Disclaimer:………SAME.
Chapter Three: Restraining Orders
Chapter Theme Song: "Give 'Em Hell, Kid", My Chemical Romance
"Alright, Chikuu, I need you to answer a few questions."
"My mother's name was Kauri. I don't know who my father is. My mother is now dead and I have no siblings alive to speak of."
". . . Thank you, but that's not exactly what I'm looking for."
"Then ask your questions."
"Ah right well, Jorge are you ready to write?"
The blue ogre nodded feverishly, glasses poised upon the bridge of his nose, pen hovering just above the paper on top of the folder held in one clawed hand. Next to him sat the Prince Koenma, hands clasped upon his desk The demi-god was now perfectly calm with the presence of his entire Reikai Tantei before him, all of whom were located, expressions decisively bored, across the room from him. Kurama leaned casually against one wall beside Hiei, Kuwabara was fiddling with some form of trinket in his hand, and Yuusuke stood, with his arms crossed, directly behind Chikuu. Her expression was something close to the one of subtle irritation worn by the Toushin not five paces from her.
"Alright. You are from the light demon realm of Sokai, correct?"
"Yes, that's correct."
Koenma nodded and continued. "Your father's name?"
"I told you, I don't know." Chikuu answered, her face unchanged.
"Alright, ogre," Koenma called out, a bright smile plastered upon his juvenile face "put down 'bastard child' then."
Chikuu's eyes widened and her nostrils flared for a moment, seeming not to comprehend for a moment what exactly Koenma had called her, before her features darkened into a glower. She leapt from her chair, the chains breaking through the back of it and allowing her to stand on her own. She lunged immediately for the Prince, who let out a sharp cry of terror and shoved himself as far away from the desk as his arms could reach.
Luckily for Koenma a hand shot out from behind the attacking demoness to grabbed a hold of the chains wrapped tightly around her torso and halted her about half a foot from the Prince's face, which was closed tightly in fear. After a moment, Koenma opened his eyes, only to find himself nearly touching faces with an angry demoness. A short yelp escaped his mouth as he tried to push himself further from the girl. With little reward, though, as he didn't seem to move a bit. His small legs kicked wildly at the desk he couldn't reach while his arms strained to force his body as far back into the material of the chair as was possible. The girl was hauled backwards into her chair. She did not try to jump up again. She instead settled for glaring absolute death at the Prince, who was cautiously smoothing out his ruffled shirt and scooting his chair back to the desk.
"Right then, thank you Yuusuke." Koenma said his voice remarkably free of any tremor. Frowning slightly, the Prince then reached up and yanked the edge of his tall hat down over his head. The young ruler re-emerged from underneath the cap as a teenage version of himself, appearing now to be ready for whatever business Chikuu was here for.
"I suppose we should continue." He said calmly. "Chikuu, you are charged with theft, causing mayhem and violation of the terms of a treaty. You will be sentenced to twenty to thirty years in Spirit Prison if you cannot answer these questions correctly."
"And by 'correctly' I'm sure you mean you want me to tell you everything I know."
"If that's the way you want to put it."
"Hmm."
"Why don't you start with why you've crossed borders illegally in the first place? I'm sure you're aware of the laws agreed upon by Makai and Sokai, so why would you choose to break them and cause trouble?"
"To restore order." She answered blankly.
"Order?" Koenma echoed.
"Yes. I'll assume your eye has simply not been turned in our direction since the treaty, as otherwise I'm sure you would have been aware of the events within the royal family that took place not a dozen years after."
"Actually, I am quite aware of how Sokai is being ruled now."
"Then what is your reason for stopping me if you know of the injustice in our world!"
"I'm afraid I cannot allow the breaching of a treaty, no matter how just the cause. Now, would you mind telling me who sent you to Makai?"
Chikuu's eyes narrowed.
"Why do you presume I have not come on my own decision?"
"Because to my rather extensive knowledge light demons never operate on their own. That's why you have an entire Council in addition to a High Queen."
