So, chapter 2 is up! I went for a bit more worldbuilding in this one, so enjoy my shaky attempts at fleshing out the Makai post-tournament and the Reikai Tantei now that Yusuke has been fired. My personal take on the Makai is that the three kings system didn't completely fall apart-the kings still rule their own territories, but the Makai emperor is the supreme power. Basically, he's their boss, but they still have authority, kind of like federal and state governments in the US. Anyways, here's chapter 2!
Also, this fic is gen. It will NOT be a Kurama x Yusuke. I just find writing Yusuke in these situations really easy, both because he's a fun character to write and he and Kurama have a really interesting relationship with each other.
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.
Kurama, Kuwabara and Yusuke were walking through one of the seedier parts of town on the way back from a mission. A customer at Yusuke's ramen stand had come to him with a request to deal with a haunted house in their neighborhood. This wouldn't have been cause for alarm, if the customer hadn't made a passing comment about the young human girls who had been disappearing in the area. Hearing this, Yusuke had immediately gotten serious and called in the rest of the gang. Turns out the house was a hideout for a slave trafficking gang shipping the girls back to Makai to be sold off to the highest bidder in the neutral territories, as none of the former three kings were keen on slavery and had a tendency to brutally execute traffickers in public.
The slave trading gang hadn't stood a chance. With Hiei involved, they had known the exact locations of everyone in the house. Kurama had used a Makai flower to calm the kidnapped girls while Kuwabara escorted them outside. Yusuke and Hiei, however, had gone right upstairs to take care of the slavers themselves. Kurama had arrived just in time to see Hiei take out the last thug with a well-placed sword swing and to bind their leader in a cocoon of vines.
Using Hiei's jagan eye to read the mind of the ringleader, the three demons had been able to find out a surprising amount of information on the rest of the slave trading network. Hiei had disappeared, presumably to go tell Mukuro about the slavers on the outskirts of her territory. Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama were walking together to get back to their various residences in the Ningenkai after Yusuke had called Boton and given her the report on the slave trading network. The task of tracking them down would likely be given to Koenma's new Reikai Tantei, a quiet human girl named Fumiko.
Kuwabara peeled off to head to his place, saying that it was a school night and he had a class early the next day. This left Yusuke and Kurama wandering the more shady parts of town together in companionable silence. As they walked past a seedy-looking bar, a human man, clearly drunk and smelling of cheap alcohol, lurched out the door and draped an arm over Kurama's shoulders. The other hand reached up to paw at his chest.
"Hey missy," the drunk man slurred. "You're a pretty little thing. Want me to show ya a good time?" Kurama stiffened, sweatdropping, and deftly slid the man's arms off of him. The drunk promptly fell flat on his face without support.
"Not particularly interested," Kurama said, stepping away from the man's prone body. Feeling a little irritated, he added, "And next time you decide to go chasing skirts, make sure she's actually a girl first." With that, he and Yusuke walked away, leaving a very confused man sprawled out on the sidewalk, his drinking buddies all laughing at him from the doors of the bar.
Once they had gotten away from the crowd, Yusuke started to snigger, the sound soon evolving into full-blown laughter.
"What is it?" Kurama asked, but this only made Yusuke laugh harder.
"That guy thought you were a girl!" he managed to get out between guffaws. Calming down slightly, he turned to Kurama.
"That guy thought you were a girl, and you shut him down completely!" Yusuke laughed. "His face was priceless!"
"Well, it's not the first time I have been mistaken for a girl," Kurama said. "Nor is it the first time I have had to extricate myself from a situation like that."
"Well, it sure was funny!" Yusuke said, shooting Kurama a grin. Kurama felt the corners of his lips twitch in response.
"I suppose it was," Kurama said, letting out a small chuckle. Yusuke laughed again at that, and then the two of them were doubled over, laughing hysterically at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.
Also HOLY HECK people have been reading this! I really hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to drop a review any time you feel like it, I will cherish and appreciate it, especially advice on my writing and characterization.