It was oddly satisfying to watch Genkai put Kaito's soul back in his body, to watch him come to life from a simple piece of stone. He looked around at us, and finally rested his eyes on Kurama.
"A full house. I take it everything went just as you planned, Master Genkai."
"You played your part well." Kurama complimented him dryly. "You lost, but it was a... stirring introduction."
Kaito scoffed, scowling. "I wasn't playing along. I tried my hardest to defeat you. For once I wanted to see you lose. But I'll just have to wait a little longer."
"Nice thinkin' brain boy." Yusuke gave him a snarky thumbs up. "So you put your soul on the line because he's beaten you on some math quizzes? What if grandma hadn't been here to save you?"
"Simple: He would have faded into nothing. Kaito's a risk taker. That's why these three came to me for help; he'd removed his own soul and they didn't know how to put it back. A soul is fragile without a body or a ghost to protect it. In one full day it would break apart."
"And yet your curious mind could not help but pose the question." Kurama filled in the rest, not breaking the tension gaze between the two.
"Real discovery takes risk. I had to know what would happen if I broke my own rule." Kaito hefted himself up. "Let me introduce myself formally to the group: My name is Yu Kaito. I have the power of taboo."
"My name's Asato Kido. My power is shadow."
"Mitsunari Yanagisawa, and I call my talent copy."
"Like I told you, they all live in Mushiyori City. It's been a full month since they developed their powers and there are many others like them." Genkai stood in front of the three boys and clasped her hands behind her back.
"That's only a few weeks after the closing of the Dark Tournament." Kurama frowned.
"Yeah, and that was at the beginning of stage 2 right?" Yusuke threw in. "So that means it was just days after I fought Toguro when this whole tunnel business got started."
The beep from Botan's bag drew everyone's attention once more. "Koenma's not wasting anytime, either."
Koenma's face appeared on the screen, as serious and somber as it was upstairs. "We've just finished calculating the growth rate on that tunnel, guys. It's bad, as it will reach stage four in three weeks."
"Only three weeks?!" Yusuke flipped out, terror showing on his face. "There's gotta be something we can do! Can't you, like, close the hole back up?"
"The only way is to stop the tunnel's creator. This isn't a normal hole. It's not physical yet. It's a distortion in space-time, 1.3 Kilometers wide. But once it hits 2 kilometers, it stabilizes, changing from energy conduit to a physical space. You don't use a drill to make a hole like this; you use a psychic nested at the center point."
I saw Yusuke's thought process before he opened his mouth, and I put my hand up to try and reason with him but he was already on a role. "So you know where the guy is, and if he's beat down we're all okay. Then I guess all I gotta do is turn his brain into mush."
I stood up, reaching for his arm to stop him as he marched to the boys standing behind Genkai still. "Yusuke, that's not what he-"
"You guys know the city, right? So then take me to that hole."
Having had enough of his bullshit, Genkai flipped Yusuke straight onto his head, and I worried the bracelet around my wrist, not realizing I had moved closer to Hiei until our shoulders were touching. He didn't move me away, didn't outwardly acknowledge my subconscious need to be near him with everything going on. He just stayed where he was and flicked his eyes over me once.
"Damnit! What is this, be bitchy day?!" Yusuke shouted, rubbing his head.
"Here's a brilliant concept; try learning from your mistakes!" Genkai shouted right back, narrowing her eyes at him. "What I wouldn't give for my successor to have my student's brain."
The unexpected compliment threw me off, and I tried not to grin under the circumstances.
"You know how much trouble I went through planning this ordeal?" She continued. "The whole point of tonight was to teach you one thing: you cannot go into this without understanding your enemy's powers. You. Will. Lose."
Yusuke shot up, righteous fury in his stance that she was thoroughly unimpressed with. "And you've gone deaf again. Koenma said we can't wait."
"We still have three weeks to figure out how many people their leader has under them, who their leader is, and what their powers are." I interjected, causing Yusuke to whip around at me instead. "Yusuke, without those answers it'll be suicide to go into that tunnel."
"Koenma." Hiei startled us, stepping forward. He had a look of harsh determination in his eyes, and I didn't like where that usually led him. "If these fools are done, then I have my own question: In what class do you rank me?"
"Hiei-"
"What? It's a fair question. If his spirit world lackys are going to place a letter on me then I deserve to know."
"Oh, very well, Hiei. I'll tell you. As I've said, the Toguro brothers were considered in upper B, and as of the end of the Dark Tournament you were ranked in the middle of B class."
You could set fire to the tension in the room. That was exactly what Hiei did not need to hear right now, let alone in front of all of his comrades and teammates. In front of me. His ego wasn't going to take that blow lightly, and even Kurama shifted closer in case Hiei decided to do something foolish.