The light demoness did not answer. Her face remained blank as she stared at Koenma, who patiently waited for her to speak.
"Chikuu, this will be so much easier if you simply tell us what's going on."
"Why don't you ask him?" Chikuu replied sharply, jerking her head around and turning her eyes to meet Hiei's. She held his gaze for not more than a second before looking back at Koenma. "Heshould know, he caused it."
"Hiei?" Yuusuke interrupted, eyes wide. Every eye in the small room now locked upon the small fire-demon, who appeared completely unaffected by Chikuu's accusation. If anything, his face was more vacant than before.
"Hiei, what does she mean?" Kurama asked.
"You know not of what you speak." Hiei said in a low, dangerous voice. Chikuu did not twist to face him again, but spat out a rebuttal nonetheless.
"You filthy--"
"Hold your tongue, Chikuu, or I will send you to prison now." Koenma voiced sternly. Chikuu grudgingly obeyed, her face again darkened with anger. Hiei's ruby eyes were now fixed on the back of her hair. The expression on his face was quite unreadable. It was something akin to anger though it looked to have been caused more by injury than insult. The fire demon was doing a fantastic job of keeping himself perfectly calm and resisting the urge to unsheathe his sword on the woman.
"Now, I think it's best that we cease this interrogation and continue it at a later time." Koenma suggested wisely. Kurama and Kuwabara were the only two of the group to reply. Each nodded in agreement. Slowly, each of the Reikai Tantei turned to leave the office, Yuusuke taking Chikuu by the arm to drop her off at the entrance to Spirit Prison.
"Wait, Yuusuke." Koenma stopped the young man before Chikuu was fully out of her seat.
"Yeah?"
"You can leave her here."
Yuusuke sent the Reikai prince a puzzled look.
"I thought the whole reason for us being here was so you would feel safe? Now you want me to leave her here?"
"I don't think I'll be in any danger, Yuusuke. I wish to speak with her alone."
"Er . . . Alright, whatever." Yuusuke agreed slowly. With that, he turned and followed his once-teammates out the door, closing it behind him. For some time after his departure, Koenma and Chikuu sat without speaking a word. Finally, after a good two and a half minutes of heavy silence, Koenma let out a defeated sigh.
"Leave us, ogre." He commanded. Jorge looked shocked.
"But Sir!"
"Ogre! Just go!"
"Yessir!"
Jorge scurried out of the room, sparing a final glance at Koenma before bowing himself out and closing the double doors. Koenma sighed again, eyes rising to meet Chikuu's.
"I know why you were in Makai, Chikuu, but I am afraid that still does not excuse your blatant disregard for the law. You will be going to Spirit Prison for at least ten years; maybe less if you will just cooperate and tell me who sent you."
"Do you have no guess?"
Koenma sighed again.
"I do, Chikuu. Though I was really hoping it wasn't going to come to that."
"Too bad for you, I suppose."
"I don't want another war on my hands, Chikuu."
"That sounds like your problem to me."
"Ah. I suppose." Prince Koenma reached one hand up to rub his temples exhaustedly. With the other hand he pressed a button on the bottom corner of his desk. Two Reikai guards promptly entered the room and, at a wave from the Prince, handcuffed Chikuu again and led her out of the chamber.
As they left Koenma dropped into his large chair, sprawling across it.
"Oh, Father is not going to like this. . ." he groaned. For a brief minute as the demi-god lay in his chair, he was able to think in quiet alone. But not another minute had passed before his door opened again and a tall, handsome redhead walked in.
"Hello Kurama."
"Hello, Koenma-sama." Kurama replied with a small smile.
"I suppose you want to know what that was about."
"You read my mind, Koenma-sama."
"All I can tell you is that that girl, Chikuu, is a light demon from Sokai, and seems to be one of the last ones true to the original ruling line."
"So there is someone now on the throne that she does not consider to be of the 'original line', as you say?"
"Correct. And I assume she is working under the orders of someone who wants the throne back in the hands of the rightful ruler."
