Warnings: Firearms
Lucky Child
Chapter 66:
"The Great Hiei-Keiko Road Trip of 1990, Part 3"
I stayed in the tent as long as I could stand it, but when pale green light turned the side of my shelter luminous white gold, I crawled from my sleeping bag and got dressed. Hiei was already on his feet by the time I unzipped the tent and stood, stretching with a satisfying crack of shoulder and neck. He watched from beside the fire pit, which had turned to pale ash in the night, in silence.
"Hey," I said, still stretching. "Morning."
He didn't bother with a greeting in return. "You're awake," he said, and in Hiei's mouth it sounded like an accusation.
I shrugged. "Yeah. And?"
"And it's not time yet."
"Then I'll make breakfast until it is time."
He considered this and found the notion acceptable, nod curt and perfunctory. "Good. Be quick about it."
And with that he flitted out of sight, a blur of black in the lightening dawn.
Birds sang, casting off the fug of sleep as I unpacked my breakfast rations: bread for toast, sausage links, and eggs cracked free of their shells and poured into a thermos, all kept cold with a packet of ice. No telling where Hiei had gone. He wasn't there to heat the skillet for me; I used the fire, instead, once I added a log and coaxed into being a steady flame. Before long the sausages and scrambled eggs were sizzling. Their hearty perfume filled the crisp mountain air; my mouth watered at the scent.
"Hurry back, Hiei," I said to the cooking food. "I'm hungry."
Hiei did not appear.
The food cooked before he returned; I set it up in the skillet by the fire so it wouldn't get cold, then dismantled my tent and cleaned up the rest of the campsite. With that finished, I settled onto the log beside the fire with a sigh. Hiei's absence left a void in the campsite—and of course my anxious brain filled that void with paranoid thought.
Or was it hopeful thought, in the end?
The dream I'd had about Yukina weighed heavy on my mind, naturally. While it wasn't the first lucid dream I'd experienced, it certainly had been the most vivid of them all—and the first dream to swing so wildly out of my control. It had felt too real, too unpredictable compared to my usual lucid dreams—lucid dreams I'd experienced with some regularity ever since I chased Hiruko from my consciousness weeks prior. I'd always wanted to lucid-dream in my past life, so I'd embraced my new skill with gusto. Not that it was very useful, mind you, for much more than keeping up with school. I mostly used the dreams to study (when I didn't just fuck off and fly around for fun, of course). Rebuilding my textbook from memory alone helped me recall material for class. Sleep had always seemed like a waste of time, but now I could actually make use of it. Seemed Hiruko's influence was good for a few things.
(Well. Some of the time it was good. Some nights I couldn't resist rebuilding Tom's apartment in my head: the sagging couch, the wall of video game posters, the vanilla candle he'd purchased with me at IKEA and had grown to enjoy even when I wasn't around. Dream-me sat on the couch under the blanket with the octopus photo on the front and watched Dream-Tom play games at his computer, listening with a giggle as he swore when an enemy got too close.
I never dared build an image of his face. I just stared at the nape of his neck and listened to his laugh, lest homesickness swallow me whole.)
But, anyway. Those dreams were just that: dreams, plain and simple and ordinary even if they were lucid. The dream with Yukina, though? I wasn't stupid, and I was too genre-savvy to dismiss that as a mere lucid dream gone wrong. It had been different. It had been weird. It had been alarming.
It had been thrilling.
Because if that dream had indeed been more than just a dream…
A crunch behind me; I wheeled just in time to see Hiei walk out of the trees, hands jammed deep into his pockets. Before I could greet him (or scold him because the eggs were probably overcooked by now) one of his quick hands lashed out; something sliced through the air beside my cheek, ruffling my hair and eyelashes as that same something hit the ground behind me with a thunk and a smattering of tossed pebbles.
Three throwing knives—the ones I'd launched at the horrible demon the day before—quivered where they jutted from the rocky ground.
"You'll need those today," Hiei said.
I looked at the knives and swallowed.
We ate in silence, Hiei consuming eggs and toast and sausage after a few minutes of sniffing and his required taste-testing (and watching me eat them first to ensure they weren't poisoned, of course). I ate quickly out of nerves, setting aside my plate after I gulped down the last bites of scrambled egg. My feet pressed together at the ankle; I sat ramrod straight with hands folded primly atop my knees.
"So," I said. I swallowed again. "Uh."
Hiei—who ate with plate held directly beneath his pointed chin—glared at me over his remaining sausages. "Spit it out, Meigo."
"I had a weird dream last night about your sister."
Hiei's hand stopped moving, stopped shoveling eggs past his lips. Slowly he lowered the plate to his lap. Red eyes scraped against my skin as he looked me over, as if searching for secrets in the folds of my clothes.
"A dream?" he repeated, suspicious.
"Yeah." I didn't let my posture falter, fighting back a joke to lighten the mood and calm myself (something about a sex dream; Hiei would have killed me for that). "I flew to the mansion in a boat through the sky and I saw her, locked in a warded room."
"You have no aura. No power." Even without me saying so, he knew what I was trying to get at, coming in fast and hard with frank denial. Lifting his plate again, he grumbled, "Dreams are sometimes just that, Meigo—dreams."
I winced. "Yeah, I know, but—can you just, like, check again?"
Once more he lowered the plate. I thought he'd rebuke me, tell me to just give it up and stop my inane prattling—but instead his eyes closed, and behind his headband came the faintest violet glow. My breath snagged in my chest. I felt nothing, though, as Hiei doubtless scanned me with his Evil Eye.
The glow faded.
His red eyes opened.
"You are a human," Hiei said. "Normal. I sense nothing from you but humanity."
My nose wrinkled. "Damn."
"Still on that quest to be more than you are, I see."
"I'm persistent like that. All part of my charm." My spine bent when I sighed, slouching under the weight of defeat—defeat that stung. Damn. I'd really wanted this to be a sign of some burgeoning power, but if Hiei said it wasn't… I sighed again and shook my head, fingers running through my hair. "Well. Seems like I'm dealing with crushing disappointment today. And how are you this morning?"
Hiei ignored my attempt at humor. He just shrugged and lifted his plate back to his face.
"Nervous?" I asked.
Once again the plate dropped. He glared, spitting a disdainful 'tch' from between his teeth—but as his fist clenched around his camping spork, I wondered if I'd hit the nail on the head. Not that I'd push about it, of course.
"Fine. No heart to heart in the light of day," I said, and I gathered up our plates and the cookware to clean in the river.
Hiei ate the rest of his meal without a word, bringing me his cutlery so I could wash it and repack my hiking bag. He watched in that same silence as I doused the fire in a way that would make Smokey the Bear proud. Once I finished, I sat back down and affixed my throwing knives to my thigh.
"How much longer, do you think?" I said as I fiddled with the straps.
Hiei eyed the sky, and the slanted shadows cast by the rising sun. "Not long. They're moving, but—"
He stopped talking. Like wind through the trees he tensed, stiffness sweeping over him from crown to feet in a wave of tightening muscle. His head whipped toward the trees; eyes pierced the depths of the forest with a stab of scarlet.
I was on my feet in a second, snatching up my backpack out of nerves. "Hiei?" I said.
My voice broke whatever spell he'd been under. He shook off the tension, shoved his hands in his pockets, and jerked his head northward.
"Follow me," he said. "Quickly."
He didn't say why. He merely turned and headed away from the camp, darting over the trees in a flash of black. I hopped from stone to stone across the brook in his wake, wondering just what he'd sensed in the woods.
A demon, if I had to guess.
I had no intention of waiting around to find out.
We travelled for hours, route circuitous through the woods as the sun climbed higher in the sky. The directions Hiei took felt random, but perhaps he was avoiding demons or trying to confuse any demons on our trail—not that he cared to tell me so. Regardless of the reasons, he ran out ahead and doubled back to give me directions as he had the day before, and after a long hike I found him standing still and waiting for me. He held up a hand, silhouetted by the break in the trees a few dozen yards ahead, dark body outlined in green and gold. I walked to his side and squinted in the sun, past it toward the open ground that lay beyond the line of the close-pressed trees.
