A/N: Whee, long chapter with crappy transitions of DOOM! I'm sorry, but I'm too lazy to fix them, even though I got rid of most of them… Eh. Please review! o.o
4. Arrival
"Yukina, go out and tell the team to come up here immediately. Drag them if you have to," Koenma ordered up in Reikai. "I have to stay here for a while longer and get some more information on this Kakugai person…"
"I understand," said Yukina with a bow. "I'll be back shortly."
Dobinz Prison, Massachusetts, USA
The search for the escaped prisoner, Sanyo, was still continuing. Kazuma Kuwabara had been blamed for his escape, as he was the only one left alive that night.
"It makes sense, doesn't it?" said one of the policemen investigating the case. "This Kuwabara guy is guilty. If he were innocent, he would've most likely been dead. The escapee wouldn't want to leave any evidence."
"Could be an accomplice," suggested his partner.
"I'm telling you, I'm innocent!" yelled Kuwabara angrily. "I was in the crapper at the time the prisoner escaped!"
"Yeah, sure," said another cop, a portly one with a donut in his hand. He leaned back against a desk and dunked his pastry in his coffee.
"But—"
Kuwabara was suddenly saved by Yukina, who came bursting into the door of the police station. Kuwabara and the policemen all turned to stare at the panting, out-of-breath ice apparition-turned-royalty standing in their doorway. Kuwabara's eyes lit up, remembering a time almost ten years ago when he was in love with this woman. After ten years of being apart, Yukina still looked the same – beautiful as ever – and Kuwabara recognized her immediately.
"Yukina-chan!" he shouted.
"You know this lady?" asked the chubby cop.
"Hey, lady, what are you doing here?" the other cop questioned.
"I'm very sorry, but I can't really talk to you," Yukina said apologetically with a bow, "but I need to take Kazuma-san. It's important!" She grabbed Kuwabara's wrist and tugged him out of the police station.
"Hey, lady! You can't do that!" shouted the skinny cop, grabbing his nightstick.
"I'll bet she's guilty too," said the fat cop, spilling some coffee on himself. "She's got a look of malice, don't she?"
"Thanks for getting me out of the police station," Kuwabara said as the two of them floated off into the air Yukina's new Spirit World transportion oar. "But what was so important that you needed to tell me?"
"I'll tell you in a minute, Kazuma-san," said Yukina, as she piloted her oar over the Atlantic Ocean. "I've got to get the others first."
"Others?"
"Remember the old Reikai Tantei?" Yukina asked. "Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei…"
"Ohhh… them… yeah," said Kuwabara as it dawned on him. "The old crowd. Yeah, I remember them. Wonder what they're all doin'… Hey! Why are we all getting together? Is this like a class reunion?"
"You could say that," said Yukina. "But a bitter one. We've got problems."
"Problems?"
"Yes, now hush for awhile while I get Yusuke."
"Oh, boy, old Urameshi! I haven't seen him in a long time! Heh, I bet I could still beat him up!"
Yukina shook her head with a smile as she piloted the broom to a ramshackle duplex in Spennymoor, England. She let Kuwabara wait on it, then walked into the house.
Yukina looked around and spotted Botan in the kitchen, cooking something on a stove. Two children, a six-year-old with blondish-white hair and a three-year-old with blue hair, ran around shrieking over the wooden floor paneling of the lower floor near Botan.
As the door clicked shut behind Yukina, Botan turned around from her cooking and noticed Yukina standing in the doorway. She nearly dropped her stirring spoon in surprise. "Yukina!" she gasped.
"Botan!"
The two girls ran at each other, embracing in a tight hug. "My goodness, I haven't seen you in forever!" Botan exclaimed as she played with Yukina's hair. "Oh, you haven't changed a bit! How are things with Koenma?"
Yukina smiled. "Things are great with Koenma-sama, Botan. I see you've changed…" Yukina peeked behind Botan and pointed to her significantly larger rear end.
"Yeah…" Botan laughed, scratching the back of her neck. "Having some kids put a little weight on me." Yukina laughed too. "I had Koenma turn me into a human so I could live with Yusuke forever," Botan went on. "I love him, but it's hard, since he doesn't have a job…" Botan sighed.
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Yukina. "Are these two your children?" she asked, pointing at the screaming children.
"Yes," replied Botan. "The older one with brown hair is Michiru, she's six, and the younger one with blue hair is Talya – she's three."
"They're so adorable!" Yukina exclaimed. "They look just like their mother!"
