AN: Happy Valentine's Day!
Sagaku woke up slowly, stretching one limb at a time to take stock of the pains. The mook jasper on her sternum felt as though it were purring, sending light, healing vibrations tentatively through her body until they turned back and returned to the stone with her pain. Jasper echolocation. Sagaku stifled a chuckle at the image of a bat stone before gasping at the sharp pain. Yikes. Her chest hurt, though she suspected the rib was healed.
When had she crawled from the shower? She couldn't remember most of yesterday after the fight. There were brief glimpses of Kurama's vibrant hair, and she vaguely recalled Yusuke helping her carry Hiei. She remembered sinking to the floor under the stinging water. And, like a dream, she vaguely recalled being tucked into bed.
The cell phone on her bedside table buzzed angrily. Sagaku jerked in surprise, sending another jolt of pain through her chest. Her fingers scrambled across the surface, lunging for the phone before it fell to the floor.
It was an American country code followed by a number she knew well.
"Hello?" Sagaku greeted before the phone even registered that she'd picked up the call. The crackle of distance filled the line. "Hello?" Sagaku tried again.
A faint voice, as of someone talking in a different room from the phone filled the air. Sagaku struggled to hear. Was it just a bad connection?
Try as she might, Sagaku couldn't make out the words. There was a thump and more crackling, and then the line went dead. With a frown, Sagaku picked up the phone and hit redial. Two rings, and someone picked up.
"Shoseki?" Sagaku asked. "Mineo? I can't hear you."
That wasn't strictly true-she could hear someone breathing, very faintly. Then, so distinctly there was no mistaking the sound, someone slammed a book shut. The line disconnected again. This time when Sagaku redialed, it went straight to voicemail.
"Guys, it's Sagaku," Sagaku told the voice recording. "I got a weird call from you this morning. It might have been a misdial. Can you just call me back and let me know everything's okay? Please?" She paused for a moment and then said, "I miss you," before hanging up.
Despite the stiffness of her joints, Sagaku pulled a clean skirt and shirt on with all the speed of a snail. She must have looked even worse than she felt, because Keiko clucked sympathetically when they ran into each other in the kitchen.
"Oh, Sagaku," Keiko said, but did not bother voicing her concerns. She knew from experience that no amount of begging could steal the call of adventure from a person's bones. Yusuke had taught her that.
"I'm okay," Sagaku tried to assure her friend. It wasn't entirely convincing, but Keiko smiled warily and pat Sagaku's hand gently.
"Take it easy today," Keiko said. She would have stayed to nurse her friend back to health, but restaurant management could not be left to the wolves.
Sagaku dug through her dresser drawers before leaving; her chopsticks were tucked away beneath a pile of leggings she wore only when it was too cold not to. She had cleaned them after the last battle they'd been used, but to her mind they still reeked of death. Now, pulling them out of her hidden place, they were a comforting reminder that no matter how bad she currently felt, she was not useless.
After tucking her hair up as best she could under the circumstances, she slipped her brother's dagger into her belt, hiding it in the folds of her skirt. The blade was thin despite the weight. She should stay in, she thought grimly, but first there were questions that had to be asked.
Nenriki was at his shop, piercing the belly of a giggling teenager who was taking selfies while he tried to work. He shot Sagaku a look when she walked in that silently bemoaned his job. Sagaku smiled sympathetically and settled into a chair in the waiting area. She flipped through a book of tattoos. She didn't want one-they wouldn't help her increase her power at all-but they were very pretty to look at. Did Hiei have to get his arm tattooed to create a portal for the dragon, or was it a natural byproduct of their connection? She'd ask him if she thought he would answer.
"What's up?" Nenriki asked, rubbing hand sanitizer over his fingers.
"Have you heard from your cousin recently?" Sagaku asked without preamble.
Nenriki frowned, tilting his head so that blue spikes leaned to the right.
"Why do you ask?" he asked slowly. Sagaku watched a myriad of emotions run through his eyes, ending in concern.
"What happened?" Sagaku asked quietly. Nenriki sat in the seat next to her, casting an eye around the now-empty parlor.
"Shoseki emailed me a few days ago," he said. "He didn't want to spook you until he learned more about 'it', whatever it was, but he said he found another of his mother's journals."
"Okay," Sagaku said. She tried to run through several scenarios in her head. What could Shoseki possibly have found that would spook her? They'd tested all their findings together and no matter how corny or weird it seemed (like that time they tried using rose quartz to make Mineo feel more in love with Shoseki, with his permission-it hadn't worked, whether because the love was already there or because it was a hoax, none of them could answer).
"He had some questions," Nenriki continued. "About you. I tried answering, but you've been so busy since you got back."
"I know," Sagaku said distantly. "We've hardly had time to hang out lately. What questions was he asking?"
"Whether you'd noticed more demons, more rebellion, or stuff like that," Nenriki said miserably. "I didn't get most of it. He wanted to know if, and I'm quoting him here, 'the veils feel thinner'?"
"I have no idea what that means," Sagaku said.