"Underestimate me even now?" He purred, a dangerous lilt to his voice.
"For the record, when you fought Yusuke you only had an upper D class ranking. But in less than a year you jumped up nearly two full classes! Quite an astounding feat to be sure. You have much to be proud of."
"You're a child; don't father me." He brushed off, turning and walking toward the door. Yusuke jumped in as the door slid open at his approach.
"Come on."
"You already have your fox, your clown, and your hag. I'm a moot point."
"You're just gonna walk away?!" Kazuma yelled at him, clenching his fists. I stared at his back, at the tension that was collected there despite how dismissive he was pretending to be.
"This is your world to look after, not mine. I don't intend to hinder your cause but I'm not going to help it either."
"Coward." Kazuma ground out. "Real men help when they're needed."
"Save that idealism for your fairy tales." Hiei turned, disappearing out the doorway. I hesitated, part of me wanting to run after him, but the logical part of me knew I couldn't just abandon the group when there was a larger threat at hand. Hiei would come around. He had to. His pride wouldn't allow him to stay out of the greatest fight either world had ever seen for long.
"Well I'm not going to shed any tears, Hiei! In fact I'm happy you're gone!" Kazuma shouted at the closed door. I closed my eyes to keep myself calm, and caught Genkai's gaze. I shook my head at her and took a seat against the bookcase nearest me. "He's the same selfish punk he was from the start!"
"Yeah, he's the same; he'll come rescue us at the end when we need him the most."
"It's hard to predict what he'll do." Kurama assessed the room to get a gauge of everyone's emotional state. "Humanity's destruction was Hiei's former dream. These new developments leave him much to consider."
"What Hiei will or won't do at this point is irrelevant." I chimed in. "What we need to look at is how to move forward and what will have to happen in the next few days in order to get this situation under control."
"So how do we do that?" Kazuma wondered.
"We move into the city at sunrise and begin scouting. These three will go with us; they could be of some use." Genkai informed him.
"You guys game for that?"
"What do you think? It's our home town, man. We're not gonna watch it turn into some demon parade." Yana rolled his eyes.
"Yes, we've already been given our powers. The way I see it we can either help out the humans or the demons, and to tell you the truth I prefer my own kind." Kaito pushed up his glasses.
"Same goes for me." Kido chimed in. "I'm not letting anybody take my turf."
'What a bunch of wannabe thugs' I thought, playing with my bracelet again.
"Nice. Now the next job for all of you is to get what sleep you can. In the morning we'll divide into two teams so we can cover more territory. Until we know more, no one goes home and no one leaves the group. Good night." Genkai dismissed us.
I watched the ensuing irritation and arguments that were brewing between everyone and kept my eyes trained on the colorful array of getups while Kurama settled in beside me.
"Do you want to talk, Ella?" He broke the silence after a moment. I shrugged, feeling oddly noncommittal and fatigued about the situation now that the drama was completed. "You haven't told him, have you?"
"I didn't really feel it was appropriate to bring it up when he's already depressed as hell about his powers." I sighed, laying my head back against the shelf. "I know I should but he's going to make way too big of a deal out of it, and with everything going on right now it's not really the forefront of what he should be focusing on."
He held up his hands in surrender, a small smile gracing his lips. "I only mean to say that it's going to continue to cause you stress until you tell him. It's not difficult to see how much it bothers you when he insults Hiei, and eventually Kazuma will either catch on or you're going to lose that famous Kuwabara temper."
"Stop making sense." I groaned.
"Get some sleep." I jumped at the sudden warmth surrounding me, blinking up at Kurama walking away from me and the pink school jacket draped over me.
"You okay?" Kazuma took Kurama's spot before I could process what just happened and I cleared my throat, nodding.
"Just need some sleep." I buried my face in my cousin's shoulder, nuzzling him until he gave in with a grumble and rested his arm around me so I could snuggle him comfortably. "Nervous about tomorrow."
"Oh yeah, you got your dance thing tomorrow. Why didn't you say anything?"
"It's not really important when the fate of the known world is at stake." I dismissed, ignoring the pang in my stomach that, ultimately, I was going to be alone tomorrow. I understood (how could I not, really) but there was still that part of me that wished my friends could have made it on any other occasion. I still had the flyers sitting in my backpack, but I wasn't going to bring it up when we had other things to worry about. "Besides, I'll be able to join you shortly after my team goes on. We're the first of the morning so it won't take me more than an hour to meet back with you to help where I can."
He didn't say anything, just rested his head on mine like he was trying to tell me that I still mattered, that he understood how important this still was to me. I appreciated it even when the words choked in my throat and I couldn't say it aloud.