"Oh, gosh, let's hope not!" said Botan, lifting up her shirt a little to show her less-than-flat stomach. "I don't want them to be fat like me!"
"You're not fat!" said Yukina with a smile.
"So… what brings you here, Yukina?" Botan asked, changing the subject.
"Oh, right," said Yukina. "I was actually wondering, is Yusuke home?"
"Um, yeah," said Botan. "He's in the other room, watching TV." She turned around and hollered into another room. "Hey, Yusuke! Get your behind over here now!"
Yusuke came out from the other room, wearing a pair of faded, ripped jeans and a white T-shirt. His hair wasn't slicked back like it was when he was a teenager; instead it was cut short, spiked in random places, and very messy. He crushed a can of beer and chucked it into a trash can nearby. "What is it?" he asked grumpily.
"Good evening, Yusuke," said Yukina politely.
"Woah, it's you!" said Yusuke. "Yukina, right?"
"Yes, you're right. I'm very sorry to intrude on you and everything, but I need to take you with me up to Spirit World to talk with Koenma. It's extremely important!"
"Koenma?" Yusuke questioned. "Is he still suckin' on a pacifier?"
"That's not important," said Yukina curtly. "Just come on, we have to hurry and get Kurama and Hiei!"
"Kurama and Hiei? What is this, a reunion?"
Yukina didn't answer. She turned to Botan instead and said, "I'm sorry, Botan, but I'll have to take your man for a while."
"Oh, that's no problem," said Botan sadly. "Nice seeing you, again, Yukina…"
Near the secluded house in the forest where Hiei, Shizuru, and their son Samaru lived, a flying oar with three people riding on it flew over the trees, whistling with the wind. Inside the house, Shizuru was helping Samaru study, when he looked up from his notes and stared into Shizuru's eyes with his light periwinkle ones.
"Someone's coming," he said softly.
"Okay, Samaru," replied Shizuru. Like his mother, Samaru had a sharp sixth sense and could even come very close in predicting the future. Samaru was nine years old, almost four feet tall, with whitish-grey choppy hair and periwinkle eyes. While he looked almost nothing like his parents, he had inherited some of their powers. Mostly psychic ones like Shizuru, but he had some fire abilities, like his father, though he didn't use them often. Samaru was kind of a disappointment to Hiei, since he didn't like fighting and mostly just sat around the house all day staring into space. He showed almost no interest in anything, as a matter of fact. He normally kept to himself and didn't speak much. When he did, it was usually a psychic prediction – a correct one.
"Daddy can greet him."
"It's a her," corrected Samaru.
"Right."
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"That's her," said Samaru.
"Daddy will get it…"
"He's busy. He's not going to talk to her. But he needs to. Daddy is going to be taken away from us."
Shizuru sighed and put down her teacher's book. She crossed the main room to the front door and opened it, finding Yukina standing on their doormat.
"Um… hello?" Shizuru greeted her.
"Shizuru, hello!" said Yukina. "It's me, Yukina. Remember me?"
"Not really, but it doesn't matter," said Shizuru. "What do you want?"
"Is Hiei around?"
"He's in the backyard doing something," Shizuru replied. "Why? Have you come to take him?" she asked, remembering what Samaru had said.
"Um… actually, yes," said Yukina, looking down. "I'm sorry, but it's really important!
Shizuru sighed. "Whatever, just make sure he doesn't drink too much beer and is back before next Tuesday."
"Right," said Yukina, laughing at Shizuru's sarcastic humor. She disappeared into the backyard and immediately spotted Hiei, who hadn't changed at all in the past ten years. "Hiei!" she called.
Hiei turned around from the large grassy field and made eye contact with his royal sister. "Yukina," he said, giving her a nod of acknowledgement.
"How's my favorite brother?" Yukina asked with a smile.
"He's been better, but that doesn't matter. What do you want?" Hiei asked.
"What's wrong?" Yukina asked with concern.
"It's nothing," said Hiei bitterly. "None of your concern, now what did you want?"
"Um, I need to take you away for a while," Yukina said. "It's tremendously important, and you need to come now."
"And what if I don't?" Hiei asked, being difficult as usual. (Some things never change… though Yukina.)
Yukina sighed in frustration. "Just come on, please!" she snapped, grabbing Hiei's wrist and dragging him off to where Yusuke and Kuwabara were waiting on her flying oar. Hiei couldn't argue with his sister; he let himself be dragged by her. After all, Yukina was now royalty, how could he disobey her?
"Hey, Hiei," said Yusuke, waving jovially.
