Disclaimer: I own no part of Yu Yu Hakusho.
After a brief stare down with Kurama at the base of the stairs, Yusuke yielded. He wanted to be angry. Angry that the smartest and most steadfast person he knew didn't have any answers, that for all Kurama's wisdom, he didn't know what to do. The former spirit detective wanted to be pissed off, but couldn't find it within himself. He exhaled. Yusuke couldn't imagine becoming permanently unrecognizable to his own mother. He sympathized for his friend.
"I guess I don't really know either. But we're gonna figure something out," Yusuke offered, hoping he sounded encouraging. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the train station. "Let's head back into town and swing by Yukimura's. Keiko's dad is working on a new recipe."
Kurama nodded, a tentative smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Alright, for a short while. I would like to have time to rest before I take Shuichi to the movies tonight."
"What movie? There's this new Alien flick I heard about.."
Kurama went along with Yusuke to Yukimura's. True to his word, he did not stay long. Lunch was pleasant and it was nice to visit briefly with Keiko, but he was tired and ready to head home. Politely thanking Keiko's family for the meal, he bids farewell to Yusuke and exits the restaurant.
It was a short bus ride and then walk back to the Hatanaka-Minamino residence. His family was happy to see him when he arrived, commenting that he was up early that morning and were less than surprised when he retired to his room to rest, locking the door once inside his room. At first he settled into his desk chair, leaning on his elbow and resting his chin on his palm. He was tired and his entire body was sore. The pressure in his chest was distracting him from organizing his thoughts. Giving up, he moved to the bed and laid on his side facing the wall. Deliberately leaking energy for the second time that day, he was able to find enough relief to fall into a light sleep.
Kurama roused himself in time for dinner and took Shuichi to the moves afterward as promised. He honestly didn't pay any attention to the movie but was pleased that his younger brother enjoyed himself. Kurama couldn't be too sure, but he thought Shuichi enjoyed driving the family car home more than the actual movie. Sixteen years old now, driving with someone that wasn't a parent felt a little delinquent in the best possible way. Happy to have provided a good time for his brother, Kurama couldn't help but chuckle at young Shuichi's excitement over driving the car. They entered the house quietly, parents already having gone to bed. Bidding each other good night, the boys retired to their own rooms for the night.
Beep beep. Beep beep.
The round compact communicator chimes from the nightstand. A hand snakes out from under the covers, fumbling around on the table for the offending device. A quick press of a discreet button silences the beeping and the hand retreats back under the covers. Soft snoring ensues.
Beep beep. Beep beep.
The groggy teenager grabs his pillow and squashes it over his head with a groan. He snatches the irritating pink gadget off the nightstand and, after silencing the incessant beeping a second time, tosses it in the direction of his closet, hearing a clack against the wall and muffled thud as it landed on a pile of dirty clothes. Flopping back on his bed, the former spirit detective turns his head to look at the glowing red letters of his digital clock. 2:26 AM. Rolling over, he pulls the covers higher over his shoulder in hopes of getting a few more hours of sleep.
A shadow appeared through the wall, floating.
"Yusuke!" A high pitched voice, not dissimilar to the loathsome beeping of the Spirit World communicator rang through his bedroom. "Wake. Up!"
He groaned loudly in defeat. "What. Could be so important. In the middle of the night?" Yusuke asked flatly, reaching out to pull the lamp string, illuminating his bedroom. He pushed himself up to a sitting position.
Botan hovered on her oar a little closer to Yusuke's bed than he was comfortable with.
"Lord Koenma called you twice, Yusuke! There's an emergency!" She was still shouting.
"Remind me why I agreed to doing favors for him again. I'm not on call." He reached up high with a yawn, stretching his arms and then scratching the back of his head.
"Well, we need your help. Four humans have gone missing in your city. They wandered too close to the Makai portal and just vanished. We looked for them, unsuccessfully, and Hiei's patrol team couldn't find them either," Botan explained hurriedly. "Please, Yusuke."
"It really couldn't wait til morning?" Still hopeful of salvaging his beauty rest, but Botan shook her head. Yusuke hung his head. "Alright, fine. I'll look into it."
