FW: 200+ reviews… wow! That's so cool! But on to business, I can't believe I'm writing this the weekend before finals when I SHOULD be studying, but I probably won't anyway, so….
Yusuke: C or better rule.
FW: Yeah, so?
Yusuke: If I have to pass, so do you!
FW: I'll pass all right! There's ALWAYS a way….
Youko: Like blackmail and threats!
FW: Uh, yeah…. GG-san, I came up with this during band practice while my "Mij" was screaming at me and wondering if Hiei would have lit him on fire yet…. Cheery, huh. LKLTB-sama, I have no idea what an "acronym" is… but some of the names of original characters DO have certain meanings behind them, and some are a twist of the people they were based on's own names! I think I'll reveal all the secrets in the last chapter. And Agent Dark Moose-sama, cool name, and TRUMPETS FOR LIFE! (FW is a trumpet player)
Hiei: Does she ever stop talking?
Botan: Maybe in her sleep….
FW: Jerks.
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho
STARTBotan paced Yusuke's room, as she had been for the past three minutes or so, much to the room owner's annoyance. She held a notebook in her hand, and glanced at it occasionally, as if checking some data to make sure it hadn't changed on her.
"So, are you going to actually say something, or just rub my carpet away with friction?" He finally said.
"You know what friction is?" She stopped, looking at him in awe.
Barely keeping his temper in check, he demanded, "Just tell me what you're going to and get out!" Maybe he didn't control his anger so well….
"I was just checking some files around the town again, mostly on the band students," seeing Yusuke raise an eyebrow, she quickly explained, "I remembered taking a lot of souls to Spirit World four years ago here, and was just wondering if it's all a coincidence, when you look at Joane and Mia…." As usual, Yusuke could read the guilt in Botan's eyes just in saying her section leader's name.
"So what did you find out?" He asked, encouraging her to continue.
"Four years ago, almost to a number, every band freshman was in some way connected to something horrible."
"…So…?"
"Don't you get it? Yusuke, how many years are there in high school?"
"Four," the detective answered dutifully.
"And if you're a freshman now, what will you be in four years?"
"A senior," he said, still not piecing it together.
"And if this all happened FOUR years ago, when they were FRESHMEN, what would they be now?"
"Seniors- oh," it finally clicked. The seniors were dealt with before they became seniors by using traumatic events to work on their minds. It seemed to fit the pattern, with Kurama's mind block, and Mia's possession. "Why would anyone bother?"
"I don't know…" Botan murmured, obviously troubled. "But it can't be coincidence, like the police say. Maybe whoever did this was preparing for something… and didn't want competition…."
"Competition…" Yusuke repeated. "Hey, don't we have band practice in five minutes?"
Youko, sadly, didn't remember the practice, which would have given him an excuse to escape. "Little monsters, tackle EACH OTHER, not me!" He yelled, malice in his voice, but the kids, either too young or too stupid to recognize the danger only kept hitting him with sticks.
The kids had gotten frustrated with their lack of understanding football, and just decided to have an all-out war. Unfortunately, now that a referee wasn't needed, that must make him an opponent! Or at least, in the minds of a five year old. So naturally they took out the biggest first.
"That. Is. IT!" He finally had enough. Tossing the kids off him, as gently as he'd allow himself in his rage, he got up, brushed himself off, and started storming away.
"Young ma'am," an old woman sitting on a bench grabbed the MALE demon's arm, oblivious to his growing anger. "You have such a way with children… could you watch them for me again sometime?"
Youko felt his eyebrow twitching. "All of these… things, are YOURS?"
"Yes."
For a demon, that wouldn't be so bad, but for a human, especially for one so old… it just wasn't natural! "Tempting as that offer is, I'm afraid I don't have the time."
She missed his sarcasm, and said disappointedly, "That's too bad," she sighed, handing him a brochure, which he didn't really want, but took anyway. "You look like the artistic type, maybe you'll be interested."
The fox glanced down at the folder paper. It was an advertisement for the band competition he'd be performing in. How ironic.
Without another word, he started to leave, before inspiration struck him. Grinning as only Youko could, evilly, he walked back to the old lady. "I may not be able to watch your children, but I think I know someone who can…."
Kuwabara and Rackly, thanks to the latter's knowledge of band and what times practices started, made it there right on time.
While Rackly met with the other present section leaders, to discuss the still absent Mia, the remaining spirit detectives, Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara got together.
They didn't have any time to talk though, as Mij was already calling them to attention. "Meeting at my house," Yusuke mouthed, knowing they would probably go there even without his permission. Some friends.
After practice, the all regrouped back at the leader's house, noting the non-present Youko. "I knew we couldn't trust him…." Yusuke muttered to no one in particular.
"Trust who?" Oh yeah, Botan still didn't know.
Kuwabara opened his mouth to break it to her, but just then, the redhead walked in, looking particularly pleased with himself.
They all decided it was best not to ask.
"Kurama! You're ok!" Botan chirped, hurrying over and flinging her arms around the boy's shoulders not noticing how he stiffened on contact.
Sure, he was used to female attention, "With a body like this, I needed to quickly," he thought, smirking, but he didn't exactly want it, unless he was getting something out of it.