The open ground looked like an absolute warzone.
I smelled it before I saw it: gunpowder and sulfur, ash and fire, wafting on the wind and into the woods. A hundred yards of pock-marked dirt lay between the forest and a high brick wall, smoke rising from jagged craters filled with embers and debris. Trees, stumps still smoldering, lay shattered across the great expanse like fallen artillery. A huge iron gate, standing open, cut the wall in front of us, but the metal had sagged and melted, hanging from its hinges like wax left too long in the sun.
Rising above it all behind the wall, green-tiled roof glimmering like jade in the sun, rose the mansion of Tarukane Gonzo.
"Does it look the same?" Hiei asked.
I flinched. "What?"
"Does it look the same as in your dream?" he said.
From our vantage point, obscured by distance and smoke alike, it was hard to say. The white brick and green roof certainly looked similar to what I'd dreamed, but the wall blocked too much of the house to say for certain. Even through the open gate I only saw part of the monstrous structure, and that was obscured by a bubbling fountain. I hadn't dreamed of that wall at all, nor of the ruined field between us and it—but then again, perhaps the ruined field hadn't looked like this until today. I vaguely recalled mention of land mines in the anime, which Yusuke and Kuwabara triggered and walked straight through without flinching.
The boys had indeed beaten us here, it seemed. And they weren't too far ahead, judging by the smoke.
"Parts of this seem similar," I admitted to Hiei, "but no. It's not exactly like I dreamed." A sigh passed through my lips unbidden. "Sometimes a dream is just a dream, I guess."
Hiei smirked. "Wise words."
"Somebody's full of himself," I grumbled, but this indication that my dream had not, in fact, been a sign of burgeoning psychic powers was too depressing for continued attention. I shook myself and took a deep breath. "So where do we go in?" A pause. "Do you even want me to go in with you?"
Scarlet eyes narrowed. "What?"
My hands came up, thumbs twiddling. "This is prime I'll-just-slow-you-down territory, is all."
Hiei's smirk returned. "Maybe I'll just use you as bait again."
"Do it and I'll never cook for you again," I deadpanned. When Hiei chuckled I said in softer tones, "Why did you bring me here, Hiei?"
The smirk vanished. He turned away, shoulders broad beneath his dark cloak.
"Bait. Like I said," said Hiei.
"I don't believe you."
"I don't care what you believe."
"Of course you don't." Even though he wasn't looking at me, I still saw fit to smile. "But whether you want me in there with you or not, just know I've got your back."
His head turned just enough for him to see me from the corner of an eye, but before I could read his expression he looked away again, hair tossing in obvious defiance. "Feh! Your help would only slow me down."
"That's what I've been saying," I whined—and when he walked along the edge of the tree line to the east, I jogged after him. "Hey, wait!"
And so I followed him—because he did not tell me not to.
We walked around the mansion's perimeter, staying in the forest and out of sight. The boys had only triggered some of the landmines surrounding the mansion, it seemed, because in other areas outside the wall lay nothing but large swathes of undisturbed and very green lawn.
"I think there might be explosives under the grass," I said. "All that smoke earlier—I think Yusuke triggered them."
One dark brow rose high. "You think the Detective got himself blown up?"
"No. He'd have shielded himself. But I just wanted to warn you just in case."
Hiei snorted, like my warning was more an inconvenience than anything (or perhaps in doubt of Yusuke's competence), but regardless he led the way across the field to the house—sticking to the charred ground where Yusuke and Kuwabara had cleared out any potential mines. He kept low and moved quickly between mounds of earth and plumes of billowing smoke, motioning me after him when he determined the coast was clear. I held my breath next to the worst of the burned patches and crouched beside Hiei in the shadows of the melted gate, trying not to get too much ash on my good hiking boots. Hiei glared past the gate and at the yard beyond with an audible grit of teeth.
"Flying deathtrap," he said.
I followed his gaze. Past the gate and in front of the sprawling mansion lay a wide lawn dotted with fountains and long stretches of paved driveway. Off to the west, toward the side of the house near the wall guarding the property perimeter, a tandem-rotor helicopter painted fatigue olive sat on a concrete helipad. It looked military, though I was no expert, and the sight of it made me want to laugh. Why the hell did Tarukane have that huge and unwieldly monster on his property? Was a regular single-rotor copter not good enough for that bastard? I couldn't image he'd need to transport a whole platoon.
Unless he did need to transport a platoon, after all.
Around the helicopter milled at least a dozen men in stark black suits, like the one the demon had worn in the forest before his transformation, seemingly patrolling the grounds and standing guard. Another six or so men walked in tight formation toward the mansion, disappearing through a heavy metal door into the nearest wing of the house.
Every last one of them carried a firearm.
My mouth dried. It had been almost fifteen years since I last saw a firearm (aside from the odd pistol on the belt of a police officer, but even then they were holstered, the barest bit of their stock painted flat matte black). I'd sort of hoped I'd never see a gun again, but here I was in close proximity to at least… wow. OK. At least four AR-15s, and the rest of them openly carried pistols. Talk about overkill—overkill Hiei would hopefully be able to handle. Tarukane had employed a small army, it seemed, and in that context the helicopter had started to make sense.
One of the men nearest the helicopter paused. He pressed his index finger to his ear, turning his mouth toward the cuff of his sleeve, lips moving the barest fraction before he dropped his hand again. When he turned the sun caught the silvery spiral trailing from his ear and into his collar.
"Wanna bet they're about to move Yukina, evac Tarukane?" I muttered. "See the wires in their ears?"
Hiei's eyes narrowed. "Radios."
"Right." Somehow it didn't surprise me that Hiei knew about that bit of human tech. "Take them out before they can use those. Don't let them call for backup."
"And the flying deathtrap?"
"Cut off one of the rotary blades and it'll never get off the ground."
His smile looked as sadistic as a torturer's rack. Without preamble he flashed away from me, sprinting across the lawn toward the nearest goon so fast my eyes couldn't follow. A chorus of pained cries went up almost in unison from every single guard on the field just as a metallic groan came from both of the copter's blades. Hiei reappeared on the other side of the lawn near the door the six armed men had used, and then as one all of the guards—not to mention the copter blades—collapsed to the earth like fallen stones.
Had he just—had he taken out all of them in two seconds?
I stood there with my mouth open, awed, until Hiei barked my name. He opened the door to the mansion before I got there, ushering me through ahead of him with a jerk of his head. "My, what a gentleman," I managed, trying to cover my shock with humor.
Hiei only smirked. He knew just how impressive he was, smug bastard.
We entered into a small, windowless room with a tile floor, lined by cases with padlocked Plexiglas doors—behind which lay an arsenal of guns. So, a storage room for Tarukane's army. He could militarize a small country with this stockpile, that's for sure. Continuing my trend of being utterly shocked by everything ever, I stared with my jaw dropped as Hiei strode across the room and opened the door on the other side. Beyond the door a long hallway stretched to our left and right, passage lined with red velvet carpet and gold crown trim—and ah, yeah, this looked like something out of the anime. I remembered the ostentatious crystal chandeliers dotting the embellished ceiling.
Hiei cared little for chandeliers, though. He looked left, then right, before zooming down the hallway to our left, chandeliers chiming in the wake of his passing. I followed at a slower pace (AKA a dead-on sprint, still pathetic compared to present company) to the end of the hall, here Hiei crouched by the wall where the hallway turned. I stood over him and peered around the corner, our heads stacked like characters from Scooby Doo spying on the monster of the week. Three men stood maybe thirty feet from us at a three-way fork in the mansion's maze of halls, guarding a door in a tight knot. Below me Hiei tensed; I placed a hand on his shoulder before he could attack.
Baleful scarlet eyes turned upward. "What?"
"Guns," I murmured.
