Disclaimer: I am usually not a fan of my own writing. Ergo, I do not write fanfiction for my own stories. Ergo, I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.
A/N: Here it is, the promised explanation for all the OOCness! You will learn via Mitarai and Captain Ootake (I think—if that's not him, he got replaced with his identical twin—go with it) of the SDF. As to Lexa, who asked about the psychics—good point. We see them now. Now read!
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The sound of running feet alerted Yusuke to Botan's presence before he even felt her energy. Turning, he faced the running Grim Reaper. The girl seemed even more exhausted than she had a day ago, when she'd been transporting souls for almost a week without rest. She'd gotten some rest since then, but apparently something had happened to strain her again. She was carrying the suitcase-like screen that connected to Koenma.
"You two!" she shouted, running up to Yusuke and Kuwabara. "You're needed right away!"
Yusuke was in no mood for secrets and riddles. "What is it, Botan?" he asked. "Did you find Kurama? If not, we've got work to do—or did you not notice the DEMONS RUNNING AROUND KILLING PEOPLE?"
Botan stopped, breathing heavily. "Yusuke—it's—Kurama—Yusuke, Kurama could very well already be dead. If he's not now, he will be soon, unless we can find him and fix him."
Yusuke and Kuwabara froze. Bad enough that they didn't know where he was, now they had a deadline to find him? And what did Botan mean "fix"? What was wrong with Kurama?
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Mitarai climbed the cliffside slowly, hesitantly. His hands were apt to be possessed at any moment by someone who wasn't him. Sea Man had only agreed that Kurama was off limits. More than once he had cut some part of them, or abused some part of their shared body, that Mitarai was connected to, just to prove to Mitarai that he was the stronger.
Sea Man was a by-product of the curse that had now spread up their forearm. When it had started, Mitarai hadn't known what the curse was. He just knew that it was making him extremely reserved. He saw enemies everywhere.
A few days later, his attitude changed. He suddenly found that his water beasts were stronger than before, and he found that he liked it. It wasn't until he saw some kids picking on another, and discovered that it didn't matter as much as the beasts, that Kiyoshi Mitarai had emerged again.
Mitarai didn't like the power he had. He recognized the bloodlust and wickedness in his new alter ego as demonic nature. But there was nothing at all he could do about it. Sea Man was stronger now than he had every been when Sensui was around, and as the curse spread further, he grew stronger.
Mitarai reached the caves and entered the one on the right, where Kurama was staying. He knew already, from the one day since he'd brought the fox to stay with him, that Kurama was unlikely to eat anything for fear it was poisoned, but even more unlikely to do so if he didn't see it right away.
He looked around and realized almost immediately that the kitsune had left. Mitarai ground his teeth. "Damn it," he hissed in the language Sea Man so loved. "Where did he go?"
The blond pulled out a pocketknife, slit his palm, and dripped water over the blade. In moments he had a near army of tiny water monsters. He sent them to find the fox. Bandaging the cut on his hand, he sighed. If Kurama wasn't going to cooperate, it was doubly important that he find the other psychics, and the human Tantei, sooner rather than later.
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Yusuke and Kuwabara were surprised when Botan led them to a warehouse instead of to Reikai. In fact, the only thing more surprising about the meeting than the location was the additional party attending.
"Hey, it's Mustache Face," Yusuke said, more than a little stunned and wary. He hadn't been on the best of terms with the captain for the five minutes they had been in the same place.
"Urameshi," the captain replied, barely acknowledging his appearance—which was full Ma-Zoku, complete with wild mane of hair. "This information is of the utmost importance."
"All right," Yusuke answered. "What is it?"
Koenma, teenage version, looked at him closely, as though trying to test for something. "We've identified the curse that killed Elder Toguro," he began.
"This matters, why?" Yusuke was impatient to get out of this place. He'd let Yanagisawa copy him so he would have his abilities for a while, but it really wasn't a good idea to leave Kido, Kaitou and Yana fighting alone for very long. Even if some of the demons had been shot down by what had unmistakably been Sniper's ability.
"Because, Yusuke, this curse is infinitely more dangerous than we could have imagined." Koenma was fighting to speak slowly enough that he didn't start babbling. "It's called the Spider's Web curse, and if it infects the humans of this city—those who are still alive—they'll kill each other off faster than the demons can!"