"Thanks, Yusuke! Don't forget your Reikai communicator so we can stay in touch! I'll send you coordinates to the portal near the last known locations of our missing people." With a smile and wink, Botan blinked out of sight.
"Temporary Spirit Detective, my ass. That toddler's not even looking for a replacement, is he?" Another groan and Yusuke begrudgingly crawled out of bed to change clothes.
A pair of jeans, squirt of hair gel, puffy red jacket, and several choice swear words later, Yusuke was exiting his apartment. He took the highlighter pink compact communicator from his pocket to check the coordinates Botan promised, seeing a nearby park as a common location on the map. With a solid enough lead, the ad-junct Spirit Detective pocketed the device and headed in that direction.
There didn't appear to be anything amiss at the park, if you could overlook the thick fog, a sugary sweet smell, sort of like honey, permeating the air and a network of writing tree roots twisting and spreading slowly across the ground. Yusuke made a face, still unhappy that he was even doing this, and figured he should start by searching for the source of the roots. So far it was his only lead.
The fog got thicker and the sweet smell more potent the more he traced the origin of the spreading plant matter. This was weird. What was weirder was the tree roots definitely did not appreciate being stepped on. The first, and only, time his shoe landed on one snaking tendril he received a sharp lash against his calf and a shove strong enough to push him over. Yusuke grimaced as he rubbed his leg. Far from the worst strike he'd ever been victim to, it still hurt like hell. And seemed to be coming from the direction of the Makai portal. Could tree roots do that?
He continued following the wriggling tree roots to the Makai portal. Then he saw movement through the fog. Was that.. a girl in front of the portal?
A pretty girl. Dark hair bound up off her shoulders and wearing a gray and yellow sundress, but she wore no shoes. Her smile was warm. She waved at Yusuke.
Thoroughly freaked out, Yusuke stood and backed up, not taking his eyes off the girl. If that wasn't fishy then his mother wasn't a drunk. Having spent significant amounts of time in Makai and around apparitions made him skeptical, especially considering his unique experiences. Tree roots spreading out, unnaturally heavy fog, that sweet smell(It did smell nice). And the girl. Yusuke had backed up far enough that he could no longer see the girl, her form completely shrouded by fog. And of course its coming from the other side of the Makai portal.
Weird, crawling tree roots from Makai being involved, Yusuke withdrew his cell phone from his jacket pocket and scrolled through his contacts, looking for a specific individual who happened to know a lot about demon plants. Knowing Kurama was having a tough time and hadn't been feeling great, he reluctantly called him anyway. Yusuke was a little out of his element in this situation and could use a little advice.
Vzzt vzzt vzzt. Vzzt vzzt vzzt.
Violent buzzing was coming from the desk, waking Kurama with a start. Groggy green eyes fluttered open, zeroing in on the vibrating cell phone across the room. Glancing quickly at the clock on the wall, it read 3:42 AM. It had been nearly midnight when he had returned home from the movies with Shuichi, Kurama was feeling less than rested. On top of that, his chest still hurt and his youki was leaking at a mildly alarming rate.
However, to Kurama's relief, no surprise transformation into a silver demon fox.
It was unusual that anyone would try to contact him in the middle of the night. He sighed and rose stiffly from the bed to check his phone, squinting while looking at the blue light of the screen in the dark. Even more unusual, it was Yusuke. The former Spirit Detective did not make a habit of disturbing Kurama when he was home unless it was serious. Opening the flip phone, he thumbed the green button to accept the call and held to his ear.
"Hello, Yusuke," Kurama answered tiredly, still half asleep. He sat down in the chair and leaned heavily on his desk, fingers of his free hand raking through his bangs.
"Hey, man, sorry to bother you. Pacifier-Breath asked me to check something out for him, though I still don't see why it couldn't have waited til morning," Yusuke grumbled over the phone. "Anyway, I'm in the park by my old high school but I'm kind of at a loss here. Can tree roots reach here through the portal?"
That got Kurama's attention. It would have to be an exceptionally durable tree to tolerate the inter-dimensional pull between worlds. "Typically, no. There are exceptions, of course."
"Ah, damn. I was afraid of that." Kurama agreed with Yusuke's unease. Exceptions generally mean trouble.
"Describe what you see." The fox demon rubbed his chest, trying to ease some of the pressure without success.
