Whoo!! I don't think it's been too long between updates this time!! Yay!!
Anyway, any reviews that I wanted to reply to are long-forgotten, so I guess all that's left is . . .
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Enjoy!
Kurama seemed slower the next morning as he lead his teammates closer to Yeirugan. He paused for rests more often, and when even Kuwabara began to complain that they were going too slow, Hiei decided to check it out.
"What's wrong, fox?"
"Nani?" Kurama asked, hands on his knees, breathing heavily. "Nothing's wrong."
"You're slow," Hiei stated bluntly. "It's not like you. Usually the detective and the baka can't keep up. Now they're saying that you're too slow."
"Oh," Kurama said. "That. I'm fine, I just didn't sleep well last night. I'm really worn-out, you know. First Yuki vanishes, then we have to come to the Makai on a mission, and we find Yuki in the process."
"Hn."
"Oh, don't look at me like that," Kurama said, waving a hand as if it would dispel the sour look on Hiei's face. "And I know-it's no excuse to be slacking."
"Right, fox."
"What are you guys muttering about?" Yusuke called from where he was sitting from Kuwabara. "We can't hear you!"
"It's nothing!" Kurama called. "Nothing at all!" At that moment, Yusuke got to his feet and headed toward Hiei and Kurama. Kuwabara followed not seconds after.
"Baka ningens," Hiei grumbled, turning away from the oncoming tantei and vanishing. Moments later Yusuke and Kuwabara came face-to-face with Kurama.
"What were you two talking about?" Kuwabara said. When Kurama didn't answer, Kuwabara crossed his arms and began to mutter. "Bet they're plotting against us, Urameshi. You can't trust youkai, you know."
"Quit being so paranoid, baka," Yusuke said, hitting Kuwabara on the back, sending him flying forward. "Hiei, maybe, but Kurama? He's too worried about his 'kassan and Yuki to take a chance at being thrown in jail."
"Thank you for phrasing it that way, Yusuke," Kurama said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "I love how you always think that I want to . . . 'take a chance at being thrown in jail.'"
"Yeah," Kuwabara continued, obviously having forgotten his thoughts of the moment before. "And quit makin' it sound like he cares about the guy. If you ask me, he always hated 'im."
"Thank you, Kuwabara," Kurama said through gritted teeth.
They resumed travel, Kurama picking up a faster pace, Hiei's words flowing through his head. Soon enough Kuwabara was complaining that he was going to fast, and Hiei was satisfied as he flitted through the trees above Kurama.
Around noon, though, things came to a halt.
Yusuke and Kuwabara caught up to Kurama to see the youko staring into the bamboo forest ahead of them. Hiei stood some distance ahead of him, neither saying a word. The two tantei looked at their friends in silence for a moment before Kurama turned to them.
"What's up?" Yusuke asked.
"Nothing," Kurama replied. "Nothing at all."
"Then why are we stopping?" Kuwabara demanded, a few feet behind Yusuke.
Kurama bit his lip, hesitant to say his next words. "This is where Kuronue died. This is where Yeirugan's castle is. This is our destination."
"Right here?"
"In the bamboo forest, baka," Hiei hissed at Kuwabara, wishing the human wasn't able to open his mouth. There was silence again, and the four tantei looked up to the thickly growing bamboo. There wasn't much of a path, and Yusuke wondered if Kurama had a plan to get through the forest. As if answering his unspoken question, the kitsune stalked forward and entered the forest. Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara followed.
"This place blocks out the sun," Yusuke observed, looking up. All he could see were stalks of bamboo going up and up. The tantei wondered if they had an end to them, or if they just kept going. No one answered, and they kept walking. Leaves coated the ground, and the group walked between stalks of bamboo-there was no path. The bamboo bumped into one another as Kurama pushed his way-rather roughly, Yusuke noticed-through them. Then something hit him. "Kurama?"
"Nani?"
"Do you even know where you're going?"
The kitsune let his breath out in a frustrated sigh. "Yes, Yusuke, I do," he said. "I navigated this territory several times a day while Kuronue and I were waiting for the right time to rob Yeirugan." With that, Kurama turned into a small white fox and began to dart through the trees.
"Aw, great Urameshi!" Kuwabara groaned. "Now it's gonna be hard to follow him again!"
"I didn't mean to insult him!" Yusuke protested as he and Kuwabara began to run in the direction Kurama had vanished to. Hiei suddenly appeared at Kuwabara's elbow, frowning. "Oh, and I suppose you're going to tell me I should have thought about that before I said anything."
"Seeing as how you figured it out, there's no more reason to tell you," Hiei replied. "But keep that in mind next time you plan to speak to Kurama." And he vanished as well.
