning her around in a circle. Wind Slasher's bangs were still layered, but now the longest ends merely brushed her eyebrows. Other layers framed her face, accentuating cheekbones and a delicate neck. The back was still longish, but now reached only to just below her shoulders. Her facial features, revealed, were enhanced by subtle tones of eye-shadow, blush, and mascara. She was, in a word, pretty. However, her gaze was still resolutely focused on the floor, though Botan was not allowing her to slump.
"She looks OK." For Yusuke, that was an emphatic stamp of approval.
"Hiei?" Botan asked.
"She's fine for a human." He replied gruffly.
Eyes sparkling, she turned next to Kurama. "What do you think?"
"She's lovely." Kurama said simply.
Botan agreed to go tell Koenma about the lack of progress in the case. Shizuru gave Kurama a bundle of clothes for Wind Slasher to borrow, and the meeting adjourned.
Days passed. Each morning Kurama left the girl alone in the apartment. From what the house-plants told him, she spent most of the time cleaning, or staring at the T.V. or whatever textbooks he left in his room. After school Kurama tried to ask her about her human parents or her real home, but she was evasive, or pretended that she didn't understand the questions, so he didn't push her. In the evenings she helped his mother with dinner. His mother had warmed up to the girl, and was teaching her how to cook Japanese dishes.
On Friday, Kurama got a call from Keiko. Botan was calling an emergency meeting at Yusuke's house. He arrived with Wind Slasher just as Botan flew in on her oar.
"The opal..." Botan paused dramatically. "Has been stolen."
"You're kidding!" Kuwabara said. "I thought Koenma had it."
"He did, he stored it in his strong room, but now its gone. Koenma thinks it's an inside job, and he's assigned you, Yusuke, to find out who stole it, and bring it back. And you know what that means."
"Oh man, more work? Why can't Koenma leave me alone?" Yusuke whined. "Ow!" Keiko rapped him smartly on the head.
"You're a spirit detective, Yusuke. Who else is Koenma going to call on to solve a crime?"
"I'll go." Kuwabara was quick to volunteer. "I'm the toughest kid at Sarayashiki Junior High. Burglers don't scare me."
"Thank you, Kuwabara." Botan looked around. "Hiei, Kurama?"
"Hn."
"Just let me drop off my house guest."
"Oh no, Koenma wants her to come too."
Kuwabara conceded with a nod.
Team Urameshi and Wind Slasher traveled by a nearby portal to Koenma's palace, leaving Keiko behind to go to a student council meeting she had to lead. The only sticky moment was when the girl had to step through the portal. She balked, stopping dead on the threshold, until Kurama stepped through, turned, and held out his hand.
"Come." He used suggestion form of the demonish command, and after a second, she reached out, took his hand and stepped through.
The palace was in an uproar, and Koenma was in a foul mood.
"Yusuke! Get me that Opal and get it back now!" Koenma sucked on his pacifier angrily. "I've got one dead Ogre guard, I don't know who to trust, and I don't like feeling that way!" After a bit more ranting, Koenma gave them the background. The theft had occurred during a break period when one of the two guards was off getting dinner. Only someone familiar with palace routine would have known that.
The dead guard had been shot right outside the strong room door. Since guns were primarily a human, rather than demon weapon, they decided to split up and ask around the portals to see if any humans had used them recently.
The team scattered, to cover more area, then met back at the palace.
Kuwabara arrived last. "I got it! I found a demon who saw someone like me using a portal."
"You mean tall and stupid-looking?" Asked Hiei.
"Shut up, shorty! I've had about enough of you." Kuwabara curled his hands into fists and glowered over the black-garbed fighter, who looked decidedly unimpressed. "I don't see you finding anything useful."
After separating Hiei and Kuwabara, the team crossed through the portal Kuwabara had identified as the one the burgler went through.
They came out in an alley beside a large, seedy hotel. The other side of the alley was a department store closed for the evening. Since the department store was a dead end, they decided to check out the hotel. Kuwabara went up to the concierge desk and began questioning the man, who was slovenly dressed, and reading a newspaper when they entered.
"Hey Mr.," Kuwabara addressed the clerk. "Have you seen my uh...uncle? He's tall, like me, only with blonde hair and no freckles."
The clerk looked bored and turned a page of his newspaper. "Our hotel prides itself on the privacy of its guests."
"So what does that mean?"
Putting his newspaper down, the clerk leaned over the counter. "It means we VALUE their privacy and they PAY to be sure we don't rat them out."
Yusuke strode up beside Kuwabara. "Listen, I don't got all day. Tell us where the guy is."
Smirking contemptuously, the clerk went back to his newspaper until Kurama tipped some yen over his newspaper so the money fell into his lap. That got his attention. He rolled his eyes, but set the paper down and snatched up the money. "OK. The guy you want left with his friend about half an hour ago. They were on their way to the airport. They said something about catching a flight to Germany."