These men, like the ones who'd come before, carried assault weapons at the ready in their hands. One gentle squeeze of the trigger and they'd send a hundred rounds rocketing down the hall in our direction. Those weapons had to be illegal since this was Japan, right? While Hiei hadn't had trouble with the guns outside, he'd be coming at these men from one direction—and for them it would be like shooting fish in a barrel, unless I truly was underestimating how quickly Hiei could get the jump on them. It was basically Yusuke killing one of the Demon Triad members with his Shotgun all over again, but Hiei was playing the role of the demon whom Yusuke skewered.
"They've got the advantage with those guns unless you take them out hella fast," I whispered. "You ever tangle with a firearm up close?"
Hiei looked away from me, lips pursing. "No."
Oblivious to our presence, one of the men lifted a hand to his ear and spoke into his sleeve. He waited a beat, spoke again, and then again. The three men conversed in low voices—probably about not getting a response from the men outside, who were just a bit too unconscious to reply. Thanks, Hiei.
"They're running scared. Won't think clearly," I said, mostly to myself. To Hiei I added, "Mind if I try something?"
Hiei balked. "You said I could take them out fast. I'm fast."
My eyes rolled; I dropped to one knee and rummaged through my backpack, "Oh, just let me be the hero for two seconds Hiei, jeez." He scoffed but allowed me to have my moment, eyeing the object I'd pulled from my bag with skepticism. "Be ready to run," I said.
Hiei nodded.
I threw the smoke bomb.
The red canister sailed through the air and bounced off the carpet right in the middle of the pack of goons. They flinched and danced away from it, hands waving as white smoke poured forth. The cloud rose around them, billowing to cover their faces in seconds, and one of them yelped a panicked, "Where the hell did that come from?!"
Hiei had already vanished, though, and a mere moment later I heard three grunts, followed by three thuds. The smoke was still too thick to see through, however, so on ginger feet I rose and padded toward the cloud down the hall. This wasn't the kind of bomb that caused respiratory distress, thankfully. It only obscured, and by the time I made it to three men lying sprawled across the carpet, the smoke had started to fade. I skirted around their discarded weapons with distaste.
"They're not dead, much though they deserve to be." Hiei appeared at my side, scattering plumes of smoke. "Spirit World wouldn't be happy with me if I murdered them outright."
"Good call," I said—and movement caught my eye. My hand dipped to my thigh and threw a knife, hard, into the carpet below. "Watch it, buddy!" I snarled.
A goon whom Hiei hadn't quite knocked out had been stealthily reaching for his gun, fingers inching across the carpet; he shrieked, snatching his hand back and away from the knife quivering between two of his splayed fingers. Hiei growled and ripped off his headband, glaring at the goon with all three of his eyes.
Suffice it to say, the goon fainted dead away.
I recovered my blade as Hiei opened the door, revealing a set of steps leading up. A voice, laughing and guttural, echoed down the stairwell like gunshots. I didn't need to meet Tarukane's real-life counterpart to know the sound of his twisted mirth, and neither did Hiei. He growled and darted up the stairs without a word. I followed, the laughter growing louder with every step.
The stairwell let out into another hallway, but this one had been paved with tile instead of carpet, austere and clinical instead of distastefully opulent. A few doors lay along this hall, but Hiei stood at the farthest door, way down at the hall's dead end. I trotted to his side, boots clopping atop the tile, as more laughter poured through the crack below the closed door.
I heard an enraged bellow, then, Kuwabara's potent voice unmistakable—followed by a sound I'd never heard before. Bright and pinging, powerful and harsh, it could only be the sound of Yusuke's Spirit Gun, right?
The boys were fighting Toguro just past this door.
"Meigo—she's in there."
Hiei stood with hands clenched at his sides, glaring at the door as if to melt it with his gaze alone. I danced from foot to foot with impatience visible.
"Yeah, she is, so what are you waiting for?" I flung a hand in her supposed direction. "Go get her!"
But Hiei didn't move. His fists and shoulders and his everything tightened like a rope on a winch. Red eyes turned my way with a scorching spark.
"What do I say?" Hiei said.
"…what?"
He bristled as if my lack of understanding had personally insulted him. "What do I say to her?" Hiei snarled. "What do I say to Yukina?"
My mouth moved, unable to form words—because holy shit I think Hiei had brought me along for moral support, after all, but last night had been the time to get it, not now! I shook my head and made a wordless sound of frustration, stepping behind him so I could shove him bodily at the door. He planted his feet, though, not moving an inch even when I put my weight between his shoulder blades and shoved.
"Say whatever's in your goddamn heart, Hiei!" I said through gritted teeth, struggling to move him past the door. "Feel your feelings because I know you've got 'em and just go, dammit!"
Hiei hesitated a moment longer—but there came a bellow of rage from beyond the door, impotent and desperate. With a growl he threw the door open and launched himself straight through. I lost my balance and fell to the carpet when Hiei disappeared from under me, but the curse of pain died in my chest when a shriek cut the air.
Past the door lay a long, wide room, the far wall made entirely of windows above a weird control-panel-looking-thing set with buttons and knobs and flashing screens. Hiei had Tarukane shoved up against this, one hand latched onto the man's collar while he punched Tarukane again and again in the face with the other (for the record, Tarukane is even uglier in person, looking for all the world like a sagging scrotum infected with dryrot). Beyond the windows I saw white-paneled ceiling and the tops of a few screens—the weird dome-thing the boys fought Toguro in, no doubt, watched over by members of the Black Black Club, but I hardly spared the view a second look. Three other humans lay in unconscious heaps behind Hiei, and to Hiei's right stood a girl.
Yukina, obviously.
The minute I saw her, I found I couldn't look away.
I stared at her with my mouth open, rising inch by inch to my feet as the scene played out in front of me. It happened like it did in the anime, so far as I could tell, but I was too distracted by Yukina to pay close attention. Hiei beat Tarukane senseless, verbally berating him for what he'd done to Yukina, and I wondered if I should intervene before Hiei took human life—but I needn't have worried. Fate knew what to do. Yukina threw herself onto Hiei's arm, holding him back from murdering the human outright. Tears welled in her eyes, solidifying into perfectly spherical crystals that rolled down her cheeks and onto the floor, as she begged Hiei to spare the ugly human's life.
She was, without a doubt, the single most beautiful person I had ever seen in my life.
The dream hadn't done her justice. It hadn't captured the translucent glow of her pale skin, nor the richness of her crimson eyes (crimson, not livid scarlet like Hiei's—her eyes were blood and flowers and the color of passion made visible instead of the rage of hot and billowing flame). She was beautiful, yes, all pink lips and small features and delicate bones, but the thing that caught your eye and held it was her carriage. The way she moved, the resolution in her grip on Hiei's arm, the sheer determination painted across her elfin face… there was a purpose to her, a strength in the lines of her traditional kimono and porcelain jaw, a hidden power she let shine through when the chips were down and she had nothing left to lose.
"Please no more," she was saying, but there was nothing pleading about her, not really. "I can't take it!"
And then more tears fell, the clack of gem against tile more painful to my heart than any gunshot.
Luckily Hiei gave her what she wanted (if he hadn't I would've marched in there and smacked him upside the head for denying her anything). He stared at her with pure fury radiating off of him like heat from a flame—and then he ducked his chin. His grip on Tarukane slacked.
Hiei's face, when it softened, looked almost like it belonged to someone else.
"Understood. I won't make you cry," Hiei said. "He's too worthless for that."
He dropped Tarukane to the ground. Yukina's shoulders slumped.
"How can I ever thank you?" she said—and then her eyes widened, and I knew what was coming even before she said it. Eyes locked on Hiei's face she said: "You seem… familiar."
Hiei froze. It was almost chilling, witnessing a being of raging fire turned cold with fear. He stood motionless while Yukina searched his features, as if trying to read the truth in his enormous eyes and parted mouth.
"But I'm not sure why," she said. Her head tilted, one hand lifting as if to touch Hiei's face. "Who are you?"
Hiei's throat moved as he swallowed. The demon thawed, turning back to the window overlooking the fighting arena.
"No one," he said. "Just a member… of the team."
