FW: Hi….
Yusuke: No tire tracks on her back….
FW: What?
Kurama: You said you'd update every other day, unless hit by a bus, so we assumed….
FW: Ok, ok, so I didn't get hit by a bus. My friend had SERIOUS mental problems, and, well… I swore not to say anything more.
Hiei: Nice excuse.
FW: Hey! It's true!
FW: To clear up a little confusion for AmnarRanma-sama, Botan isn't the only ferry girl, so someone else would have/did take Joane to Spirit World! Nice cover up, I think. Truth is, I never thought of that… but this works too, right…?
Botan: (nods) But I think we all agree that I'm the best ferry girl!
FW: Well, like most things I say, that's not important. What is, is I'm back, AND WRITING!
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho
STARTJoane and Botan stared at each other, neither one knowing how to break the silence. Botan, not knowing what else to do, slowly backed up to the wall, for each step she retreated, the boy taking two toward her.
"Get away from me…" She said, trying to sound threatening, but failing horribly. Her right hand quickly moved behind her back, ready to bring forth the oar.
She never got a chance to.
With reflexes she wouldn't have thought a human could have, he grabbed both her hands in his own, gazing into her eyes. If she wasn't uncomfortable then, she definitely was now! "Let go of me!" She yelped, fighting him, "you murderer!"
"Murderer?" He asked, eyes genuinely confused.
She didn't buy it. "You killed the real Joane Resserd, her family, and took over her life!" She yelled, having pieced it all together.
His eyes widened, and he gripped her hands tighter. "Don't ever say that," he muttered, the firm grip hurting her. "I never killed anyone."
"What?"
Joane closed his eyes, before bending down on one knee. "I've loved you since the first day I met you," he said, opening his big eyes to look at her.
Botan sweatdropped. "This is hardly the time…" She thought, having a good idea where he was going with this.
"This isn't easy for me to say," he continued, ignorant of her annoyance.
She closed her eyes, knowing what he was going to say.
"I wasn't always a man."
In the meantime, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Flactem had reached the site where the trumpet section leader had been taken. As far as the normal eye could see, there was nothing there.
But that was to the NORMAL eye, not the jagan eye.
While the other two detectives kept Flactem busy looking at some "disfigured moss", Hiei ripped off the bandana and got to work. At first, there was nothing unusual, but on further investigation, he found a slight trace of familiar energy.
His eyes narrowed as he sought to identify it. He realized fast enough, it had the same trace as the piece of cloth that had knocked out Kurama! Trying harder, he tried to tell if it was demonic or human, normally an easy task, but this time, it appeared to be… both.
"It's only moss boys…" Hiei could hear Flactem making his way back, and quickly covered his third eye.
"I don't know, it was like, a weird color!"
"It was green. Like all moss."
Hiei turned to face them, shaking his head. The trumpeter bought it, but as he was hoping, the other two didn't.
Yusuke turned to the "oldest", saying, "Well, it doesn't look like we're going to find much here. Maybe we can just talk to Rackly tomorrow."
The fat boy raised an eyebrow. "You were all so intent on seeing him, what, you got somewhere else to be, or something?"
Kuwabara and Yusuke froze, which didn't surprise Hiei. So it was up to him to think of something. "I've got a date," he muttered, REALLY hating himself for saying it, but knowing it would work.
Flactem grinned broadly, "Don't forget to use protection!" He laughed, turning and walking away.
Judging by the indifferent look on the fire demon's face, he didn't get the joke.
Sadly, his coworkers did, and he had to threaten both their lives to make them stop laughing.
They walked a block before deciding it was safe to talk. "So, what did you pick up?" The head detective asked right away.
"It has the same energy." He said simply.
"Same as in what ko'd Kurama?" Kuwabara asked, forgetting that Yusuke hadn't been filled in.
"Wait wait wait! What's happened to Kurama?" Yusuke demanded, worried.
"If I knew, do you really think I would have left him there to go on a useless chase?" Hiei said, humorless.
"No… I guess not…."
"Chill out Urameshi," Kuwabara said, slapping his friend on the back, "he's not an easy guy to take down, I'm sure he's fine now!"
