Decisions and Dishes

by the Rurouni Idoru

Yukina smiled at the sight of Kousetsu. Yukina had known Kousetsu since she was a tiny child. Kousetsu had always been kind. But Yukina found one thing strange: every time Yukina brought up the subject of her brother, Kousestu seemed to freeze up and change the subject. But then, most of the koorime wanted nothing to do with anything male, so it wasn't all that strange. But Kousetsu seemed especially unpleasant on the matter. At any rate, Yukina was glad to see her mentor again. She performed a koorime sign of affection, taking Kousestu's hand and placing it on her own chest. Kousetsu grinned sweetly, and did the same thing with Yukina's hand. Behind them, Rikka pouted.

"Oh, so you'll do the hand thingy to Kousetsu, but I'm chop liver." Yukina turned around and pointed at Rikka jokingly.

"Well, you attacked me, so that's just as good." Rikka placed her hand behind her head and laughed sheepishly.

"So you've found him, then?" Yukina turned back to Kousetsu and nodded.

"Rikka and I were thinking about asking if he could visit."

"What's all this 'Rikka and I' business? I told you, leave me outta this!"

"You want to bring a male here?" Yukina bit her lip.

"I'd like for him to see his birthplace. We were going to ask the elders about it."

"What is this 'we' crap?! YOU can go ask the elders, I'm fond of my head, thanks!" Kousetsu smiled, clearly ignoring Rikka's franticism.

"Are you going to stay with Rui again, or would you like to stay with me?" Yukina's face lit up.

"Really, Kou-san? I can stay with you?" Kousetsu nodded. Rikka waved her arms like windmills.

"Am I invisible back here?! I'm not going to the elders about any males of any kind!" Yukina was too busy embracing Kousetsu to notice.

A week and a half later, Yukina was cleaning Kousetsu's tiny house when a thought struck her.

"Kou-san, pardon me for saying, but aren't you too young to have a baby?"

"Well, Yukina...."

"I'm sorry if it seems rude, but I could have sworn you were only in your nineties. It's probably just because you're so youthful." Kousetsu paused for a moment in thought, and then ruffled Yukina's hair.

"You're a silly girl, Yukina." Yukina smiled energetically as she washed the dishes.

"Did you know that human women can have children at almost any time in their lives? There was once a woman in her seventies, which is about..." she paused to calculate, "Two hundred and fifty in our age, and SHE had a baby! Oh, well, they need males of course, but that's how they reproduce." She paused to dry a dish. "Human reproduction is fairly disturbing. I learned about it in one of my classes at school. Hiei-niisan was mortified. He didn't want me to know about such things until I was older." Yukina giggled. "Kazuma-san was shaken up about me learning, too. But then, Yusuke started saying dirty things and Kazuma-san wasn't sure whether to laugh or to attack him. Then Bara knocked their heads together and they were both quiet for a while." Kousetsu raised an eyebrow.

"Your friends are...strange." Yukina nodded. "So, have you gone to the elders yet?"

"About Hiei? No, not yet. I'm scared they'll get mad and banish me or something. Can they do that?" Kousetsu shrugged.

"Your mother brought him here, and they let her live. She was the one who...left, in a manner of speaking." Yukina gazed at the dishes below her. "I highly doubt they'll banish you just for suggesting it."

"I was thinking about going today, or sometime this week. If they say no, I think I'll go back."

"To Ningenkai?"

"Mm-hmm. But I won't go right away. I want to see your baby. I bet she'll be precious." Kousetsu put on that sad smile again. Yukina continued to wash the dishes. "I did a lot of dishes in Ningenkai. Bara and her family did a lot of eating, and they dirtied lots of dishes. I liked to do them, but Bara hated them. She was very glad whenever I offered to clean them for her." She paused again. "They used hot water. It was sort of nice." Kousetsu was silent. Yukina dried a plate.

At the end of the week, Yukina put on her best kimono and went to go see the elders. Kousetsu wished her luck, and Yukina responded that she would need it. She headed off to where the elders stayed, trembling. There was a young koorime sitting at a desk in the first room. Behind her was a large door.

"Yes?" The woman sweeped a lock of silvery hair behind her ear.

"I'm Yukina, I'd like to ask the elders a question about guests." The girl nodded and pointed at a bench on the other side of the room.