"Urameshi . . . ?"
"Nani, Kuwabara?" Yusuke asked, sounding strained.
"I think we lost them," Kuwabara said, and looked around. Yusuke did as well, and he saw no sign of either fox or fire youkai.
One looked at the other. "HELP!" they shouted together.
Nearly three hours later found Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei standing outside of Yeirugan's castle. Or rather, Kurama and Hiei did the standing, Yusuke and Kuwabara laid on the ground panting, having fallen way behind and spent two hours wandering the bamboo forest looking for a sign of Hiei or Kurama. The redhead watched over his friends while the fire youkai looked up at Yeirugan's castle, scowling. It was made out of grey stone and wood, as if it were a medieval castle in the Ningenkai, with wooden-shuttered windows dotting the walls here and there. Stalks of cut and dried bamboo made a servant's gate not far from where the four tantei were (they had seen oni guards at the front door and decided that a back entrance would be safer) and several smaller youkai ran to and fro.
"Hurry hurry! Yeirugan-sama will be back soon!" a female youkai-probably Yeirugan's cook scolded from the gate. "You know how he gets when his meals aren't ready when he's back!"
"That's not our problem, it's yours!" another youkai hissed, running in with a basket of what Kurama recognized as apples from the Ningenkai. The kitsune frowned-apparently Yeirugan enjoyed food from other lands, an unusual trait in a youkai lord. "You should be the one cooking frantically, not us!"
"I need items to cook with!" the female responded, slapping the speaker across the face as he dumped his load at her feet. "And put that in the kitchen where it belongs!" The slapped youkai responded with a low growl, which the female returned. He picked up the basket and ran inside the gate.
"We might be able to sneak in as servants," Yusuke said, the thought doing something other than barging straight in obviously bothering him. Kurama had been the one to suggest the back entrance in the first place.
"It's worth a try, though I doubt it would work," Kurama said. "We are carrying nothing of value to the cook."
"I'm trying it," Yusuke said, and jumped out of the bamboo stalks heading straight for the gate.
"So much for not barging in," Kurama muttered as those remaining watched Yusuke. The tantei must have scared the female youkai, for with an almighty shriek, she turned on him and slapped him as she did the male youkai before Yusuke. The black-haired boy went flying. Kuwabara covered his mouth against laughter as the female advanced on Yusuke, beating him severely with what seemed to be an iron-cast frying pan. As Yusuke cried mercy, even Kurama had to bite the inside of his lip to keep from chuckling at the abused adolescent male in front of him.
"Oh my!" the female shrieked, finally putting down the pan. "A visitor! I'm so sorry, sir! Was Yeirugan-sama expecting you?"
"Uh, yeah," Yusuke said. "I think."
"Oh dear oh dear oh dear," the female distressed. "You won't tell him of this, will you? Oh, what am I saying? Yeirugan-sama isn't even here!" Yusuke stopped rubbing his head and looked up at the girl.
"What do you mean he isn't here?" Yusuke asked. "I had an appointment to see him! He told me so himself a while back!"
"He must have forgotten it, sir," the female youkai said. "Shall I tell him you were looking for him?"
"Nah, I'll just drop by later after I know he's back," Yusuke said. "I'll be going then." He ran for his teammates in the trees.
"It would seem that Yeirugan isn't here, Yusuke," Kurama said, trying not to laugh.
"Shut up," Yusuke said as the four tantei looked up at the foreboding castle walls.
"Should we go home?" Kuwabara asked. "I mean, he's not here, so. . . . " He trailed off, trying to remember what he was going to say.
"Well, it's not like we can tell Koenma to send us back later," Yusuke commented. "Took us long enough to get here. I wish there were some demon-telephone we can call him on-'Leave your message after the scream.'" He laughed, trying to forget the humiliation he had endured just moments before.
"You might have something there," Kurama said. "I'll be right back." He vanished, and the remaining tantei stared after him.
"Who's gonna-?" Yusuke began, remembering Koenma's orders to keep watch on Kurama.
"I'll go," Hiei grunted after a moment of silence.
Kurama eyed the two oni guarding the door from the safety of the trees. They looked easy enough to fool and/or scare away. Well, he supposed that he'd better get on with what he was doing. He stood up straight, and walked up to the oni, bowing low when they laid eyes on him. Bowing to them told them that Kurama felt inferior, making them more likely to give away something important.
"May I ask where Yeirugan-sama is, sirs?" Yet again another technique implying Kurama was the inferior one. "I came to see him." As the oni looked Kurama over and winked at each other, growling huskily, Kurama felt he should do this properly and batted his eyelashes. Behind him, Hiei nearly fell out of his bamboo stalks laughing. Kurama ignored this.