The group left and conferred outside the hotel.
"Germany?" Botan asked reflectively. "If the burgler was headed for Germany, why not just take a portal directly from the spirit realm? There are lots of them."
"Perhaps he needed to come back for his companion." Kurama suggested.
"Whatever. Let's just go to the airport, get the opal, and get out of here." Easily bored, Yusuke began walking to the nearby taxi stand, where two taxis were waiting. They all piled into the first one and went to the airport.
"Now, all we have to do is find a tall blonde foreigner who's traveling with another foreigner, and grab the opal from him." Botan said brightly, then, looking around the airport terminal her face fell. The airport was huge, and foreign tourists were everywhere. "Oh dear, this isn't going to be as easy as I thought."
"So let's get moving already."
"But where, Yusuke? There are several flights leaving for Europe at different gates." Botan looked around, discouraged. "And we don't have a very good description of the man we're looking for."
"Hey!" Interjected Kuwabara. "It worked fine for that guy at the hotel. Besides," he placed his hands on his hips and lifted his chin. "It'd be easier to just find the opal, and my gut's telling me it's that way." He jerked his chin toward a corridor leading to some bathrooms, phones, and a janitorial area.
"Please. Are we going to listen to this buffoon's gut?" Hiei asked.
"Well, he is human, and he was particularly susceptible to the opal during the tournament. There may be something in what he says." Ever the peacemaker, Kurama attempted to placate Hiei, who merely harrumphed. Wind Slasher pulled nervously on her bangs and watched the interplay between the two.
"If Kuwabara says it's over there, then I'm going over there." Yusuke strode over to the corridor, leaving the others no choice but to follow behind.
"Yusuke, shouldn't we come up with a plan?" Botan asked, hurrying after him.
"Listen shrimp," Kuwabara admonished Hiei loudly. "I know what I'm talking about." He smirked. "I'm just sensitive that way." Hiei stalked on, ignoring him.
"Come." Kuwabara suggested to Wind Slasher, who dropped her hand from her hair and followed along obediently.
They reached the corridor just as a janitor left his cart by the entrance and went off, pulling a carton of cigarettes from his pocket. Dodging around it, they started down the hall, Kurama pulling the cart further across the entrance behind them to discourage passers by from looking.
Yusuke reached the end of the corridor where bathroom doorways, separated by an old, sand filled ash receptacle were set into the wall.
"So, Kuwabara, which one?" Yusuke nodded toward the doors.
"The boys' room, of course. But you can't go in there!"
Yusuke looked at him. "Why not?"
"Because! He might be...busy!" Kuwabara gestured toward the door. "You can't fight a guy when he's in the bathroom. That's just wrong."
At that moment, the bathroom door opened, the doorway framing a tall, blonde, foreign man with cold grey eyes, carrying a briefcase that bulged slightly in the middle.
The minute he saw them, blocking his escape, he spat out an epithet. His hand moved to under his arm and he pulled out a gun, pointing it at Yusuke.
TO BE CONTINUED...
If you like the story so far, please read and review!
Thanks to my reviewers for reading chapter five – Yavie Aelinel for your encouragement, SakuraAngel04 you're a darling, and Raiko Gotal – I know, I know, Botan's hair IS officially blue, but I just can't write that down because it makes me think of those little old ladies years back who used to use a blue rinse solution on their grey hair to make it look more white. And in the earlier episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho, Botan's hair does have a more silvery tint to it, so I decided to go with the word "silver" to describe her hair.
CHAPTER SIX: HIEI INTERROGATES
At Kuwabara's house, Shizuru handed around a tray of snacks while Team Urameshi sat on the floor of Kuwabara's room, cramming in around the Wind Slasher, their former foe.
The girl sat on her knees in the center of the room, head bowed, hands clasped in her lap. She shook her head when Shizuru offered her the tray.
"I think Hiei should question her." Offered Botan. "He knows demonish really well."
"Yeah, but he killed the last demon he questioned." Yusuke objected.
"Yeah, what about that?" A still-miffed Kuwabara seconded.
Hiei sniffed.
"Well, yes, that's true, but there will be no killing of anyone this time." Temporarily side tracked, Botan lost her momentum. "After all, if Kurama saved her life, it would be silly to take it now, especially since she isn't fighting us anymore and..."
Kurama broke in. "I have no objection to Hiei conducting the interrogation."
"Then that's settled. Hiei?" Botan smiled encouragingly.
Hiei uncrossed his legs and got off the bed where he'd been perched and dropped to a seat before the silent girl. He asked questions in demonish, while Kurama translated both questions and answers for those who didn't understand.
Hiei: "Who hired your team to enter the tournament?"