Yusuke was listening now. Koenma seized on this fact and spoke more quickly.
"The Spider's Web was originally a very minor demon. As you could guess from the name, it was a spider demon. This demon was killed in the human world. Like when Kurama was attacked, he reverted to spirit form for a short time before his life force would have completely failed. In an attempt to live longer, he transferred his spirit into a nearby human. Specifically, the bolt of energy hit the human's right eye.
"The eye was sealed shut with a mark like the center of a spider web. There was exactly one point of connection. But slowly, the mark spread. Another point would appear, and lines would extend to the threads around it.
"As the influence of the demon grew, the man became addicted to the power it gave him. His aura was multiplied severalfold, and every reiki technique he had so struggled with came naturally to him.
"But there was another effect. The power of the web spread to every person the man touched. An exact duplicate of the points on the man's skin appeared on whatever part of their body the man touched, plus one connection that the man lost. That's one of the three ways to cure someone of the Spider's Web—force every connection onto others."
"And the others?" Yusuke asked.
"A burst of demon energy from the bearer of the curse—"
"So why'd you say Kurama's in danger, then?"
Koenma sighed. "Demon energy is completely cut off after twenty-four hours of the curse's influence."
"And Kurama wouldn't use any kind of energy because…?"
"The curse doesn't just cause addiction." This time it was Captain Ootake who spoke. "In humans, it can cause addiction, claustrophobia, desperation, or paranoia. In demons, it usually causes paranoia. That's probably why he ran away."
For once, it was Kuwabara who figured something out. (A/N: First time for everything, I guess…) "Hey, you said this demon thing wanted to live longer, right? So why would the curse kill Kurama? I thought he wanted to take over the guy he infected."
Koenma looked at Kuwabara. His expression was grave. "If Kurama had human energy, there wouldn't be danger of death. In humans, the curse eventually makes demons out of humans. But he has demon energy. The Spider's Web curse kills demons. That's why Elder Toguro died, but the human man who was first affected just became addicted to the power it offered."
"Shit." Yusuke was picking up the thread of conversation again. "We're gone."
---
A few hours passed before Mitarai found Kurama. The fox had vanished into a tangled cocoon of thorny vines.
The blue-eyed youth sighed and raked his hands through his hair. Why couldn't Kurama be human? He'd have less time, sure, but he'd have a better chance of not being paranoid. Whereas demons were pretty much always paranoid under the influence of the curse, and no one had any idea why.
In any case, Mitarai figured he wasn't getting to the kitsune by standing there. He put out his hand cautiously, but had to snatch it back as the vines tried to stab his hand.
"Kurama," he called. "Kurama, please, come out of there."
No answer. He hadn't really been expecting one.
Mitarai sighed. This time he reached out with both hands and let the vines grab him, wincing when they tightened. "Kurama," he said. "All right, I'm helpless. I can't do anything without my blood and water, you know that, and now I can't cut myself. You have control, and I know you can tell that. Come on!"
For a long moment, nothing changed. Mitarai was just starting to worry that the fox wasn't going to respond when the other vines pulled away, revealing the kitsune. His eyes were dangerously angry.
Mitarai tried to jerk his hands away, but the vines dragged them roughly up over his head.
Kurama pulled a rose from his hair. "You tried to kill me," he said, forming his whip.
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A/N: The reason that Kurama can still use plants is a) because I wrote this in about an hour and b) because his human aura is stronger than normal, especially with the curse twisting his aura and magnifying it a hundred times (and c) just because I said so). The other psychics will be dragged into it next time, or the Tantei. If I get any votes in my reviews, the ones the majority wants to get dragged into this will get dragged into this.
Oh, and once again I put this up without being able to consult my beta, so if it's bad, I had to edit it myself. If it's good, I didn't have help editing then either.
Guess what? Once again, I got twice as many reviews as I was expecting! So, once again, I will expect just as many reviews this time (that means eight) before I will consent to update! (And then I will update the next day.) That means you people can't skimp out after reviewing once, ha ha! (I do this because I need to know if people are getting bored.)
See ya!