Yukina flinched as if struck, face turning toward the arena as she gasped. "Oh no! I forgot about them!" she said, and she bolted for the door.
Toward me, in point of fact.
I stood just outside the door, thumbs hooked awkwardly into the straps of my backpack as Yukina skidded to a stop before me. She looked me up and down as I lifted a hand in an awkward wave. I felt remarkably bedraggled in front of her. For a prisoner she was well dressed indeed, kimono pressed and expertly wrapped, hair lustrous and shiny as her eyes swept over me. Holy shit, was she pretty. My face flushed on reflex as she stared at me.
"Who are you?" she said.
"Um." I fidgeted, vaguely aware of Hiei watching us from inside the control room. "I'm, uh. Yet another member of the team?"
So much for eloquence. So much for impressing her with something witty, something comforting, something to let her know she was—once and for all—free at last. Thank my lucky stars I didn't need to be eloquent. Yukina was too smart to require eloquence. She nodded, a lightbulb flaring behind her eyes. Said eyes narrowed a moment later, however, once again scanning me from hair to hiking boots. She took a step forward atop her traditional Japanese sandals with the toe socks. The scent of winter wind and evergreen enveloped me in a cloud, and when she drew close I could see the deep violet flecks around her dark pupil.
God, she was pretty.
"Do I…have we met before?" she said.
The breath hiked in my chest, but no words formed. The heat in my cheeks intensified at her proximity. Yukina's brow furrowed, tracks carved in fresh snow.
"No," Yukina murmured. "She didn't look anything like you."
And she bowed to me, and then to Hiei, before excusing herself and running down the stairs.
Hiei watched her go without moving, eyes locked on the door to the stairwell even after it swung shut behind his sister. Good thing, too, because I needed a moment to compose myself and catch my breath again. When I did, I glanced Hiei's way and caught his eye with a small, encouraging smile.
"Maybe you should follow," I suggested.
Scarlet eyes flashed. "Maybe you should mind your own business."
I stared at him, nonplussed. "Hiei."
"Meigo," he countered, my name an accusation on his tongue.
A staring contest commenced, mine deadpan, his defiant—but for once this was a staring contest I could win. He looked away and out the window, into the arena where Yusuke and Kuwabara waited. Hiei met my eye for one moment more after that. His mouth opened, then closed, and then opened again.
Hiei seemed to think for a moment.
Hiei snorted.
He shoved his hands in his pockets, left the room, and walked down the stairs after his sister.
After doing a small victory fist-pump (yay, sibling bonding!) I very carefully snuck my way into the control room, keeping my head down so no one in the arena would see me. I made sure to give Tarukane a swift kick to the groin when I passed, too, but he was too unconscious to do anything but groan (also it should be noted that Hiei's pummeling had improved the look of Tarukane's features; literally any change to them was an improvement in my book, though, so perhaps I'm biased). Crouching beneath the window, I inched up until I could see over the edge of the sill and into the space below, just in time to catch glimpse of a green blur heading for a door set in the room's curved wall—Yusuke running off to see about Tarukane, probably, not knowing Tarukane had already been dealt with. I could hardly pay attention to Yusuke, however, nor even the blue-clad Kuwabara lying in the middle of the arena with Botan at his side.
I was too busy staring at Toguro, instead.
He was impressive even lying there unconscious, playing dead for the benefit of the boys who'd 'slain' him. Barrel chested and enormous, he was taller than any person I'd ever seen, dwarfing even the lanky form of Kuwabara, muscles cut with such precision he looked carved from stone. The Elder Toguro still kept the form of a meaty, twisted sword, lying unmoving and silent and gross near his brother's hand (also, talk about an anime plot hole: The boys had been content with just killing one Toguro, paying no mind to the shapeshifting brother they'd failed to attack; had they never thought the Elder Toguro would reappear when they'd done nothing to stop him?). Kuwabara and Botan sat only feet away from the two terrifying demons, oblivious to the monsters sleeping at their side, the tsunami about to crest across all their lives and wash away any semblance of peace we'd once possessed.
The sight of Toguro's face—angular and long, sunglasses hiding his deceptive eyes from view—filled my stomach with dread the consistency of lead.
Movement caught my eye, a door flinging open to admit Yukina, followed closely by Yusuke and Hiei. I ducked down, barely peeking over the sill as Yukina ran to Kuwabara and knelt at his side, hands glowing an unearthly and icy blue. Kuwabara reacted to all of this with much babbling, judging by his flapping lips and waving hands, staring at Hiei like he'd grown a second head—and at something Kuwabara said, Hiei bristled. But he didn't tear Kuwabara limb from limb, and Yukina didn't look surprised or alarmed or anything, so it seemed Kuwabara hadn't blabbed about the siblings' relationship just yet. Hopefully Botan, who stood off to the side watching with a huge grin on her face just barely visible beneath the ballcap she wore, had impressed upon the boys the importance of not meddling in Hiei's personal life.
I watched Kuwabara very closely for the next minute or two, especially when Yukina lifted her hands to heal the cut leaking blood along his cheek. His cheeks visibly reddened beneath her touch, flustered at her closeness—and perhaps even as struck by her beauty as I had been. Yusuke coughed into his fist and put his back to the pair as they spoke, and beside him Hiei's expression grew more and more thunderous… and then Botan pulled both boys away, presumably to give Yukina and Kuwabara space. My heart thudded at the sight.
Maybe love at first sight had won out, after all. Kuwabara was a blushing mess down there. Perhaps seeing Yukina in person had had more of an impact than her image on the TV, and Kuwabara felt—
"Kei?"
I swore up and down and jerked away from the window, spinning in place until I saw him. He looked amused, that jerkwaffle, so I glared and slapped a hand to my chest, breath heaving in my startled lungs like a locomotive engine.
"Don't scare me like that!" I hissed between my teeth. "And where the hell did you even—?"
A pointed stare. "I've been looking for you since I realized you, and almost everyone else we know, had gone camping without me."
Kurama stood with arms crossed over his chest, one foot tapping the tile floor. His eyes held a sharp edge, his smile a bit too many teeth, as he raked me over and studied my boots, my backpack, the knives strapped to my thigh. I scratched the back of my neck as his brow rose higher and higher, waiting for an explanation.
"Ooh, sorry," I said with faux apology, trying to make a joke of it. "Invite-only kind of deal. Guess you didn't make the guest list."
"And you didn't think to give me a call and add me?" he asked, delicate but cutting.
"Actually, I did." A thumb over my shoulder at the observation window. "But a certain someone cut my phone line when I tried."
Kurama sighed. "Hiei, I assume. You've been travelling with him."
It didn't sound like a question, coming from him. "How'd you know?" I asked.
A smile lifted the corners of his lips. "I might not take the form of a fox anymore, but I am still adept at tracking."
"You were following us?" I said—but I shook my head with a snort, remembering Hiei's odd behavior when we left our campsite. "Right. That explains why Hiei freaked out this morning."
"He sensed me coming. Another smile, this one conspiratorial. "He's harder to fool than most."
"Yeah. He's hard to beat him when he's got his eyes peeled. Since he has so many and whatnot."
Kurama's face spasmed at my joke, like he'd bitten into a bitter lemon and wasn't sure what to make of the taste. Payback for him scaring the bejeezus out of me, in my book. I laughed and cast one final look out the observation window. Hiei, Botan, and Yusuke had rejoined Kuwabara and Yukina, the five of them standing in a loose knot as Yukina continued to heal their wounds. Hiei watched his sister closely, but without seeming to, eyes locked on her only sidelong. Kuwabara openly stared, though, face still flushed with nerves.
The sight of his blushing face filled me with satisfaction—and, for some reason, a burgeoning feeling of disquiet.
But now was not the time to wonder what that meant.
"All's well that ends well," I told myself. To Kurama I said, "So what happens now?"
He looked out the window, too, but he did not remark upon anything he observed. "Ayame, or another messenger for Spirit World, will likely be along in short order to clean up."
