Chapter 5: Morning meeting and Yusuke's plan…

The three were making their way down the hall of the Reikai palace, heading to the 'all so familiar' office, when they heard a voice call out.

"Hey guys wait up….." Kuwabara yelled.

Yusuke turned and saw the orange haired boy jogging towards them. "What are you doing here?" He asked with a hint of anger.

"Botan asked me to come." Kuwabara replied, placing his hands on his knees, in an attempt to reclaim his breath.

"You can just go home...this doesn't concern you." Yusuke huffed, turning and continuing his walk.

"Urameshi….." Kuwabara started, hoping to get the raven haired to turn and look at him. "I told you I was sorry, I don't know what else you expect me to say." He said when Yusuke didn't turn around.

"Whatever." Yusuke said, not stopping or turning around, but did throw his hand in the air dismissively.

"Bastard…I don't know what else I can say or do." The orange haired whispered, watching his best friend walk away.

"Kuwabara." Kurama said, pausing until he got the boy's attention. When he received it he continued. "Did something happen between you two?"

"Like you couldn't tell." Kuwabara said, looking to the red head with hurt in his eyes.

"Would you like to talk about it?" The red head asked.

"I…don't know…did he tell…" Kuwabara shrugged. He would be damned if he was going to slip up again and say things that he shouldn't.

"Does this have anything to do with Keiko being pregnant?" Kurama asked, having a feeling.

"So he told you?" Kuwabara said, but was still being cautious.

"Kuwabara…whatever happened. I am sure it was not that bad." Kurama assured, watching the boy and his facial expressions.

"Well…maybe you can help. You always seem to have ideas." Kuwabara said wondering what all to tell his fox friend.

Kurama nodded for him to go on.

"It happened the other day…" Kuwabara started.

(flashback)

Kuwabara was making his way to the counter area of his best friend's restaurant. Finally finding a seat and getting comfortable, he looked around for the raven haired.

Seeing that he was busy with another customer, he waited and began looking at the day's specials. Keiko soon made her way out of the back kitchen area and after placing some dishes in front of some nearby customers, she turned and noticed him.

"Hello, Kuwabara." She said with a smile, wiping her hands on her apron before grabbing the coffee pot and a mug.

She made her way to stand in front of him and began pouring coffee. It was then that he noticed something was different with her. He could feel a different 'aura' around her, no not 'around' her but 'in' her. He didn't know why he said it and should have waited and talked to Urameshi, but it slipped out anyways.

"Congratulations." He said, picking up his mug and taking a sip of the dark liquid.

"Excuse me." She said, her smile faltering.

He motioned to her stomach with his coffee held hand and then watched as her faced contorted in an expression of, well, what could he call it, 'doubt, conformation, acceptance.' He continued to watch until she stood straighter and said.

"Excuse me." She managed to put the coffee pot down before turning, at first moving slowly, but then picking up her pace until she was all but running to the kitchen doors. They slammed, causing everyone in the restaurant to stop what they were doing.

Yusuke made his way over. "What the hell was that, what did you say to her?" He asked, trying to control the volume of his voice, he didn't want to scare off his customers.

Kuwabara put his mug back down and lowered his head. When he looked up and saw the look in his best friend's face, he said. "Sorry, I thought she knew…."

"Knew what?" Yusuke spat, putting his hand on his hips, getting impatient and thinking he should just go ask Keiko what in the world was going on.

"The baby." Kuwabara said softly and then watched all the color drain from his best friend's face. He would have sworn the raven haired was going to pass out.

"Keiko's preg…." Yusuke whispered, not finishing the phrase. He just staggered back, turned and walked into the kitchen.

Kuwabara lowered his head and hit it a few times on the counter. 'What have I done?'

(end flashback)

"So the girl didn't know she was with child." Hiei said, folding his arms across his chest.

"With your sense of awareness, you noticed it before she did." Kurama said, taking in all the information.

"She called me later that evening and apologized. She said that she was a few days late with her…you know…but that it was too early to do a test thingy…" Kuwabara tried to explain, putting his hands in his pockets and studying the floor.

"So she had not told Yusuke." Kurama said.

"No." The orange haired said with a shake of his head, he looked up and added. "She said she wanted to wait and do a test first because she'd been late before and thought it was stress related."

"I am sorry Kuwabara." Kurama said with a sigh. "It would appear you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only advice I can think to give you is…give it time and let him have his space. Once the wedding is over and he can tell more people, including her parents. He will come around and forgive. Just try to be there for him." He advised and placed a hand on the taller boy's shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze in comfort.

"Thanks." Kuwabara said, looking into the green eyes with some relief.

