Kurama had entered the Bureau of the Dead uninterupted.
Perhaps, his mind insisted, he had been wrong to ask Genkai. Perhaps, his mind insisted, Koenma would know.
If nothing else, his mind said, it bought him some time.
Kurama looked up and passed the crowds of demons and oni, of the couple of gods and lost souls wondering the hall, he spotted a familiar balding, blue figure.
"Ogre." Kurama called.
"How's it going?" George, having turned and spotted Kurama, said.
"I'm here to see Koenma."
"He's busy right now, Kurama, he...." George turned away, smiling awkwardly. The toddler-ruler was busy all right. It was prime-time.
"Ogre."
George, surprised, skreeched, rather like a little oni girl. "Y..yes, Kurama?" he stammered. When did Kurama start to sound like Hiei?
"I need to see Koenma."
Goerge hesitated. That lasted as long as it took Kurama to grab him by the throat and pull him close. "Of course, sir." George said. "This way."
Kurama didn't say anything after that, and George wasn't asking, but it was easy to tell something was wrong. Remembering the view through Koenma's little voyeur-vision television on the day that Kurama had gotten Hiei to sign the contract to serve Yusuke as a teammate, George couldn't help but wonder, "Was it love trouble?" He blushed at the thought.
Apparently, Koenma had the same idea. Puckering out his pacifer, the Ruler of the Spirit World said. "Oh, Kurama. Trouble in lover's land, eh? Eh?" When Kurama didn't smile or deny or reach out to kill him, poking fun lost its fun and Koenma was reduced to asking, "Why are you here, Kurama?"
Kurama's face was very serious. Each word and eye was lined up to be perfectly neutral. "It's about Hiei."
Koenma smiled. "Is it?" he said, voice loaded innocence.
Kurama ignored him. "I know he came to see you."
Koenma nodded and his eyes shifted uncomfortably. "Yes. He did. That guy has no manners."
"He asked about his jagan."
"And?"
"Koenma. What do you know about it?"
Koenma raised an eyebrow at the strange note in the fox's voice. "What's wrong, Kurama? You sound almost....guilty."
Kurama said nothing.
The Ruler of the Spirit World leaned forward. "Of course, considering, you would, wouldn't you?" Kurama started. "Yes, I know why Hiei's jagan isn't working, Kurama. I'm surprised you didn't....or did you?" He studied Kurama for a moment. "After seeing your little...tactic to get Hiei to sign the contract, it wasn't too hard to trace the problem back to its root." He paused and motioned and George hit a button. There on the television screen Koenma used to keep an eye on anything and everything, an image came to life. An image of Hiei pressed against a tree and Kurama leaning forward, pushing their mouths together. The room was utterly silent. George the oni was blushing and looking away. Koenma watched Kurama as the fox in turn watched himself.
"Stop...struggling...Hiei...." Kurama managed as his own mouth pressed the fire demon's.
"Kurama!" Hiei growled.
Kurama had just managed to break the flower in Hiei's mouth as those sharp teeth suddenly came down on his tongue and provided the vital ingredient to break the seal.
Blood.
The salty taste filled Hiei's mouth and the fire demon gagged, but suddenly Kurama's hand was on his chest then his face. "Calm down...." he whispered and blood fell from the corner of his mouth.
Then, Hiei swallowed the first mouthful.
"It was rather clever, actually." Koenma said as Kurama stared at the image. "We wouldn't have removed the seal. Hiei was smart to have you remove it. He was too uncontrollable then."
"And now?" Kurama heard himself asking.
"Now, without his jagan, it doesn't really matter." Koenma sighed. "Of course, it isn't just his jagan, is it? It's his spirit energy. The jagan is the window, the focus, true, but it is also the nexus of his energy. In other words, without the jagan, he will soon be unable to touch that energy. He will, in effect, he powerless. Of course, he'll soon die, as well..."
"No." Kurama said. "No. That can't be true."
Koenma returned his gaze with a look that did not belong to a child. "It is, Kurama."
"What have I done?"
Kurama peered at himself in the image, thinking the voice didn't belong to him. It was too defeated to belong him him. It was too broken to belong to him.
"That would be the question, wouldn't it?" Koenma said suddenly. "Youko blood is poison to a demon. A slow death, although as I understand it, not the worst way to go." When Kurama didn't offer his opinion, Koenma sighed. "And a pity, too. Hiei would have made a perfect addition to the team."
"Don't talk like that." Kurama said. "He is not dead, yet."
"Yet." Koenma repeated and sighed. "But perhaps it is not his death alone that is at stake."
Kurama started. "What do you mean?"
Koenma tapped his fingers on his desk and cocked his head to the side. He was thinking. Something in Kurama's expression must have convinced him because he suddenly called out to George. "Ogre, do the honors, would you?"
"Yes, sir." George said and from the screen that had been playing Kurama and Hiei's little...encounter, now turned to a human. An ugly human.
"This is what I mean." Koenma said and slowly the man on screen moved and there, between a plethora of men in suits armed to the teeth, was a small, green-haired girl who looked sadly at Kurama with hauntingly familiar red eyes.
Kurama took a step toward the screen. "Who is that girl?" he asked.
"Yukina." Koenma said.
"What?" Kurama spun on his heels. "Then who are these men?"
Koenma looked uncomforatble. "Perhaps it is better that Hiei's jagan is not working. Had it, he probably would have killed these men the moment they captured Yukina.""You haven't told him?"
"Heavens, no!" Koenma looked insulted at the suggestion. "He'd kill everyone. Do you realize how much paperwork that would involve?"
Kurama didn't answer. He was staring at the screen, at the girl who was Hiei's sister."Koenma." Kurama said.
"Yes, Kurama?"
"I have a favor to ask."
...to be continued...