His ominous phrasing set an electric pulse through my blood. I walked out of the room, not chancing the others catching sight of me; Kurama followed on my heels and shut the door behind us. It locked with a click, hopefully trapping Tarukane inside.
"Clean up," I said, studying his face for any indication this was worth freaking out over. "What does that entail, exactly?"
Kurama leaned against the wall, arms crossing over his chest again, and his face betrayed nothing but calm nerves. "Altering the memories of the humans, mostly, to rid them of recollections of demons. And they will have to arrange Yukina's passage back to Demon World. A portal, if I had to guess. Spirit World can open them on a small scale, as you know."
"OK." Sounded like absolutely nothing I could help with, now that the action was over. "I guess I'll leave it to the boys, then."
Kurama looked surprised. "You don't want to stay?"
"I… I don't want them to know I was here." That wasn't a lie, though the thing I said next was only halfway true. "Spirit World might not take kindly to it."
Kurama's thoughtful expression lingered a moment. "No. I imagine they wouldn't." He gestured down the hall. "Time is of the essence, in that case. Would you like an escort to the train station?"
"I need one, actually."
"Oh?"
"Yeah." A shrug. "I don't know where it is on account of being unconscious on the trip over."
Kurama stiffened, rocking off the wall and onto his feet. "You weren't conscious?" he said, aghast and appalled and dangerously displeased all at once.
I pointed automatically at the door to the observation deck. "Hiei did it."
Kurama's eyes narrowed at my placement of blame, and while he didn't bolt downstairs and interrogate Hiei about my accusation right away, I got the sense he had every intention of wringing the details out of me—and I got the further sense that our trip home would be a long one, indeed, and the perfect cap to the wild ride that had been the Great Hiei-Keiko Road Trip of 1990.
The train rocked around us like the arms of a mother, lulling and constant and steady. Sagging against the window, I watched the lights in distant houses streak past amidst the dark, fireflies caught in night's deep gloom. My throat burned, raw from hours of talking.
"Sleepy?" Kurama asked when I yawned.
"Getting there," I said, sinking into my plush seat. "It's been a long day."
Before Spirit World arrived, Kurama led me off of Tarukane's property and down the mountain, to a road and the small township of Bone Ulcer Village at the mountain's foot. We took a bus to another city, larger this time, and there boarded a train back to Sarayashiki. I'd told him my half of the weekend's festivities as we trekked, finishing my tale just as the snack cart rolled by with refreshments. Kurama passed me a can of juice, smiling at my bleary eyes and slow blinks. The sugar woke me up a little; I stretched until my neck gave a satisfying pop.
"OK. I think that's all I can say," I said through yet another yawn. Nursing my juice, I drew my knees to my chest and curled up, back to the window so I could watch Kurama. "Your turn. Take it away. How'd you find me, fox boy?"
He folded his hands atop his knee, words simple and precise. "I called. Your line was dead. So I called Yusuke, and he was gone. Kuwabara was not at home, either." He paused, considering. "Shizuru is a frank person, isn't she?"
"That's one way of putting it," I said, laughing at how their introduction must have gone. "So she told you what's up?"
"Only that you were on a mission from Spirit World. The tape told me the rest."
I blinked, a little more alert now. "You watched it?"
Kurama nodded.
"So you know about Hiei, and…?"
"I know Yukina is his sister," Kurama said, neatly guessing what I didn't want to say aloud.
But I wasn't comforted just yet. "Did you know that before or after seeing the tape?"
"Before." My disquiet melted at the word. "I met Hiei years ago. He was looking for his sister even then. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together." Kurama's green eyes grew distant; the red hair falling along his cheek looked darker than normal in the dim train lighting, inky like the night outside. "The moment the tape mentioned an ice apparition, I knew."
Slowly, inch my inch, my neck collapsed until my forehead hit my knees. I breathed deeply in, then out, to calm my beating heart. Kurama shifted at my side, one hand gently alighting on my ankle.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm relieved." I looked up, peering at him over the tops of my knees. "I didn't want to be the one to tell you. It's his secret, and not mine to share. The fact that you already knew is a good thing, for sure." A wry chuckle. "Saves me from evisceration."
Kurama shook his head. "I doubt he'd do that to you."
"Oh, no?"
"He saw fit to bring you along on this mission, Kei. He would not have done that if he did not value you in some capacity."
"Value me?" I shook my head and grumbled. "For food, maybe. Or for bait."
"It's more than that, I assure you."
Kurama regarded me without flinching, staring frankly into my eyes as if to impress just how serious he felt about his assertions upon me. I uncurled in increments until my feet hit the floor again, body still angled in his direction. He shook his head and sighed, exhale nearly inaudible over the hushed roar of the moving train.
"Hiei is a complex demon, with a convoluted code of honor and complicated set of values," Kurama said. "Long though I've known him, at times even I can't tell what he's thinking, or how he might behave. He is not the sort to open himself emotionally, as you know, but even Hiei is not immune to self-doubt." He looked behind me, out the window at the looming dark, expression empathetic. "Meeting his sister for the first time… I can't imagine how he must have felt."
"I think he blames himself for her capture." At Kurama's surprised glance, I said, "It was something he said, actually. That if she hadn't gone looking, it never would have happened."
Kurama nodded. "No doubt your presence brought him comfort amidst those feelings."
My brow knit. "Comfort?"
"Yes. You've become close to him in recent months."
"Have I? It's not like he opens up to me, like… ever."
"Not verbally, no. But he trusts you." When I didn't agree, Kurama leaned a fraction of an inch toward me. "He would not have brought you with him if he didn't trust you, Kei."
That made sense, much as it could. "I get that," I said, hands spread in helpless defeat "I guess it's hard to see Hiei as ever trusting anyone. And I don't know what I did to deserve that trust."
Kurama looked, in equal measure, both flummoxed and not surprised. "Somehow, it doesn't surprise me that you don't see it."
My head cocked to one side. "That I don't see what?"
"That you've been kind to him with no expectation of reciprocity." A small smile lit his eyes, warm and intense. "You're like that with most people."
I rolled my eyes and looked out the window. "Stop. You're making me blush," I said—because it was true. Heat crept into my cheeks and sat there, smoldering.
"I'm almost finished, so abide the torture a moment longer," Kurama said, even tone carrying the faintest hint of tease. "Hiei is unaccustomed to kindness, but I think in you he has found some semblance of it. Acceptance, perhaps, as well. Given his history, I don't believe he's ever had that before. It's new territory for him." He shrugged, elegant and understated. "As I said, I can't predict him. But his actions say, to me, that you are part of his inner circle."
I started to deny it, the way I denied most compliments or praise—but I stopped. I thought about it. Hiei had denied needing advice or support when I offered it, but just before we met Yukina, he'd turned to me for help. "What do I say?" he'd asked me, like I would know exactly the right thing to tell his sister upon meeting. "What do I say to her?" he'd said. I replayed those words, replayed the lost and desperate look in his eye, as I stared out the window and the landscape rushing past.
"You really think he brought me along for support?" I murmured.
Kurama's reflection in the window nodded, expression as resolute as his voice when he said, "I do." He hesitated a moment, teeth scraping over his lip. "May I ask?"
I faced him with a frown. "Hmm?"
"What possessed you to go with Hiei on this little venture?" Kurama asked.
A smile threatened the corner of my mouth at Kurama's serious expression. "I mean. Like I said, it was Hiei's idea. Asshole literally shoved me in a sack and carried me here." I laughed and shook my head, pressing my hand to my brow. "I mean, I agreed to come along, but the method was less than dignified."
"I understand that." Kurama's voice held steady, though insistent. "But that wasn't what I was asking."
I frowned. "Mmm?"
"It was Hiei's idea, but method of transportation notwithstanding, you agreed to go with him." He searched my face for answers. "Why?"
I shrugged. "Why not?"
"You put yourself in grave danger today, Kei," Kurama said. "You are not the type of person who does so without reason."
Another shrug. "Maybe I am."
Kurama's eyes narrowed. Like a winter wind, biting and cold, shutters closed behind his eyes.
"Then I've misjudged you," he said.