Hiei groaned. Kuwabara was with him. He took a seat on the oar between Yusuke and Yukina, not saying a word to either of them. "Off to Kurama's now," Yukina said as she took off into the air again.
"Daddy is gone," Samaru said inside the house. "I don't know if he's coming back."
"Oh, Samaru, of course he's coming back!" said Shizuru, hugging her son close. "He always comes back…"
"Wow, nice digs," said Yusuke approvingly as Yukina landed in front of Kurama's house. "Much better than our dump…"
"Not even Dobinz Prison is as nice as Kurama's house!" Kuwabara commented.
"You work at a prison, not a five-star hotel," Yusuke said sardonically.
"Yeah, but still…"
As Yukina went up to ring the doorbell, she suddenly stopped short. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei all heard her scream as she stood in the doorway. The three of them all hopped off her oar and ran over to her side.
"What's the matter?" Yusuke questioned, but he didn't need Yukina to respond before he could figure it out. Kurama was lying unconscious on the floor, still in his nurse's uniform, and Keiko was hanging from the ceiling fan, dead, blood dripping from her arms and onto the floor. "Oh, my God…"
"K-Keiko! What happened to her!" shouted Kuwabara, pointing at Keiko's death-pale corpse hanging in midair. Hiei didn't say anything. He just drank in the scene – an obvious murder – and looked down at Kurama on the floor. He must have fainted after he had seen his wife's body garroted and hung from a ceiling fan.
Yukina knelt down and gently caressed Kurama's face, bringing him into consciousness. He blinked, staring into Yukina's scarlet eyes.
"Kurama," she said softly. "Kurama, what happened here?"
Kurama didn't say anything. He mumbled a few incoherent words and slumped forward into Yukina's chest. "Kurama, what's happened!" Yukina repeated sharply, lifting his face out of her chest. "I know this is a shock to you, about Keiko, but you need to tell me what happened."
"I don't know…" Kurama whispered, his hands shaking. "I only walked in… and she… was dead…" His eyes widened like a frightened child as he shook slightly on the floor. Yukina stood up and took his hand, helping him stand up as well. "It's all right," she said soothingly. "But I need to bring you to Spirit World to see Koenma. He has something important to tell all of you."
"But Keiko—"
"We will worry about her when we get there."
"What is this?" Koenma asked, slamming down a piece of paper on his desk. "First the demon escaping, now this?"
"This has nothing to do with the demon escaping!" said Jorge the ogre, pointing at the paper. "It's just a report from one of the other girls on who's recently died!"
"Oh," said Koenma, picking up the paper again, calmer this time.
"See, you should actually read the paper before you go yelling at me," Jorge said reprovingly.
"Shut up, ogre." Koenma's eyes scanned the list of names; nobody he knew. But then, at the bottom of the list, was a familiar name – Keiko Yukimura-Minamino. "What…? She's… dead?"
"Koenma, we're here!" said Yukina, opening the doors to Koenma's office and revealing the newly reunited Spirit Detective Team.
"Good, good," said Koenma distractedly. He caught sight of Kurama, still a little shocked and dazed from earlier. He glanced down again at the list of recent deaths and saw Keiko again. He wondered if Kurama knew she was dead… "Uh… Kurama… I've got some bad news…"
"I know she's dead," he said in a hollow whisper. "Just please tell us the other news."
"Okay," Koenma sighed. "You all might want to be sitting down…"
"Just tell us," said Hiei. "I'm getting impatient."
"Okay, well… there's another demon on the loose—"
"A demon!" exclaimed Kuwabara. "We haven't heard from a demon in like… forever!"
"I know," said Koenma. "And… he wants Kurama to come to his fortress in northern Alaska by midnight. This demon – his name is Kakugai – sounds like a real big threat, so I've decided to send not just Kurama, but the entire Spirit Detective Team to said fortress."
"I wonder why he wants Kurama?" Kuwabara wondered out loud. Everybody else wondered as well…
"Well, we should get going soon!" said Yukina, glancing at her watch. It was almost 8:00. "We don't want to be late for our… meeting… with this guy…"
"Right," said Koenma. "I hope everybody's brought their wits with them. This new demon is probably no pushover. Let's go."
A few hours later, the group was ready to enter the enchanted fortress in northern Alaska. The fortress seemed to be made of all ice and was very beautiful. But what evil lay inside…?
"All right. This is it," said Koenma. "We're here."
NEXT TIME – SAMARU'S WARNING!
-crazykitsune17-