He was about to make that perfectly clear when Hiei ripped her away from him. "Stop preying on weak beings," he glared, "I can't stand it. Especially when you need someone else's form to manage it."
Botan looked on, confused as the two demons seemingly had a staring contest. "She threw herself on me, and despite what you may think, I did NOT enjoy that, and had you been any slower," Hiei's glare strengthened at the word slow. NO ONE calls him slow. "I would have forced her off myself."
"What's going on?" The only girl asked the closet, Yusuke.
"Well, you've heard of Youko, right?"
"Yeah…."
"Well Kurama's still out of it, so Youko's taken over, and he's going to take Kurama's place in the band because we can't have any empty spots, and so far, all he's managed to do is screw everything up. That about sums it up, right Kuwabara?" The one asked nodded, and Yusuke fell silent, listening to the other two battle it out in words.
Finally, Yusuke spoke up again, "Uh, guys, we kind of have a meeting, and we have school tomorrow-"
"Wow, is Yusuke being responsible?" Botan gasped.
"Shut up. C or better. But anyway, I think it's time we pooled together all our info, see if we can get anything out of it."
Kuwabara started it off. "The other band director is Leurc Retticr, you know, the guy we're looking for? He's Rackly's uncle and in love with Rackly's mom."
Hiei kept his face perfectly emotionless, keeping Kuwabara from reading how Hiei reacted to his section leader's problem.
"Ooo, that explains it!" Botan piped up, which made her go next. "Most of the seniors were attacked while they were freshmen, indirectly or not. The only exception was Rackly, because he's family!"
Yusuke shrugged. "We still don't know why this "Leurc" bothered though. Just looks like a pathetic way to pass the time to me."
"Yusuke!" Botan yelled, "watch what you say! A lot of people DIED during that!"
"Wait, ALL seniors? What happened to Tsoy?" Kuwabara asked, curious to his own section leader.
"He was labeled crazy and sent to an asylum. Only one doctor ever saw him, telling everyone he was really dangerous. When the doctor died of heart problems and another one checked Tsoy, he was fine and released."
Kuwabara's heart went out to the less than straight senior. To be locked in an insane asylum… alone with a doctor literally out to get you…. (FW: Can you tell I hate doctors?) "How long was he stuck there?"
"Five months."
"And what about Flactem?" Youko asked, not really interested himself, but knowing Kurama would be whenever he snapped out of it.
"Everything before his freshman year, his name, family, life, he forgot. He must have wondered into this town, been adopted, and started with a clean slate."
"So he lost most of his life?" Youko thought it over. "Better him than me," he added, childishly.
Hiei glanced toward the offending demon. "He's the progress I've made."
"Not really what I'd call progress," Yusuke muttered.
"Did you say something, leader, because I don't see you having anything worth showing here," he growled.
"Well neither do you!"
Youko took a menacing step forward, the brochure falling out of his pocket, landing open toward the floor. Annoyed, he grabbed it in midair, hand fisting to crumble the paper. He was about to shove it back in his pocket when a little piece barely sticking out of his grip caught his eye.
It was shiny.
He didn't really know why, maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was a thief, but shiny things really got him going. Ignoring the confused and "what the heck is he doing" looks his teammates were giving him, he smoothed the paper to see exactly what it was that caught his eye.
And couldn't stop staring at something he thought he'd never see again.
It was a picture of the trophy awarded to the winners of the tournament. Grand and gold, a symmetric cup shape with two handles, one on either side. That wasn't the important part though. Engraved in the center of the bowl-like part, was a sparkling red gem.
If he remembered correctly, which he was sure he did, the jewel was the Eye of Tepurt, a treasure lost for centuries in the Makai. The user could use it to locate any living creature in all the worlds. That foolish humans should gain possession of it….
"What is it?" Yusuke asked, breaking the silence.
"Nothing of importance," he answered, turning to leave, keeping that information to himself. He brushed Hiei's attempts to get into his mind aside easily, chiding the shorter demon for bothering to try. His mind was far too complicated to read.
Once alone, and when he was sure no one would pry into his private thoughts, he allowed himself to think clearly. "Leurc must have known the prize and what it can do, and decided to weaken the most important part of each section so far ahead of time, no one would suspect when the time actually came. Ingenious, really… but he didn't count on me being there," the fox thought, grinning in the darkness.
An hour later, everyone had filed out of Yusuke's house but its original occupant. His mom was out drinking somewhere again.
He heard the doorbell ring, and though he didn't really want to, felt he had to at least find out who it was.
Outside was an old lady, with about ten kids milling around her. "Yusuke Urameshi?" She asked.
"Yeah…" he answered, watching the little ones suspiciously, as if one might try and pull a gun on him.
"Great, I'll be back to pick them up at around 3 am. I hope $2 an hour is enough for you."
Before her words sunk in, and way before he thought to protest, she had left.
Left without all the kids.
END CHAPTER 24
FW: I know, I know. More of a boring chapter, but I've got to connect all this!
Yusuke: Leave kids with me? Heh, lucky if I don't kill them all.
FW: Hey, Youko survived. Well, gonna make this quick because it's kinda late right now…. So, if you want to review, nice, but don't bother if you don't want to. If you flame me, cool! I'll take it in stride!