He angled his body away from me, toward the aisle of the train, one knee crossing smartly over the other. Disapproval radiated off of him in palpable waves—and oh hell, was this how Hiei had felt when I said I was disappointed in him? My, how the tables had turned. I sighed in spite of myself, feeling my resolve waver and crumble under the weight of Kurama's pointed silence. I lifted a hand and touched Kurama's knee, drawing his attention back to me. Still, his eyes remained cool.
"The real Keiko wasn't supposed to go with Hiei," I said, keeping my voice low. "So to be honest, you guessed right. I did indeed have a reason of my own for saying yes." I shrugged. "Most of the time, I need to have a reason to justify breaking the rules."
Now that gained his interest. He re-crossed his legs, angling toward me once again, eyes interested and intent on my face. But this time it was my turn to scowl.
"I'll admit, this bit of rule breaking was all your fault," I told him.
Kurama blinked, taken aback. "My fault?"
"Your fault." I tapped my temple with a finger. "You got in my head."
"How so?" he said, not in the slightest bit convinced.
"Just something you said." I took a deep breath, wondering just how much I could get away with telling him. "You know that I'm living a story. Well, I went with Hiei to ensure a bit of plot happened that needed to happen. And I think it might have."
His interest intensified, if that's even possible, eyes sharping with laser focus. "You think it might have?" he repeated.
"Yeah." My nose wrinkled of its own accord. "I don't know for sure. It should have been obvious. It's alarming that it wasn't obvious. But…"
I trailed off, the image of Kuwabara's blushing face lodged in my mind's eye. He hadn't been screaming and declaring love, no, but that blush… did it mean what I thought it meant? It was there, yes, but it wasn't exactly what I'd been looking for. Or was Kuwabara in this version of reality simply more understated than his anime counterpart?
But Yukina had been so damn gorgeous. And sweet. And poised amid the chaos.
If he had fallen for her, how could he not have shouted it from the rooftops?
Kurama leaned toward me, silken hair brushing the back of my arm. "May I ask what was supposed to happen?" he murmured.
God, it was tempting to tell him. It was tempting to just let it spill, let loose the arrows of a good old-fashioned ranting session—but Kurama wasn't the person I needed to be talking to about Kuwabara's love life, nor the whim of fate pertaining to it, nor the way Yukina's hair had fallen over her slender neck and caressed the line of her jaw when she turned her head.
Nope.
I most definitely could not talk to Kurama about those things.
I just patted Kurama's arm, instead. He covered his hand with mine, frowning as he searched my expression.
"I think, for the time being, it's best I keep it to myself," I said. I offered him a conciliatory smile as his thumb traced the rise and fall of my knuckles. "It doesn't affect you, if that helps."
"It helps less than you might suspect." His lips barely moved, words a murmur in my ears. "I worry more about you."
I squeezed his wrist, hoping to reassure him. "That's sweet of you to say. I promise I'm fine." I couldn't help but laugh, though little humor lay within the sound. "Honestly, it's you you need to worry about."
Green eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Forget I said it." I lifted my hand from his arm, sliding out from under his touch, and shook my head. "I'm tired and not talking straight."
Kurama said nothing for a moment. He just watched as I settled into my chair, trying to get comfortable as the train rocked and swayed around us. I'd meant it when I said I was tired. My lids felt like they were made of gold, heavy and soft and full of the sparkles you see when you're well and truly fatigued.
"If you say so," Kurama said—and that's the last thing I remember before I fell asleep.
I woke some time later to a hand on mine, squeezing my fingers with gentle touch. "We're here," Kurama said in my ear. His breath misted over my forehead, tickling my brow. "Wake up, Kei."
I grumbled, wordless and grumpy, cuddling sideways into something warm and solid—and then my eyes popped wide open and I sat up like I'd been electrocuted. Kurama watched, amused, as I looked him up and down, noting how close we'd been sitting—and realizing with another jolt that I must have fallen asleep on his shoulder.
"Oh my god." My hands clapped to my cheeks in horror. "Oh my god, did I drool on you?"
He inspected his shoulder. "We appear to have avoided that horrible fate, in fact," he said.
Relief pooled in my belly like rain; I buried my face in my hands with a moan of, "Oh, thank god."
The rule is this: The prettier the person is, the less I want to make a fool of myself around them. Given Kurama is only just a little bit less gorgeous than Yukina, drooling on someone like him would have been a fate worse than death. He's too attractive for those shenanigans, so it's no wonder it took a bit for me to recover from the embarrassment of falling asleep on Kurama like a goddamn child. Once I did, after a thousand apologues and supernova blushes, he walked me home from the station—well, he walked me to the subway station and rode the subway with me to my stop, and then he walked me home. We made this trip mostly in silence, and mostly because I was still sleepy as hell, and also because I could hardly bear to look him in the eye without going atomic. We'd gotten back late, close to 11 PM, and I absolutely dreaded having to get up the next day to go to school. Kurama laughed when I said as such aloud, but after a moment he sobered.
"Kei," he said, but gently. "What happens next?"
I glanced at him. We were walking down the street toward my house, its face dark since it had closed for the evening. "What?" I said, confused.
"You said I should be more worried for myself." Still, his voice stayed gentle. "What happens next?"
"Next—?" I said, and I stopped.
Perhaps it was the late hour, or the fatigue in my sore muscles, or perhaps I was just tired of keeping secrets. But the image of Toguro lying on the floor swam into my head, and the words popped out of my mouth of their own volition.
"Next—next we go to war," I said.
Kurama's feet stilled on the pavement. A night breeze, cool and clean and mild, caught the ends of his hair and sent them tossing. He stood very still as he looked at me. The streetlamp burning above our head caught the color of his gaze, but barely, onyx tinted with the barest hint of forest.
"You won't give me any hints as to what's coming?" he said, voice as quiet as the wind in his hair.
And this is where I found the line I would not cross. "No. I won't." My lips twisted. "I fear already I've said too much."
He studied me. "Are you afraid?"
"Yes. No. I'm terrified." My garbled reply made me sigh, and the alarm in Kurama's eye had me scrambling to comfort him. "But—I have faith. In you, and in the others."
"And in yourself, I hope," came his delicately piercing reply.
I'm ashamed to admit his vote of confidence caught me off guard, and that my tendency to shrug off compliments with denial rose to fill the silence. "Oh, I don't know about that," I said with a dismissive laugh—but Kurama caught my arm, coming into my personal space in one swift step.
"Don't underestimate yourself, Kei," he said with all the gravitas of an incoming missile—but his features softened when I gasped. "If you insist on doing so, however, allow me to have faith in you in the meantime."
I swallowed. "Thank you, Kurama."
His laugh tasted like spring. "You're welcome," he said, and he let me go. He turned back the way we'd coming. "Sleep well, Kei."
"You, too," I said.
Kurama vanished into the night, then, leaving me alone on the stoop of my parents' restaurant.
The next day after school, I went straight to Yusuke's house. Was too chicken-shit cowardly to call Kuwabara and ask what he'd thought of the uncommonly pretty ice apparition in the mountains—not so soon, anyway. I hoped Yusuke would let slip some hints so I wouldn't have to baldly ask, like, ever? Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door to his apartment and told myself to calm down. The truth about Yukina would out itself in due time, and I just needed to be patient.
Botan answered the door, not that that surprised me. She stayed with Yusuke and Kuwabara in turns these days, depending on her whim. No Evil Eye showed today, telltale golden stars winking in her earlobes as the afternoon sun hit her brilliant hair.
It lit up something other things, too, that caught my eye at once.
"Oh, Keiko!" she said. "Perfect timing—"
"The hell happened to you?" I interjected.
Botan put a hand to the small split in her lower lip and to the dark bruise beneath her right eye. She hadn't had those bruises before she left, and these looked halfway through the healing process—so what the hell had happened.
"Oh," she said, fidgeting under my gaze. "Well. I trust you noticed that Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei and I were all missing this weekend?"
"Um. Yeah?"