Wrong as usual.
"Who are you?"
"Nnn, Kurama," Kurama muttered, answering the question without care or worry about who was asking.
"Why are you in the band?"
"Koenma, he told me to…"
"And Koenma, he's nothing but a child you baby-sit with your friends. You don't need to take orders from him."
"Yes, just a child," somewhere in the back of his mind, something warned the redhead that this was wrong, that something was amiss, but it was soon wiped away, and more.
He woke up then. "What? I have homework," he said groggily, getting out his school supplies and getting to work.
During this time, Botan was staring blankly at Joane, who looked back at her. "I'm sorry… what?" She asked, confused.
Joane sighed. "I used to be a girl," He repeated.
"You… are a CROSSDRESSER!" She yelled, disturbed.
"No, I had plastic surgery done!" He explained.
Here, she ripped her hands away from him. "Why, would you DO something like that!" She cried, even more freaked out.
"Because, my family was dead, and I was next."
She stopped fighting, stopped even being angry. She understood now, for real. HE was that little girl she'd researched. HIS family had been killed, and to escape, he faked death and changed his whole identity. "But wouldn't someone from band recognize you? Mr. Nesul? Same name, same instrument, it's a little suspicious…." She noted.
"I thought so too," Joane muttered, standing now, looking down at her from the height difference. "But no one remembers me as a girl. I asked Mr. Nesul once if he ever knew someone else named Joane, and he didn't."
Botan's eyes narrowed. That didn't make sense… but she decided to look into it later. "Did you… see them die?" She asked quietly, referring to his parents. She knew it wasn't relevant to the case, and it wasn't fair to ask, but she'd come to respect Joane, if nothing else, and she had to know.
He nodded, a single tear falling from his closed eyes.
Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei arrived at the Minamino residence. Yusuke refused to go back home until he knew that Kurama was ok by his own eyes.
Kuwabara had tried to convince him to leave, claiming that if anything was wrong, they'd call, and they didn't want to be caught as opposite sides of the war associating. Flactem was cool about them hanging out, but only because it's in his nature. Should Mia have noticed though….
"Screw the war!" Yusuke had yelled, and no one protested after.
Once at the house, Kuwabara led to the fox's room, opening the door, to find Kurama, perfectly fine, doing homework.
"Kurama, you're ok!" Yusuke grinned, relieved, all three piling into the room.
"Yes, I don't see why I wouldn't be," the redhead puzzled, looking at them each in turn. "You should have called before you came, it's only polite," he mused. "Though I suppose you're not much for customs," he added.
Hiei allowed himself a small smirk, glad to see him back to normal. "Fox," he greeted.
"Fox?" Kurama asked, confused.
"Yeah, Fox. It's what Hiei calls you," Kuwabara said, noticing the unusual confused tone. "'Cause of your Youko side, ya know?"
"No, I don't," he answered, truthfully.
Yusuke was growing worried again. He ran over, and grabbed Kurama by the shoulders immpulsively, and harshly, "Snap out of it!" He yelled, "of course you know your Youko side!"
Kurama flinched, in pain, but unsure how to get out of it, "Yusuke…" he murmured, hoping he'd get the drift and let go.
Hiei and Kuwabara hurried over. "Stop it Urameshi, you're gonna hurt him!" Kuwabara yelled, grabbing his friend's arm.
"If he wanted to, he could break out," Yusuke gritted his teeth, still shaking his friend.
Kurama, out of sheer fear, blacked out again.
The three looked at the unconscious body. "What? I didn't mean to…." Yusuke stammered.
"Fool. You didn't hurt him, he fainted, from FEAR," Hiei gritted out, staring angrily at the fox.
"What, he was scared of ME, after all he's seen, and DONE?" Yusuke asked, not knowing whether that could POSSIBLY be true.
"He doesn't remember," Hiei muttered. "Hismemory's been blocked."
ENDFW: There we go. Off to do a project, so I'll finish up quick. Review if you want, don't if you don't, and if you wanna flame, ok! I'll take it in stride!