"He's away, milady," the stronger of the oni growled, coming closer to Kurama, who winced inwardly at the fact that he was doing this. "But-" He thrust his hips out, disgusting Kurama. "-if you need a replacement, I'm here."
"Oh, what will I tell Yeirugan-sama if one of his girls is violated by another youkai?" Kurama distressed, trying to do his best impersonation of a troubled female. "Oh, he would be so angry!" Kurama paused here, hoping that he was right in assuming that Yeirugan took good-looking girls to his castle often and had favorites. He seemed to be right, though, for both oni backed away, looking quite frightened. "I must go."
"But why?" both oni asked at once.
"I have other business to attend to," Kurama said, batting his eyelashes in case either oni decided he wouldn't buy it. "But give Yeirugan-sama a message for me-a warning."
"Against what?"
"I've heard that Koenma is getting angry with Yeirugan-sama," Kurama said. "Rumors say Yeirugan-sama isn't responding to messages sent from Koenma." He sighed dramatically at this point, as if he were really worried about Yeirugan. "They say Koenma's going to send a group of fighters to Yeirugan-sama, to take him in."
"Fighters?" Both oni scoffed.
"Not just any," Kurama said. "But the champions of the Dark Tournament." Kurama hoped that his and his teammates' names were as feared by youkai in the Makai as they were by youkai in the Ningenkai. He seemed correct, for both oni stiffened.
"We will warn Yeirugan-sama," both oni said at once. "Good day, milady."
"Good day," Kurama said, bowing to them and running, unable to get the taste of the words "Yeirugan-sama" off his tongue. He spat, and still the taste remained. Once in the stalks of bamboo, he looked up to see Hiei, who was stifling laughter. "Came to check up on me, I see." The little fire youkai didn't answer, and Kurama continued. "I heard you laughing. I wasn't that funny."
"That has to be the most entertaining thing I've ever seen you do, fox," Hiei blurted, unable to keep some show of amusement hidden for any longer. "How'd it feel, acting like a female?"
"I can't believe they fell for it, with me in fighting clothes and everything," Kurama said. As if on cue, they heard one of the oni say, "You know, that girl was as flat as a board." Kurama scowled. "And I am never batting my eyelashes at another living being again." Hiei followed Kurama, laughing, all the way back to where Yusuke and Kuwabara were waiting.
"What's he laughing at?" Yusuke said as Hiei and Kurama came into view.
"The message to Yeirugan has been delivered," Kurama said stiffly, trying to avoid explaining what he had done. "His guards will inform him as soon as he returns." There was silence, until Kurama decided he was tired of Hiei laughing. "Shut up, will you?"
"What did you do, Kurama?" Yusuke demanded.
"Nothing." Kurama figured that Yusuke and Kuwabara would weasel it out of Hiei later with bribery of sweet snow. Still, it would be nice to keep his dignity for as long as possible. "Let's go back to the Ningenkai." He turned and began to walk off.
"Wait! Kurama! What did you do?" Yusuke demanded, following.
Koenma wasn't surprised when the tantei reported that Yeirugan wasn't there.
"He knew I'd send someone out there for him," Koenma mumbled as Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and a reluctant Hiei stood before him in his office. "Oh, this might be more complicated than I thought. It makes me so mad sometimes, dealing with these stuck-up youkai lords!"
"Ah, come on, toddler!" Yusuke said, placing his hands on his hips with an irritated look on his face. "Does that mean you're going to send us in there again?" Koenma paused. "Well?"
"I thought we agreed that you'd stop calling me toddler, at least to my face, for one, Yusuke," Koenma said. "And two, I won't send you back in just yet. What Kurama told those oni guards might bring Yeirugan out of his shell. Of course, that may have to volunteer you guys to fight him, if things get nasty." He grimaced. "And with Yeirugan's past with Kurama, I wouldn't be surprised if things did."
"Aw, that means you told 'em we would fight him, Kurama!" Kuwabara said.
"I did no such thing," Kurama replied. "I just mentioned that if Yeirugan did not answer to the messages from Koenma, then someone would come." He smiled slightly. "As you see, that does not contain the word 'fight' although it might imply it."
"Kurama!" Kuwabara shouted.
"Please, don't shout," Koenma said. "We don't know what's going to happen yet." He put his head down onto the desk. "Now, if you'll please leave, you're free to go back to the Ningenkai."
As Kurama followed a chatting team of Yusuke and Kuwabara, he wondered, Should I have told Koenma about Yuki?