She gestured at her battered face. "This has something to do with it. Like I said, you have perfect timing. Yusuke just got here, too, and we'll have to tell you everything." She grabbed my hand with a sunny grin, pulling me over the threshold indoors. "Oh, Keiko, the boys have been ever so helpful these past few weeks."
I blinked at her as the door swung shut behind us. "They have?"
"Yes! You remember the last conversation we had with Hiei, don't you?" Her grin widened, eyes mere crescents of pleasure in her face. "I went straight to Yusuke after that, and he and Kuwabara have been giving me tips on learning to use my powers."
My jaw dropped. "They have?!"
"Mm-hmm! Tips straight from the mouth of the legendary Genkai, no less, so it's no wonder I've been improving!" She nodded so vigorously I feared her head might fall off. "It's just what Hiei said: I hadn't been exploring my powers on my own, but with proper practice and meditation advice, I've been making good headway on harnessing my spiritual energy."
Happy though I was to hear Botan had been training, this did not compute. It did not compute at all. "Wait, wait, I'm sorry—and Yusuke has been helping you do this?" I asked, flabbergasted.
"And Kuwabara, too." More beaming, more grinning, Botan totally on board with the thought of the boys as teachers despite their combined academic records. "They were both trained by Genkai, so they know what they're talking about!"
"Yeah, but…" I faltered. "Yeah, but Yusuke?"
"What about me, Grandma?"
I flinched as Yusuke called to us from the kitchen, appearing in the living room doorway with a bag of chips under his arm. He crunched noisily on a handful and swallowed, leaning against the doorframe with all the laziness I'd come to expect from him. Yusuke, a teacher? Heaven for-fucking-bid.
"Botan was just telling me you've been helping her train, of all things," I said.
Yusuke scoffed. "If you can call it that. Mostly just been chucking rocks at her and making her dodge."
My eyes whipped to Botan for confirmation. She laughed, nervous. "He's only slightly exaggerating." She leaned toward me with a hand cupped around her mouth to whisper. "They're only pebbles, really; hardly rocks at all!"
"What?!"
Yusuke yelped when my murderous gaze swung in his direction, scrambling for his bedroom to escape. Botan sputtered and shrieked as I vaulted right over his couch and pelting down the hall after him. He didn't manage to get the door shut in time and buried himself in his blankets like a shield, but I dug through their bulk and gave him the worst noogie ever witnessed by mankind, which he bore with much screaming and screeching and flails at kicks. Once satisfied that he'd been sufficiently punished for literally throwing rocks at Botan as a training exercise (I told you he'd make a terrible teacher!) I plopped into the chair at his desk and sighed. Yusuke whined and ran his hands through his mangled hair gel, shooting me dirty looks all the while.
"So where the hell did everyone go gallivanting off to this weekend?" I asked, ignoring him.
Yusuke's glare dissolved. Botan sat on the foot of his bed with careful precision; they shared a Look I wasn't sure I liked, and then as one they turned to me.
"Another Spirit World case," Yusuke said.
"Yes, just another standard case!" Botan was quick to confirm.
"A rescue mission," Yusuke said.
"Very normal," Botan assured me.
"Standard as hell, actually," Yusuke said.
"Even boring, really!" said Botan.
Their back-and-forth looked about as rehearsed as a third grade play, but I just lifted a brow and said, "Uh huh. Sure." A wave of my hands. "Well. Get going. Tell me all about it this very normal, very standard rescue mission from Spirit World."
The pair of them dove in like they'd rehearsed the story, too, and perhaps they had. They told me about the video tape, Yukina, Tarukane, Bone Ulcer Village, all that jazz. The only thing they didn't tell me was Yukina's relationship with Hiei, and while that irked me a little, I respected them for keeping his secret. That was good of them, really, even if I resented being left out of the loop (so far as they knew, at least). I noted that I should play dumb where Hiei and Yukina's relationship was concerned, further noting that neither Botan nor Yusuke remarked that I'd been at Tarukane's when everything went down. Seems they really didn't realize I'd been there, after all.
The other thing they didn't mention stood out even more than the bit about Hiei, though.
Neither of them—including Yusuke, Chief Kuwabara Taunter Supreme—mentioned Kuwabara fawning over Yukina.
That fact grew more and more apparent the more they talked. Video tape, the trek into the mountains, the trip through the woods, finding the mansion, braving the land mines, taking out guards—all of that went by without a single mention of Kuwabara getting mushy, and alarm built in my gut like steam building in a heated kettle.
Yukina was phenomenal.
So why the hell hadn't Kuwabara reacted with more gusto?
"So we get into the house, right?" Yusuke was saying. "And there's this demon lady named Miyuki—"
All at once my worry over Kuwabara vanished because I was too busy bracing myself for an account of Yusuke being an absolutely asshole. He surprised me, however, when he didn't mention anything about her gender, let alone an account of him groping Miyuki to verify said gender.
"—and by then Botan had gotten tired of being on our second string, so she stepped up to the plate." He shot the reaper a look of outright pride, grinning like a loon. "Totally kicked that demon lady's ass!"
"Wait." It took effort to keep my jaw from dropping. "You fought Miyuki, Botan?"
"I did!" Her chest puffed as she pointed at the remnants of her black eye and busted lip. "She gave me these. My first battle scars! They were more impressive yesterday, before Yukina sped up the healing process, but I did it. Battle scars! Aren't they impressive?"
Yusuke rolled his eyes. "They were until you freaked the hell out."
I sat up straighter; I didn't like the sound of that at all. Botan caught my reaction and hung her head, rubbing awkwardly at the back of her neck.
"We've figured out my trigger, Keiko," she said. "It's blood—specifically my blood. If I see myself bleed, I… well." She hesitated. "You saw it that night at the school."
"Miyuki split her lip and Botan went a little whacko," Yusuke cut in, swirling his finger around his temple. "Botan's a badass when she gets fired up. But don't worry—we stepped in before it could get too bad, Grandma." He sniggered at Botan, who glared. "She passed out after, too. Had to carry her around like a piece of luggage for a while."
"Hey!" Botan protested. "At least I'm very cute luggage!"
"That you are, Botan," I agreed.
Yusuke, meanwhile, blushed the color of a tomato. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. So anyway—"
I couldn't help but note the way he changed the subject away from Botan's appearance, but he talked too fast for me to work in any teasing. Together he and Botan outlined the rest of the Demon Triad fights, then the spar with the Toguro brothers. They talked about that fight in breezy tones, not at all aware of Toguro's true strength… or his acting abilities. I somehow kept my face composed using my own acting abilities, not letting on that they'd stood next to an agent of death completely unaware, and that the fight with Toguro had been nothing but a farce. Watching Yusuke's proud recollection of the bout, I thought it would be a shame to burst his bubble, anyway. Let him live with this victory for a while yet. The time would come for the hard truth—but not today.
I was more interested in the rest of it, to be honest: Ayame showing up, a journey up into the mountains above the mansion, and the portal that had taken Yukina home to Demon World. She had been returned to where she belonged, Yusuke said, and that was that. They'd won, rescue mission complete.
The Rescue Yukina Arc—not to mention the Great Hiei-Keiko Road Trip of 1990—had come to an end.
Not that I'd gotten the answers I'd wanted by the time Yusuke's story (not to mention my road trip) ended. I'd wanted to ask about Kuwabara's feelings for Yukina, but an organic moment to slip in a nonchalant question hadn't arrived by the time the story ended. In fact, by the time Botan and Yusuke had finished an exhaustive description of sending Yukina back to Demon World, the alarm on my watch had beeped. It was time for me to get home and do homework, much to my chagrin. My parents would be wondering where I'd gone for so long.
Setting myself on high alert for any opportunities to ask my questions and get my answers, I asked Botan and Yusuke to walk me home. They agreed, asking if they could get dinner at my parents' restaurant afterward—and yeah, cool, that just gave me more time to make inquiries. Sweet. I'd learn what I wanted to learn come high water or hell, just watch me.
Too bad fate didn't care about my plans.