Wind Slasher: "I don't know."
Hiei: "Why not?"
Wind Slasher: "They not tell me."
Hiei: "Did you see the man who hired your team?"
Wind Slasher: "No. Mist Master goes, comes back. Says job."
Hiei: "How much did he pay you?"
Wind Slasher: "Don't know. I don't get paid."
Hiei: In Japanese. "She's useless."
"Perhaps you could read her mind?" Suggested Kurama.
Hiei grunted. "Pointless. She doesn't think in either demonish or Japanese."
"So what language does she think in?" Asked Keiko interestedly.
"How would I know? Human languages don't interest me." Hiei got up and returned to his perch on the bed, to distance himself from the group.
"Well, this isn't exactly going as I'd planned." Botan sounded depressed. "But it's not a total loss." She gazed at the silent girl speculatively. "Shizuro, you know how to cut hair, don't you?"
"I've cut my own and my friends' hair for years." Kuwabara's lanky big sister said, leaning on the doorframe of her brother's room.
"A makeover!" Keiko smiled.
Botan jumped to her feet. "It's just the thing to get our minds off our problems." She grabbed Wind Slasher's hands from out of her lap and used them to propel her to her feet and down the hall to the bathroom, an amused Shizuru and Keiko following.
While they were gone, Hiei and Kurama conferred quietly as Yusuke and Kuwabara took turns defeating each other on computer games.
"Ta Da!" Twenty minutes later, the Wind Slasher was shoved into the room by a beaming Botan.
"Wow." Kuwabara's mouth hung open.
"What do you think?" Asked Botan, placing her hands on the girl's shoulders and turning her around in a circle. Wind Slasher's bangs were still layered, but now the longest ends merely brushed her eyebrows. Other layers framed her face, accentuating cheekbones and a delicate neck. The back was still longish, but now reached only to just below her shoulders. Her facial features, revealed, were enhanced by subtle tones of eye-shadow, blush, and mascara. She was, in a word, pretty. However, her gaze was still resolutely focused on the floor, though Botan was not allowing her to slump.
"She looks OK." For Yusuke, that was an emphatic stamp of approval.
"Hiei?" Botan asked.
"She's fine for a human." He replied gruffly.
Eyes sparkling, she turned next to Kurama. "What do you think?"
"She's lovely." Kurama said simply.
Botan agreed to go tell Koenma about the lack of progress in the case. Shizuru gave Kurama a bundle of clothes for Wind Slasher to borrow, and the meeting adjourned.
Days passed. Each morning Kurama left the girl alone in the apartment. From what the house-plants told him, she spent most of the time cleaning, or staring at the T.V. or whatever textbooks he left in his room. After school Kurama tried to ask her about her human parents or her real home, but she was evasive, or pretended that she didn't understand the questions, so he didn't push her. In the evenings she helped his mother with dinner. His mother had warmed up to the girl, and was teaching her how to cook Japanese dishes.
On Friday, Kurama got a call from Keiko. Botan was calling an emergency meeting at Yusuke's house. He arrived with Wind Slasher just as Botan flew in on her oar.
"The opal..." Botan paused dramatically. "Has been stolen."
"You're kidding!" Kuwabara said. "I thought Koenma had it."
"He did, he stored it in his strong room, but now its gone. Koenma thinks it's an inside job, and he's assigned you, Yusuke, to find out who stole it, and bring it back. And you know what that means."
"Oh man, more work? Why can't Koenma leave me alone?" Yusuke whined. "Ow!" Keiko rapped him smartly on the head.
"You're a spirit detective, Yusuke. Who else is Koenma going to call on to solve a crime?"
"I'll go." Kuwabara was quick to volunteer. "I'm the toughest kid at Sarayashiki Junior High. Burglers don't scare me."
"Thank you, Kuwabara." Botan looked around. "Hiei, Kurama?"
"Hn."
"Just let me drop off my house guest."
"Oh no, Koenma wants her to come too."
Kuwabara conceded with a nod.
Team Urameshi and Wind Slasher traveled by a nearby portal to Koenma's palace, leaving Keiko behind to go to a student council meeting she had to lead. The only sticky moment was when the girl had to step through the portal. She balked, stopping dead on the threshold, until Kurama stepped through, turned, and held out his hand.
"Come." He used suggestion form of the demonish command, and after a second, she reached out, took his hand and stepped through.
The palace was in an uproar, and Koenma was in a foul mood.
"Yusuke! Get me that Opal and get it back now!" Koenma sucked on his pacifier angrily. "I've got one dead Ogre guard, I don't know who to trust, and I don't like feeling that way!" After a bit more ranting, Koenma gave them the background. The theft had occurred during a break period when one of the two guards was off getting dinner. Only someone familiar with palace routine would have known that.