"Me neither," Nenriki slumped in his chair. "I told him he should just talk to you but he called that night and said I should keep my mouth shut for a few days until he figured it out."
"Have you heard from him since?" Sagaku asked.
"No," Nenriki admitted. "I called him but Mineo picked up and said Shoseki was neck-deep in books and couldn't be disturbed."
"Hm." Sagaku fiddled with ulexite on her ring finger.
"Why are you asking?" Nenriki prompted Sagaku. "You haven't said, and honestly this whole thing is leaving a bad taste in my mouth."
"Mine, too," Sagaku told him. "Someone called this morning but no one answered when I picked up. I called back and someone picked up, but still no one said anything. When I called again, it went straight to voicemail."
Nenriki shuddered, blood draining from his face. The large eyes he focused on Sagaku's face looked desperate and more than a little scared.
"Is Shoseki okay?" he asked. "I just...I know he's a demon and can take care of himself, but…"
"I know," Sagaku said gently. Despite Nenriki's faith in his cousin, she wasn't so sure that he could take care of himself. Shoseki was, above all else, a scholar. Not a fighter. "I'll look into it. As soon as I hear back from him, I'll let you know. Can you forward me that email?"
"Will do." Nenriki stood with Sagaku, finally taking in the haggard look of his friend. "Sagaku," he said in surprise, "did you walk into a wall?"
"Very funny," Sagaku grumbled, playfully nudging him with her foot before leaving back for home. The pain in her chest was slowly getting worse and worse.
"Botan," Sagaku argued, "I know Koenma is busy. Can you please tell him this is urgent?"
"I tried!" the reaper chirped brightly. "Maybe if you tell me what it's about-"
"The rebellion, I think," Sagaku interrupted Botan. "Just tell him it's about the Makai rebellion."
There was muttering on the other side of the communicator, and then with a put-upon sigh, Koenma took the device from Botan.
"What?" he said into the phone. He sounded bored, almost distracted. Sagaku glared at the mirror where she was examining the fading bruises below her ribs.
"I'm not calling you for fun," she snarked, "can you at least try to sound like you're paying attention."
There was a pause, and the sound of shuffling paper. When Koenma spoke again, his voice sounded properly chastised.
"My apologies," he said. "However, given the nature of the rebellion in the Makai and its effects on the Ningenkai, I don't have time for personal calls-"
"Something happened in America," Sagaku interrupted. She had no patience for her friends in the Spirit World today. "Shoseki was working through something to do with Hanshoku and the rebellion. I got a weird call this morning from his number and haven't been able to reach him since."
There was a pregnant pause.
"I'll look into it," Koenma said.
Sagaku couldn't go back to bed, though she desperately wanted to. Instead, she went over her notes from her time with Shoseki and his mate. They'd never discussed "veils," at least not that she could remember.
Sagaku flicked the cathedral quartz on her idly, laying the notes out on her belly while she laid back. Had the quartz been humming lately, or was it just her imagination now? She hadn't paid enough attention to the small stone lately, focusing instead on what she considered her "combat" stones. It was shortsighted of her. The quartz hummed now, tweaking the covellite on her middle finger. She reread her notes on the two stones:
Cathedral quartz: Access to spiritual information, multidimensional awareness
Covellite: Psychic abilities, inner vision, transformation, bridging the higher and lower worlds
She really hoped the connection wasn't as obvious as it seemed, but if it was, Shoseki should have let her know right away. Spooked or not, she needed to be warned. What had Shoseki learned that dealt with the veils between the worlds? And why had he been so scared?
Despite her intent of not sleeping when she could be working through more notes, Sagaku's reserves were drained by the healing and she slowly fell into slumber.
Yusuke woke Sagaku up by pounding loudly and without pause on her bedroom door. He didn't even give her time to be grumpy when she flung the door open.
"Koenma says it's an emergency. He wants everyone-including you. Hurry!"
Sagaku stared at him blearily for a minute, waiting for the neurons in her brain to fire up.
"Move it or lose it, shortstack!" Yusuke commanded.
"Can it, grease ball!" Sagaku finally caught up to his words. "I'll be out in a minute."
It didn't even take a minute to change into clean clothes and assemble her jewelry; "emergency" had sent her into a tailspin. Yusuke didn't call anything an emergency that she knew of, laconically assuming that the universe would grant him the power to take anything on.
Yusuke was still assembling his own clothes when Sagaku stumbled out into the hallway.
"Be careful, Sagaku," Keiko whispered. She hugged Sagaku, mindful of the still-healing injuries. "Watch out for Yusuke, please."
"Always," Sagaku promised, wincing as her chest compressed. If only the jasper could heal that pain as easily as the broken bones and bruises…
"Keiko, babe, you know I'll be okay." Unseen, Yusuke had entered the room behind them. He pulled Keiko roughly to him in a rare show of PDA, kissing the top of her head before dragging Sagaku out the door. "We have to go-Keiko, go to Shizuru if there are any problems!"
"So what's the big deal?" Sagaku asked, struggling to keep up with Yusuke through throngs of late-evening crowds. Her chest throbbed harder as she twisted around people behind him.