"You should've seen him, Keiko!" Botan said as we walked to my house. She skipped out ahead, walking backwards so she could stare with wide eyes, impressing upon us just how serious she was being. "That horrible man who had Yukina hostage looked like a toad!"
"Nah. He looked like an ass," said Yusuke. He walked with hands behind his head, blasé until his lips curled in a wicked grin. "A horse's ass!"
Botan gave him a Look. "Don't be vulgar, Yusuke."
He did a double-take. "Hey, you can't seriously be defending that creep! He literally made a girl cry to earn money!"
Botan started to speak and stopped. She put a finger to her chin in thought before snapping her fingers and giving Yusuke a cheery nod.
"On second thought," she declared, "he did look like a horses' ass!"
"He sounds creepy," I remarked.
"He was totally creepy," Yusuke agreed. He grimaced. "But Elder Toguro was worse, twisting up into a sword the way he did."
But Botan shook her head. "No way, Yusuke. Tarukane takes the prize. He was pure evil!"
"I mean, I guess?" he said—and then something dawned on him. "Actually, you know who was creepy? Sakyo!"
Botan tapped the bottom of one fist into her opposite palm. "Oh, that's right! He was handsome, admittedly, but he was definitely a shady character if you ask me."
"Yeah, for sure," Yusuke concurred with a dramatic shiver. "Especially with that weird guy standing behind him on that video feed."
Something in the way he said it caught my ear—that and the fact that no one had stood beside Sakyo in the anime. "Weird guy?" I said.
Botan had trouble remembering him, too, it seemed. She asked, "Which one, Yusuke?"
"Oh, you know." He paused in order to hock a loogie and spit. Botan and I said 'ew' in unison, to which Yusuke only rolled his eyes. "Oh, bite me. But you remember, right, Botan? It was that dude with the pink hair who kept giggling?"
My breathing stuttered.
… pink?
"Pink hair?" I asked, but the words came out in a whisper.
"Oh, right, him!" Botan said, memory apparently restored. "I'd forgotten."
"Wait, wait, wait," I said. I stopped walking, holding up a hand to call for silence. Botan and Yusuke barely noticed me, though, staring mostly at each other as they racked their respective brains. "What was that about pink hair?"
"Yes, he had pink hair!" Botan put a hand to her chin and looked skyward, lips pursed into a pink bud. "Now let me see. What did Sakyo call him?"
"How the heck should I know?" Yusuke griped. "I was trying really hard to not die when he said it, not playing Name That Scumbag Billionaire!" He paused, though, blinking down at the pavement. "Wait. Was it Haru-something? Ho-ta—?"
The second he started saying a name that started with H, I knew. I knew deep in my gut what was about to happen, truth rocketing right into my face from out of nowhere like a precision-guided missile, totally unexpected and yet—and yet totally predictable, too, the second Yusuke began puzzling out names that started with H.
Pink hair and a goddamn H name.
You have three guesses as to what's coming, and the first two don't count.
"Guys." I barked the word, stopping Yusuke and Botan in their tracks. My glare could surely melt steel when I demanded, "What the hell was this guy's name?"
Yusuke scoffed, taken aback by my snap. "Jeez, Keiko! What's eating you?"
But Botan wasn't fazed. She gasped, one finger thrusting up into the air as a lightbulb went off inside her head.
"Oh, that's it! I remember now!" Shen turned to me with an eager smile, happy to be of help. "I forgot for just a moment, but Yusuke jogged my memory. The man with the pink hair stood behind Sakyo on that video call, but while he didn't talk much, that hair of his stood out—that and the smile." Her own smile faded, trouble brewing in her magenta eyes. "He never stopped smiling. Not even when Yusuke and Kuwabara killed Toguro."
Yusuke's eyes widened in recognition. "That's right. He didn't even flinch when we killed Toguro. He just grinned, didn't he? And he said…"
Botan's voice came in a whispered hush. "He said he enjoyed the show we'd put on and that he looked forward to more someday."
"See?" Yusuke pointed at her, gleeful with triumph. "Creepy as hell! Creepiest of them all! And I sure as shit never want to see him again, that's for sure!"
"His name, you two," I said, foot tapping tetchily against the ground. "His name. What was it?"
Botan shot me a mollifying look. "Now Keiko, be patient. I'm getting to that!"
"Yeah, calm down, Grandma!" Yusuke concurred.
But I was not to be calmed. I was not to be patient. This was big, bigger than rescuing Yukina, and as out of left field as a foul ball. My teeth gnashed and my fists clenched, the sound of their names like crashing boulders in my throat. "Botan! Yusuke! Tell me his name, now!" I snarled, and both Yusuke and Botan flinched.
"All right, all right!" Botan threw up her hands, unnerved. "Now, Sakyo only said it once, so there's a chance I'm wrong about this—but if my memory serves me right, I believe the smiling man's name was Hiruko."
And there it was.
As expected.
A fate-guided missile striking right on target—putting a bombshell bow on what I'd planned, at the outset, to be nothing more noteworthy than an unexpected road trip with a persnickety fire demon.
It's like I said, I guess.
Fate doesn't care about your plans.
NOTES:
And thus my April hiatus begins.
Longest chapter yet, I do believe.
The goons with guns, the hallways, the door they went through by the helipad—I have screencaps of each from the anime (episode 25). It was fun pulling so much setting from the episodes and having an excuse to rewatch this arc. I also don't use dialogue directly from the show much at all, so it was neat to use a snippet of it in this chapter during the Hiei-meets-Yukina scene.
So the anime and manga portray the whole Rescue Yukina arc VERY DIFFERENTLY. Kurama and Botan aren't in the manga arc AT ALL, but the anime shoehorned them in for no reason (and depicted Kurama working on cahoots with Koenma to trick Hiei?). I tried to justify their presences in this arc in different ways: Botan went along for training purposes and Kurama went along because he was worried when LITERALLY ALL OF HIS FRIENDS vanished to go camping. Yay, reasons!
Also, the anime has a weird scene of Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara standing with Yukina in a snowy landscape as she bids them goodbye and then, like, wanders off into a blizzard? That's not in the manga. And where did that take place, anyway? Demon World, Human World, what? In the manga the chapter just ends with Yukina and Kuwabara talking, and in the next chapter Yusuke remarks that Yukina went back to Demon World. So, I had Kurama in this talk about Spirit World making a portal for Yukina, just to explain that away. Neither media ever really covers how Yukina got home with any detail so I wanted to address that here.
ALSO, we have a lovely new cover for this story, drawn by m-ilk1 on Tumblr. Please go give them some love! I love the piece they created of NQK in her Meiou uniform and short hair, with the title of the story incorporated in such a bold way. Really perfect construction for a cover and I'm so lucky they too kthe time to draw it.
(Still working on the masterlist of reader illustrations for this story. I'm so sorry I haven't completed that, but I will during my month off. Everyone's drawings are SO GOOD and I need to show them to all of you!)
And…yeah. I'll see you again on May 5th with chapter 67! My hiatus begins today. Wish me luck as I finish a novel for CampNaNo!
MANY THANKS to everyone who came out last week and left a review. Your comments cheered me greatly in a rather rough week (my beloved boss quit last week, as did the coworker closest to me) and I can't thank you enough for your words of support and encouragement: ED99, xenocanaan, Domita Ivory, Marian, DiCuore Alissa, C S Stars, Ignis76, Dark Rose Charm, Kaiya Azure, Blaze 1662001, tatewaki2000, yofa, Toushou-sama, Just 2 Dream of You, Laina Inverse, Purrksofbeing, candyrocks13, shen0, gloss my eyes, LadyEllesmere, Dec Jane, Ardent Alice, Miqila, Viviene001, fringeperson, Kykygrly MetroNeko, WishingWanderer, zubhanwc3, Dragon Wendy, Lady Rini, ahyeon, Miss Ideophobia, buzzk97, o-dragon, general zargon, WaYaADisi1, Beccalittlebear, Lady Skynet, kitty13492, Sarah, Khaleesi Renee, Yuki Hyoto, and three guests!