"Well, its crazy foggy. There's roots spreading out everywhere and they're.. squirming. Gross. And don't step on them unless you like getting whipped. When I get close to the portal the air smells sweet, and there's this girl right by the entrance. Who walks around barefoot in the middle of the night?!"
Kurama's eyes widened, that was bad. "Yusuke, listen to me. Do not approach it again. I will be there shortly."
'Why would a furutsubaki no rei be here?' Kurama thought, furrowing his brows. He hoped no humans had encountered it yet.
"You got it. Thanks, man!" Yusuke hung up.
Kurama gracelessly rose from his chair to change out of his bedclothes. If he was correct, this was indeed an emergency. He put on a pair of jeans and pulled on a loose sweatshirt over his t-shirt. Pocketing his cell phone, he headed downstairs silently, making a point to avoid the loose board on the last step. He was about to put on his shoes before a thought struck him. Changing his course to the kitchen to look through the pantry.
'Ah, there it is. This should be enough,' He thought, finding what he was looking for.
The atmosphere was certainly growing more ominous as Kurama approached Yusuke's location. Fortunately he did not see any humans out and about at this hour. Frankly, he didn't want to be out at this hour himself. As much as Kurama disliked dwelling on physical ailments, his current affliction was distracting and intractable at best.
Yusuke was sitting on a bench in the developed portion of the park when Kurama arrived, anxiously bouncing one knee. The ad junct spirit detective looked up, standing from the bench when he saw his partner arrive.
"Hey, thanks for coming, bud," Yusuke said. "Sorry again for bugging you."
Kurama shrugged and gave his friend a good-natured smile, hoping he looked less tired than he felt. "It's no problem. Show me where you found it."
If Yusuke thought Kurama looked tired, he didn't say anything, for which Kurama was grateful.
"This way," Yusuke started walking toward the portal to Makai, Kurama following. The Spirit Detective looked grim. "Botan told me four people in this area have disappeared. By the way, what is it?"
"From what you described over the phone, I believe we have a furutsubaki no rei on our hands," Kurama explained as they walked, taking care to avoid stepping on the spreading network of roots. "It's a soul sucking demon tree, and incredibly dangerous. It attracts youkai and human men with a sweet smelling pollen. When victims approach the tree, it tries to lure them the rest of the way with a phantom image of a woman."
"O-kay. That sounds like exactly like what I saw," Yusuke said. He jammed his fists into his jacket pockets. "But what happens to the victims? And what's with the squirmy roots?"
"Well, as the name suggests, the furutsubaki no rei eats the soul of the victim and uses the body as fertilizer," Kurama replied matter-of-factly. Yusuke frowned and raised an eyebrow, at which the fox demon just chuckled. "It's a tree, Yusuke. It has roots just like normal trees. It grows. But if it's fed recently on four humans it will be growing at an exponential rate. I suspect that without the Kekkai barrier, this one was able to reach across to find more frequent meals."
"You make it sound friendly when you talk about it like that. Yikes," Yusuke's hands withdrew from his pockets with a shake, obviously uncomfortable with the idea. "How do we kill it?"
"It won't be easy. This one must be powerful if it is able to tolerate reaching through the portal. We will have to travel to Makai to find the tree itself in order to dispose of it," Kurama explained. With a wry smile, Kurama produced his bounty from his mother's pantry. "I did, however, bring an effective countermeasure."
Yusuke stopped, expression incredulous, pointing at the bagged bundle in Kurama's hand. "You said it's a tree, not a vampire! Seriously. Garlic?"
"Well, allium to be precise," Kurama replied with another chuckle, still walking. Yusuke did have a tendency to overreact. He jogged a few steps to catch up. "It's a toxic to demonic flora so it's often planted as a deterrent. If we can administer this to the furutsubaki no rei, it will die. Usually you would boil the individual cloves and pour the water on the foundational roots, but we will have to improvise."
"You make it sound so simple. We're getting close." The fog was growing thicker the further through the trees the pair walked.
"Yes, the scent of the pollen is getting stronger," Kurama commented cautiously, observing a point of origin for the writhing root system. "We need to be careful when passing through the portal."