"Dunno yet," Yusuke called over his shoulder, bumping another person rudely out of his way. "All I know is the last time we all got called together, we got stuck with an annoying girl. Hope that doesn't happen again."
"Oh yeah," Sagaku said thoughtfully between breaths, "I remember that. Didn't she beat you up?"
"Wha-no!" Yusuke said, startled.
"Huh, you're right. Just wait for it, then," Sagaku teased. If her chest would stop its increasing pressure, she would even laugh along with her friend.
Hiei and Kurama were already waiting at the designated meeting spot, hidden in a copse of trees at the park. Botan was there too in all of her pink and blue glory. She looked less happy than usual as she floated on her oar.
Kuwabara arrived at the same time as Yusuke and Sagaku.
"Good," Botan murmured. "You're all here."
"Is there a portal or something?" Kuwabara asked.
"Not tonight," Botan said. Wrinkles marred her forehead-worry lines that hadn't been there at Keiko's birthday party. Sagaku observed the wrinkles with detached interest. "Koenma thinks-" Botan swallowed hard and then rallied herself to continue. "Koenma thinks a demon, or maybe a group of them, we have no way of knowing, might have found a way to disrupt portals. If we create one here to take you to the Spirit World, you might end up in the middle of a volcano or in a locked prison.
"Oka-ay," Yusuke drawled out, "but isn't that a Spirit World problem? Not a Spirit Detective thing?"
Botan's pink eyes sought out Sagaku. The sinking of her stomach eclipsed the pain in her chest for a moment.
"Two demons were killed in the early hours of this morning," Botan began.
Yusuke cut her off with his usual tact.
"Isn't that a good thing?"
Botan glanced at Sagaku again. Yesterday's pain was nothing compared to this. She was pretty sure her chest was being ripped down the middle.
"They were scholars," Botan explained, "in America."
The others were staring at Sagaku now, too. She was turning white, her breath coming in quick pants. This couldn't be happening, it wasn't what she thought-someone else had died, there had been a mistake…
"Their names were Shoseki and Mineo. The house was demolished, and it looked like a fire was started in one room-"
"The library," Sagaku gasped out. "Shoseki was researching non-stop these past few days. He would have been in the library."
"Sagaku, are they...were they…" The words refused to come to Kurama's mouth.
Sagaku sank slowly to her knees, thinking that if only the world would stop moving for a moment she could put herself back in order. Shoseki and Mineo couldn't die, they simply couldn't. They knew too much, they were too kind and patient and funny. They had been mates for over a hundred years now. They couldn't be dead.
"Sagaku," Botan said miserably, "it gets worse. There were signs of you all over the house-a postcard on the fridge, notes in some of the journals that survived the fire. Emails on the computer. You could be in danger, again."
"Why are we here, then?" Yusuke demanded. "Why bring us out into the open?"
"Her address was on the postcard, Yusuke," Botan explained. "They know where to find her. They could be on their way here already, we have no way of knowing."
"They?" Kuwabara asked.
"He, she, they-we don't know!" Botan sounded as frustrated at not having the whole story as the team felt not getting the answers they needed. "Koenma wants Sagaku under 24-7 guard. Hiei, you'll take point; Kurama, you'll be his relief."
"Wait," Sagaku struggled back to her feet, clutching on to Kurama's hand with no regard to her own strength. "No. You can't keep disrupting people's lives-"
"Onna, you always need to be protected," Hiei grumbled. It didn't sound like he thought it was a bad thing, though.
"We'll take care of it, Sagaku," Kurama tried to comfort her.
"But your classes-"
"I can withdraw." Kurama's voice was final, allowing no argument. Guilt welled up beneath the pain and sorrow in Sagaku's chest. It wasn't enough to be a burden, now she had to actively ruin her friends' lives.
"We suggest moving Keiko to a safe location," Botan continued. "If anyone shows up at the apartment, they won't let her go just because she's human."
"She can stay with Shizuru and me," Kuwabara offered. Yusuke stared at him blankly for a moment, realizing for the first time that of course Keiko was in trouble if the demon had seen that damned postcard.
"Shit," Yusuke cursed. He turned on heel, running in quick strides without waiting for the last of the orders.
"I'll go with him," Kuwabara said. "I'll bring some stuff for Sagaku-where? Kurama's house?"
"Mine," Hiei grunted.
Kuwabara took off after Yusuke, his long legs eating up the distance.
"What is Koenma doing to fix this?" Kurama asked Botan. He shifted Sagaku's grip so he could pull her closer.
"He's looking into it, of course," Botan drew back from the surprising force of Kurama's gaze, "and he's even reaching out to the few known warrens there are to see if they know anything."
Sagaku hiccuped a laugh. "Warrens won't know anything. You should be looking for the handlers, instead."
"Right, well...we'll do that," Botan said lamely.
Hiei plucked the girl from Kurama's arm, swinging her into his grip.
"Meet us there," he told the fox. He sped off before Botan or Kurama could draw the meeting out any longer. What else was there to say?