"Then the rightful ruler is alive?"
"Yes. But he was disowned by the royal family at his birth for reasons I really can't talk about."
Kurama knit his eyebrows.
"Would this be out of respect for Hiei's wishes?"
"You are very perceptive, Kurama. I would tell you to ask Hiei, but I'm sure that would be entirely in vain."
Kurama smiled slightly.
"Understandable." He said. "Then I suppose I shall simply have to find out for myself."
"Good luck."
The youko nodded, turning to leave. Before he could get out the door, Koenma spoke again.
"Oh, Kurama, you may want to start with the year 1894."
Not taking a second glance back, Kurama strode out of the office into the bustling room outside filled with hurried ogre secretaries going about their work. Acting as inconspicuous as was possible for the handsome, red-headed demon, Kurama walked carefully past each of the cubicles, narrowly avoiding one rather flustered pink ogre who had dropped her stack of files for 'the fifth time today!'.
His sharp eyes flicked around, searching each and every door for what he needed . . .
Ah. There it was.
Kurama's emerald gaze finally landed upon a rather small and insignificant-looking door, clearly a sign of the Reikai officials attempt at concealing the door from obvious view, labeled 'Historical Files', and directly underneath the plaque hung a large white sign, reading in red letters 'DO NOT ENTER, AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY'. Kurama's eyes glimmered roguishly.
Off-limits.
Right.
The youko smiled slyly, and altered his direction of walking so he would walk straight past the worn door. Casually, he reached up and ran one hand through his long mane of hair, pulling a small, pea-shaped seed from it as he did. He slowed his gait just as he approached the door, and flared his youki just barely so that his little seed grew into a slender, leafless vine, twining itself around one of his fingers and reaching out further into the air.
As he came upon the door, the kitsune lifted his hand and, averting his eyes from the doorknob itself, allowed the thin vine to wind itself into the lock. They twisted and turned each of the delicate mechanisms inside for about 1 and a half seconds before the look clicked open. Smiling mischievously, Kurama retracted the vine from the keyhole back into his hand, opened the door, and slipped in.
The room was quite a lot more impressive than its meager entrance would fool one into believing. It extended as far back as the eye could see, which was quite a distance when considering Kurama's extraordinary reign of eyesight. The ceiling was pushing 200 feet or more, and arched. It was painted to look something reminiscent of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel; however, the subjects were not so much humans as epic displays of ancient demonic battles. Though Kurama did notice, with a small smile, that such great individuals as Alexander the Great, King David, Julius Caesar and the like were depicted alongside the youkai kings and rulers.
The massive walls were lined with hundreds of millions of file cabinets, all made of what appeared to be a sort of titanium alloy, and each were labeled according to year, then dates, then general location. The fox sighed. What a waste, ruining such masterful beauty with such an inartistic choice of metal.
Walking to the left wall and taking a look at the top drawer of the nearest cabinet, Kurama read the label aloud.
"Year: 2006, Dates: March 12th-14th, Location: South Africa, Ningenkai."
Well, this was going to be fun. Lifting his arm up and pushing back his black sleeve, Kurama glanced at the hands on his watch.
11:29. Exactly 31 minutes until his mother expected him for lunch.
Plenty of time.
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Exactly 26 minutes and 34 seconds after he initially entered the room, Kurama found at last what he was searching for.
Year: 1894
Dates: February 2nd – February 5th
Location: Sokai 1
Indi. File#: 11,782,354,699,871
Exact Date/Location/Time: February 1/Palazzo Del Diium 2, outskirts/11:11-39 P.M.
Individuals: Princess Aeroninica Omicron, Princess Amrinaerora Omega, Hiei Jaganshi, unborn child (name unk.)
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I know, it's still very confusing—but just hold on, it will get less confusing as everything plays out. Peace out, and don't forget- REVIEW!
1: Sokai- That's the name I've given the Light Demon Realm. They'll be explained in detail later on.
2: Palazzo De Diium- it means 'Palace of the Sun' in a combination of Latin and Italian.