The dead guard had been shot right outside the strong room door. Since guns were primarily a human, rather than demon weapon, they decided to split up and ask around the portals to see if any humans had used them recently.
The team scattered, to cover more area, then met back at the palace.
Kuwabara arrived last. "I got it! I found a demon who saw someone like me using a portal."
"You mean tall and stupid-looking?" Asked Hiei.
"Shut up, shorty! I've had about enough of you." Kuwabara curled his hands into fists and glowered over the black-garbed fighter, who looked decidedly unimpressed. "I don't see you finding anything useful."
After separating Hiei and Kuwabara, the team crossed through the portal Kuwabara had identified as the one the burgler went through.
They came out in an alley beside a large, seedy hotel. The other side of the alley was a department store closed for the evening. Since the department store was a dead end, they decided to check out the hotel. Kuwabara went up to the concierge desk and began questioning the man, who was slovenly dressed, and reading a newspaper when they entered.
"Hey Mr.," Kuwabara addressed the clerk. "Have you seen my uh...uncle? He's tall, like me, only with blonde hair and no freckles."
The clerk looked bored and turned a page of his newspaper. "Our hotel prides itself on the privacy of its guests."
"So what does that mean?"
Putting his newspaper down, the clerk leaned over the counter. "It means we VALUE their privacy and they PAY to be sure we don't rat them out."
Yusuke strode up beside Kuwabara. "Listen, I don't got all day. Tell us where the guy is."
Smirking contemptuously, the clerk went back to his newspaper until Kurama tipped some yen over his newspaper so the money fell into his lap. That got his attention. He rolled his eyes, but set the paper down and snatched up the money. "OK. The guy you want left with his friend about half an hour ago. They were on their way to the airport. They said something about catching a flight to Germany."
The group left and conferred outside the hotel.
"Germany?" Botan asked reflectively. "If the burgler was headed for Germany, why not just take a portal directly from the spirit realm? There are lots of them."
"Perhaps he needed to come back for his companion." Kurama suggested.
"Whatever. Let's just go to the airport, get the opal, and get out of here." Easily bored, Yusuke began walking to the nearby taxi stand, where two taxis were waiting. They all piled into the first one and went to the airport.
"Now, all we have to do is find a tall blonde foreigner who's traveling with another foreigner, and grab the opal from him." Botan said brightly, then, looking around the airport terminal her face fell. The airport was huge, and foreign tourists were everywhere. "Oh dear, this isn't going to be as easy as I thought."
"So let's get moving already."
"But where, Yusuke? There are several flights leaving for Europe at different gates." Botan looked around, discouraged. "And we don't have a very good description of the man we're looking for."
"Hey!" Interjected Kuwabara. "It worked fine for that guy at the hotel. Besides," he placed his hands on his hips and lifted his chin. "It'd be easier to just find the opal, and my gut's telling me it's that way." He jerked his chin toward a corridor leading to some bathrooms, phones, and a janitorial area.
"Please. Are we going to listen to this buffoon's gut?" Hiei asked.
"Well, he is human, and he was particularly susceptible to the opal during the tournament. There may be something in what he says." Ever the peacemaker, Kurama attempted to placate Hiei, who merely harrumphed. Wind Slasher pulled nervously on her bangs and watched the interplay between the two.
"If Kuwabara says it's over there, then I'm going over there." Yusuke strode over to the corridor, leaving the others no choice but to follow behind.
"Yusuke, shouldn't we come up with a plan?" Botan asked, hurrying after him.
"Listen shrimp," Kuwabara admonished Hiei loudly. "I know what I'm talking about." He smirked. "I'm just sensitive that way." Hiei stalked on, ignoring him.
"Come." Kuwabara suggested to Wind Slasher, who dropped her hand from her hair and followed along obediently.
They reached the corridor just as a janitor left his cart by the entrance and went off, pulling a carton of cigarettes from his pocket. Dodging around it, they started down the hall, Kurama pulling the cart further across the entrance behind them to discourage passers by from looking.
Yusuke reached the end of the corridor where bathroom doorways, separated by an old, sand filled ash receptacle were set into the wall.
"So, Kuwabara, which one?" Yusuke nodded toward the doors.
"The boys' room, of course. But you can't go in there!"
Yusuke looked at him. "Why not?"
"Because! He might be...busy!" Kuwabara gestured toward the door. "You can't fight a guy when he's in the bathroom. That's just wrong."
At that moment, the bathroom door opened, the doorway framing a tall, blonde, foreign man with cold grey eyes, carrying a briefcase that bulged slightly in the middle.
The minute he saw them, blocking his escape, he spat out an epithet. His hand moved to under his arm and he pulled out a gun, pointing it at Yusuke.
TO BE CONTINUED...
If you like the story so far, please read and review!