"The elders are discussing something right now, please sit over there until they're ready." Yukina wondered, as she sat down, if the girl liked her job. She was probably aspiring to be an elder herself when she reached that age. After all, she didn't do much. It wasn't like she was like the secretaries that important people had in Ningenkai or Reikai. They answered phone calls, typed up letters, made appointments, dealt with people who walked in unannounced, and they still had to get their own coffee. This koorime was just sitting there bored, perhaps deep in thought. Yukina thought of starting up a conversation, but recalled one of Bara's random nuggets of wisdom: If you annoy the secretary, you usually anger the boss, and angry bosses aren't pleasant to deal with. Yukina decided that she didn't want to annoy the secretary. She sighed a little bit, and tried to think of a way to stay awake. She finally kept herself busy by imagining the time Hiei would have if they allowed him to come. She would take him to meet her friends, and he could probably spar playfully with the warrior koorime. Of course, they'd have to visit their mother's grave as well, but the good had to come with the bad. She continued on this train of thought for an hour, when the large door opened. An elder stepped out of the door and asked the girl at the desk if there was anything left to do. The girl announced Yukina, and told her to go inside and ask the elders her question. Yukina found it hard to move. She could come face to face with younger Toguro and still look him in the eye without passing out, but the elders.... They were truly scary.

"Um, alright." She got up, trembling, and walked timidly inside the door. It shut with a loud thunk, which made Yukina jump. The elders were sitting around the room, in chairs and on cushions.

"What is your question, Yukina?" Yukina bit her lip.

"As you know, I was in Ningenkai until recently, searching for my brother. And you may have heard that, after nearly five years of searching for him, I have finally found him. Obviously, the point of looking for him was so that I could be with him. So I would like to ask for permission to bring him here to the floating continent." The elders still looked at her, as if they expected her to continue. She didn't know why, it wasn't as if she planned to laugh and shout "Gotcha!" Yukina looked around nervously, and confirmed her wishes by stating, "Th-that's all." How much longer did they want to see her squirm in this awkward silence? After what seemed like hours, one of the elders spoke.

"This is a difficult request. It will require much thought and deliberation. Please wait outside until we reach a decision." Yukina sighed, left the room, and sat on the bench again. As soon as she started to doze off, she began to think about the possibilities of her brother's visit again. If Hiei went, Teara would likely want to go, and Bara would want to come with Teara. Bara always said she despised cold weather unless it was right near Christmas, but she would temporarily forget this hatred and try to come on the journey anyway. Of course, five minutes into the voyage, she would probably start complaining that she couldn't feel her toes and wanted some hot coccoa. Once Yukina was out of thoughts like these, she began to think about the little things about her friends, to make sure not to forget them. How Yusuke would cut gym class so he could go smoke on the roof. How Bara came down for breakfast on the weekends wearing an extra-large T-shirt stating something funny, and the socks she had worn the previous day. The way Teara attacked people for insulting the mother, even though she frequently did it herself. How much Kazuma would blush when Yukina complimented him. Botan and her surprisingly short fuse. The way Shizuru held her cigarette. Keiko's way of caring for Yusuke. The way Kurama liked to act like the stable one, when he was fairly prone to breakdowns, courtesy of Bara. The eyes movements Hiei would make when Teara and Bara talked him into a corner. The layout of Bara's house, with the television as the focal point of the living room. Hiei's home in the tree outside of Teara's window. Yusuke's lucky socks, which he never wore. Kazuma's cat, Eikichi. Kurama's soft voice. It was these little shades of her friends that kept her more or less awake for about three hours, which is commendable. Thoughts of her friends, however, could only keep Yukina from nodding off for so long, and she yawned, leaned against the wall, and let herself drift off.

When she woke up, it was dark outside.

"Oh, dear," she whimpered. "How long have I been asleep?" The girl at the desk put down the book she was reading.

"About an hour, an hour an a half at most. Don't worry, they still haven't reached a decision, so you haven't missed much." Yukina sighed.

"I'm so worried they'll say no. I really, really want this." The desk girl smiled.

"Well, I'm sure the elders'll decide for the best, at any rate." Yukina didn't have the heart to tell her that she didn't want what the elders thought was best in any way. Suddenly, the door swung open, and Yukina jumped again.

"We have reached a decision." Yukina bit her lip and clasped her hands together. This was the same elder who taught her how to call the bird. Would she be more lenient in deciding, or did they send her out because Yukina liked her best? "After careful deliberation, and much rational thought, we have come to a conclusion. Bringing along your new friends from Ningenkai would be fine. However, your brother is male, and a fire youkai at that." Yukina's heart sank. "I regret to inform you that we must deny your request to bring him here." For a moment, the elder dropped her professional demeanor. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Yukina." Yukina smiled sadly.

"It's alright. I didn't think you would let him come anyway. It was a thought, that's all." She exited and began to walk to Kousetsu's house, feeling the eyes of the elder and the desk girl on her back. Each step in the deep snow was followed by a tiny yellowish pearl, and a small sniffle.

Meanwhile, somwhere in Japan, Ningenkai, there was a sink full of dirty dishes. Bara looked at them, put on an apron, and sighed.