From The Dead, Arisen Again
Chapter Three
Kurama walked into Koenma's office, seeing Yusuke and Kuwabara already there. Yusuke was sprawled lazily along the length of the couch that was in there, Kuwabara was leaning against the arm of the couch. Both looked bored and a little annoyed. Kurama spared a glance at Koenma, he looked troubled, busily sucking on his pacifier with his hands clasped together. Botan stood beside him, her eyes shining with not yet spilled tears.
"Koenma," Kurama started hesitantly.
"Take a seat Kurama, I have something to tell you all." The toddler said.
Kurama made Yusuke sit up and he and Kuwabara took a seat on the couch. Koenma took a deep breath.
"Hiei has been killed."
The silence was deafening. The three boys just stared at Koenma. Then Yusuke bust out laughing.
"Haha! Nice trick Koenma, but Hiei's not the kind to get himself killed. What's the real reason you want us here?"
"Uuh, Urameshi?" Kuwabara said, still staring at Koenma, "I don't think he's lying."
"No, he telling the truth," Kurama said calmly, "Hiei is gone, I can't sense his energy, nor his spirit." He turned to Botan, "Did you take him this morning?"
Botan sniffed, a tear rolling down her cheek.
Koenma shuffled some papers. "No, she didn't. That's the weird thing. He died, my report says he died, the spot where we found his blood is his. There was too much lost to save him. If we was in his demon form he would have lived, but his human form still had some human weakness in it."
"Whoa-whoa-whoa." Yusuke said, standing up and placing his hands on Koenma's desk. "You're really serious, he's really dead."
"Yes, Yusuke. Hiei is dead. But his spirit never came to Reikai. Something intercepted it. His body is missing, too. I can't figure it out. The obvious place is Makai, but we can't be too sure."
"Now you want us to go find him?" Kuwabara asked.
"Well, duh, stupid. Of course we're going to find Hiei. He's a member of our team. No matter how antisocial, mean, or threatening he is. Well, when do you want us to start?"
Koenma brought a piece of paper to the front of his stack. "Go about your daily lives, but keep an eye out for anything that might possibly connected with Hiei's death and disappearance."
The three boys nodded and walked out the door.
Back at Yusuke's house, they sat in the living room, talking with Keiko and Shizuru. Kurama would go back to Genkai's temple with Yusuke later and break the news to Yukina and their old master.
Keiko could hardly believe what had happened.
"Wow, how could this be? Hiei was strong. He didn't look like the kind of person to get killed."
"I know," Yusuke said, looking agitatedly at the floor. "That's the weird part. We need to find out who killed him, why, and where his soul and body is."
"Well, why don't we go and check out the place where he died." Kurama suggested.
In the Forest near the Park
Yusuke bent over the brownish red spot of grass. The blood was caked and dry, but a heavy metallic scent still hung in the air. He ran his fingers gently over the bloody grass, some little flakes falling off the blades onto the blood-soaked soil.
"Man there's a lot of blood," Kuwabara observed.
"Ya noticed that, didn't ya?" Yusuke said sarcastically.
Kurama stood a ways off, staring intently at the spot. It was three feet in diameter, with little spots all around it. Something behind a bush caught the kitsune's eyes. He walked over to the bush and examined a purple-ish spot on a cluster of leaves. He sniffed it. Demon blood! He called the other two boys over to the spot and let them examine the bush.
"What kind of demon is it?" Yusuke asked.
"A fairly strong one. A basic B-class. I guess this is Hiei's killer." Kurama replied, a little dumbfounded.
"No. This can't be the one. Hiei was almost S class, he was a high A. There's NO way a normal, B-class demon could kill Hiei." Yusuke countered.
"Remember the shrimp was really overconfident." Kuwabara put in, "He could have messed up. You do all the time Urameshi."
Kuwabara was flying through the air and hit a tree trunk two seconds after the words left his mouth. Yusuke had a vein popping in his forehead and his eye was twitching. Kurama held back a laugh.
They went to check on Kuwabara, he was out cold. Yusuke sighed. "Let's take him back to his place and go see Genkai and Yukina."