"We should get going, Koenma's probably yelling at Yusuke now, wondering where we are." Kurama said, removing his hand and walking down the hall with the other two following.

a)a)a)a)

Kurama was the first to walk in, with Kuwabara right behind him. Koenma, in his toddler form, looked up from his desk. "What are you two doing here? I was only expecting Hiei…" He didn't finish as he saw Hiei come in right behind Kuwabara, having not seen him because he was hidden behind the much taller boy. "Oh…there you are." He muttered.

"Botan thought I could help and asked me to come." Kuwabara said, going to his seat to the right of Yusuke and immediately turning it around so he could straddle it.

"Okay…so then why are you here?" Koenma asked looking to the red head.

Kurama took the seat to Yusuke left and sat down, crossing his leg and resting his hands on his knees before saying. "I wish to help."

"Okay…thank you all for coming. Just like old times, nay?" Koenma said filtering through the stacks of papers until he found the ones he needed. "I was informed last night about a development that we need to deal with. Let's see…" He muttered to himself until he read one of the papers. "Yes here it is." He finally started. "Taiga has altered her plans it seems. At first she was going village to village and killing anyone who wishes to fight in the tournament and recruiting the others, now it seems she has stopped and set up a camp at Yomi's old place. And it would seem someone has been supplying her with ningen weapons."

"Weapons?" Yusuke questioned, letting his chair drop to the floor. He had been rocking on two legs as Koenma spoke.

"Yes, weapons, according to our sources, she has in her possession semi-automatic guns and a few hand held missile launchers." The Lord informed.

Yusuke whistled.

"Why would she need that kind of weaponry? From what I remember she has her own style of power and had a well formed army." Kurama stated.

"Don't know." Koenma said with a shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

"We need to go and confront her and put a stop to anything that she might have plan." Hiei said. He was leaning against the wall to Kurama's right with his arms crossed.

"You read my mind Hiei." Yusuke said. "I've got less than two weeks. I say we just go, confront her, kick her ass and be done with it."

"That's always the way you want to do it." Kuwabara said, giving the raven haired a look.

"Kuwabara…" Yusuke said softly. This caused the orange haired to blink a few times for he'd been expecting a different response. But then he saw fear in the former tantei's face as chocolate eyes made contact with his blue ones. "Could you do me a favor?"

Kuwabara nodded, afraid to speak.

"Stay and take care of Keiko, will yeah?" Yusuke asked, placing his hands on his knees to lean forward. He started rubbing his hands as if trying to get something off them.

"Okay." Kuwabara said softly, sitting straighter in his chair.

"She will need someone to go with her to the doctors and she needs to get some errands done and will need help with the shop and could use someone around that she trusts and…" Yusuke was rambling while still rubbing his hands and staring at the floor.

"I get it." Kuwabara said, stopping the rambling.

Yusuke looked to his best friend. "Thank you."

"I have one thing to say." Kuwabara paused until he got the man's attention. "You better get your butt back here in time and you better get back in one piece."

"That's two things blockhead." Yusuke smiled.

"Whatever!" Kuwabara stammered. "You know what I mean and you better do it or I'll come and kick your butt and drag you back myself."

"Like to see you try." Yusuke teased and hit his friend on the arm causing a return punch on his.

"Can we continue please?" Koenma interrupted.

"What more is there to say, we are going to go to Yomi's place and have a nice talk and if she doesn't want to talk will kick her ass." Yusuke said.

"Hiei?" Koenma looked over to the fire demon.

"I'll check with Mukuro and see what she has to say." The black haired said.

"Kurama?"

"I will go and help. I am familiar with Yomi's place and do not wish to see the three worlds in a war." The red head said.

"Thank you." Koenma said, visibly relaxing as he took the stacks of papers and moved them to the side of the desk. "I'll have Botan do the research as to who supplied her with weapons and get a team to take care of them. You can leave as soon as you're ready." It was his way of dismissing them.

Yusuke stood and looked to the two demons. "No time like the present." He said, receiving nods from the two.

a)a)a)a

While Hiei went off to contact Mukuro, the other two said their good-byes to Kuwabara. Who promised them he would take care of everything. When all three were ready to transport, Hiei noticed Kurama's nervousness and asked.

"Kurama." Making sure he got the fox's attention. "Are you going to be alright?" He asked.

"Why do you ask?" Kurama said looking to see the concern on the black haired's face and then noticing that he was receiving the same look of concern from the raven haired.

"What he wants to know is." Yusuke said. "Are you going to be alright going to Yomi's place even though he's not there, there's bound to be…you know…" He shrugged, he didn't want to assume the fox was going to have issues with returning to the place of 'hell', but wanted to make sure they were ready incase there might be.

"I assure you both, I am alright and had not even thought about that. My mind is on the mission." Kurama said firmly giving them a firm nod while inside cursing his subconscious.

He received two looks of doubt, but they let the subject drop as they transported to a location just outside of Yomi's former territory.

End Chapter 5