The pair walked carefully through another grouping of trees and stopped, a barefoot girl wearing a yellow and gray sundress was standing amidst the fog in front of the portal to Makai. She beckoned to them with bright smile and a wave.
Yusuke elbowed Kurama. "You see her too, right?"
"Indeed. My affinity for demonic flora does not make me immune. Just ignore it." Kurama acknowledged casually.
Green eyes narrowed and flashed to gold as they approached the portal, walking past the phantom young woman.
The inside of the portal was covered in a tangled arrangement of thick roots of a woodier quality than those on the ground in the park. It gave Yusuke the heebie-jeebies.
"Are these the the foundation roots, or whatever?" Yusuke asked, hoping they could get this over with quickly.
Kurama examined them more closely. "No, we will have to locate the tree itself. Keep going to the other side."
"Ri-ight," Yusuke grumbled. As of the completion of this mission, he was officially done doing any more 'favors' for Koenma.
They entered Makai at the edge of a field. Here it seemed like the majority of the root system was underground, the topsides of the largest branches emerging above ground. In the center of the field was an impressive tsbubaki tree covered in pink flowers, shrouded in mist.
Yusuke elbowed Kurama again. "Is that it?"
Kurama raised an eyebrow. "Yes, and it appears to be well fed."
"Shouldn't Hiei's patrol team have found this thing? It's out in the open."
"Not necessarily. These are fairly common in Makai, albeit not typically as powerful as this one," Kurama glanced from the tree to the ground at the roots, briefly following their path behind them to the portal before turning back to the demon tree. His eyes darkened. "It's possible that there have been no obvious signs that this tree is reaching to the other side until tonight."
The Spirit Detective hadn't missed the golden eyes. He figured Kurama was aware that his Youko form was leaking through, but it wasn't to anyone's benefit to mention it at that particular moment. This tree thing was eerie, it made the fine hairs on the back of Yusuke's neck stand on end. He had a sinking feeling that something bad was going to happen.
Suddenly, the young woman they had seen on the Ningenkai side of the portal appeared at the base of the tree. She was no longer smiling and her posture was slightly defensive.
"So you just put the garlic on it and it dies, right?" Yusuke asked, voice low and he was not taking his eyes off of the tree. Was it just him, or was the fog getting thicker?
"In a manner of speaking, " Kurama affirmed, narrowed eyes also focused on the furutsubaki no rei. "Be careful, Yusuke. Furutsubaki no rei are powerful, and this one seems to know we are a threat."
As Kurama warned Yusuke, the mirage girl frowned and her arms raised in front of her, palms facing downward. Her hands turned over sharply and the ground started rumbling. Yusuke's eyes widened and he looked around at the ground. Were the roots moving? The ground began to quake.
'Oh, crap,' he thought, jumping out of the way of the incoming root barrage. The ground where he was just standing was now a crater as wide as Yusuke was tall. Upon landing, he took a moment to look for Kurama. He was relieved to see Kurama was evading the onslaught of attacking roots with little trouble. Roots were erupting from the earth, searching and grabbing, slamming back down into the ground leaving vast depressions in their wake. The tree seemed more focused on the plant master for the moment, so Yusuke took advantage and aimed his index finger at the trunk of the tree.
As his spirit gun was charging, the smell of the air changed dramatically from the honey sweet aroma from before to a pungent, sour odor. The girl's arms were now outstretched at her sides before clapping her hands together above her head and bringing them down straight in front of her in a chopping motion.
Yusuke's arms dropped in front of him, suddenly feeling incredibly heavy. His knees buckled and he found himself kneeling on the ground, dizzy and unable to move. He couldn't see Kurama.
A/N: The furutsubaki no rei is a soul sucking Camellia tree from Japanese mythology. There are a few different takes on it, but generally it would attract people and turn them into bees, then poison them. Plants in the allium family (like Garlic) are thought to repel demons and evil spirits. So it worked for me to present it this way, especially when we have a plant master on Team Urameshi!
Thank you to all who are reading! Special thanks to MissIdeophobia and Jessica(I super appreciate that you've reviewed every chapter so far!) for reviewing.
Again, if there are errors or inconsistencies, or if the story tracks weird, please let me know so I may fix it. I've never attempted anything like this before(It's WAY harder than I thought!) and I am proof-reading myself. Thank you again!