Eh.. So the prologue didn't bowl over so well..
YYH does not belong to me.Catching Up
Kurama sighed, dropping the black ink pen onto his desk. He leaned back in his swiveling chair, running his hands impatiently through his locks. The redhead had cut his hair shorter, returning to the look he had adopted as a child, where it had ended just below his ears. Writer's block was a curse to all, and equally annoying was failure to do anything to fix it.
He sat up, the chair creaking lightly beneath him. It was an antique, one that he had picked up in a pawn shop because of the miniscule Kanji that the creator had hand sewn into the fabric. The window was ajar, the curtains pulled back, letting the light of the new day soak in. He pushed open his window the rest of the way, then leaned forward on the sill.
"You're as ignorant as ever."
Kurama looked to the side. There, on his sakura tree, sat the fire koorime lazily. "Ignorant?" Kurama repeated with a slight grin. "Hardly. I was simply waiting for you to unmask yourself, a habit you've uptaken when those who should sense you are patient."
Hiei didn't open his eyes. "Hn."
Kurama chuckled. "As adverse as ever, are you Hiei?" He stood up straight, then glanced towards his door, double-checking that it was indeed shut. The redhead glanced back towards the tree. "To what do I owe this visit?"
"Koenma sent me," Hiei replied, not skipping a beat.
"We both know that's not true," Kurama replied, his smile wavering, then disappearing altogether. Something's wrong..
"Do I need a reason to make sure an old friend hasn't gotten himself killed?" Hiei answered testily. His form crackled, then vanished, not unlike the black and white waves that invade a television set when it's not working.
Kurama blinked, staring at the spot that Hiei had been sitting in not a moment before. "I wonder what he came here about... ?" He hesitated, but when Hiei did not return, he closed the window then returned to his chair and his unwritten autobiography, a fiction titled 'Yoko'.
"Yeah.. yeah. Well.. Sure, it's good. But we all knew it was going to hap – No. It didn't come as any surprise. Congratulations nonetheless, Keiko." Shizuru hung up the phone, lying on the couch in the apartment that she and Kazuma shared. An unlit cigarette dangled from between her fingers, her elbow resting on the armrest of the sofa. "Bro!" She shouted in the general direction of the kitchen. "Guess who just called?"
"Can't talk right now Sis I'm-" There came a muffled crash from the kitchen, a yell, and a loud meow. A moment later, Eikichi bounded off the tiled floor into the living room. With a spring, she pounced into Shizuru's lap, looking for safety.
Shizuru cocked an eyebrow, running the fingers of her free hand down the smooth coat of the kitten. "Kazuma..?" She called, more exasperated than worried. "What are you doing in there?"
There was no reply for a moment, then a strangled voice called out childishly. "...Nothing..."
She rolled her eyes. Whatever he was doing, she had just decided that she was safer not knowing. He could talk. Obviously it wasn't that damaging. "Guess who just called?"
There came another, smaller, crash, but she could hear his footsteps on the tile as he moved around the kitchen. "The police. They've discovered you're an unfit guardian and are coming to take you away."
She took a pillow from the other end of the couch and threw it into the kitchen. Kazuma grumbled in reply, and she grinned, taking a long drag from her cigarette. "But you're not far from wrong," she called to him. "It was Keiko."
"Keiko?" The orange-haired teen's head popped out of the doorway between the family room and kitchen. "Does that mean Urameshi went through with it?"
Shizuru didn't look at him, or even so much as acknowledge his presence, opting to inspect her nails as she replied. "I'm not really sure what you think Yusuke went through, but I've got a pretty good idea. If I'm right, then the answer is yes."
Kuwabara laughed, pulling back into the kitchen. Certainly took the wimpy Spirit Detective long enough to pop the question.
The paper door slid open, and a dark-haired young man entered Genkai's home. "Yo, Grandma," he called into the dimly lit room. She was sitting against the wall, drinking herbal tea. "Now why am I here again?' He asked, sitting across from her.
She set her cup down, crossing her arms, her expressionless gaze boring into his bored features. "Do you not feel it?"
Yusuke scratched the back of his head, grumbling something about coming to visit her in the middle of nowhere on a Saturday morning when he could be doing other important things.
Genkai rolled her eyes. "Dimwit. Pay attention for once."
Yusuke copied her gesture, and, setting one elbow on his knee, leaned his chin on his wrist, his telltale determined-not-to-be-helpful frown aimed at her. "No. I don't feel it."
Genkai did not look surprised, but sighed. She stood, but even then she wasn't much taller than Yusuke's slouched frame. Without uttering instruction, she left the room, and stood in the courtyard.
Yusuke followed, overdramatic. "What? What is it – oh." He halted midsentence, then proceeded so he was standing near the elderly fighter. His hands balled into fists, and his chocolate-colored eyes scanned the mountainous horizon. "What is it?"
"A rogue demon, I suspect," Genkai replied matter-of-factly. Even after leaving the estate to the others in her will, and decreeing that her land would be open for demons to come and go as they please, Koenma hadn't given his final permission for their crossings to be carried out. So any demon sightings in the human world were considered rarities.
Yusuke scoffed. "Seems pretty weak to me."
In the blink of an eye, he was rubbing the back of his head. "Ow!" He complained from her physical rebuttal. "Don't need to hit me so hard. I'm not your apprentice anymore."
"You're missing the point," Genkai replied. "Remember Rando? Toguro? Sensui? Obviously the youkai is concealing his energy. Any B Class would recognize something that simple. Frankly, I expected more from you."
Yusuke mimicked her expression, and moved his mouth to what she was saying. "So? What do you want me to do about it?"
"It's watching Yukina."
He hesitated, then looked down at his old teacher. "How.. How do you know that?"
"It only comes around when she's awake. Or busy. If she leaves into a room for a long time, the aura disappears. I haven't been able to discover the perpetrator yet, though. It's become very secretive."
"Huh." Yusuke crossed his arm, a strong breeze rustled the trees and his red and orange jacket. He shivered. The demon wasn't there now, but it had taken little time to erase its afterscent. It was almost familiar.. But then again, it was probably the general scent of Makai that he was noticing. "Well.." He wasn't sure what to propose. "We can get Yukina out of here and put her with Kuwabara and Shizuru. Or with Keiko. Or, 'cause it's break, we can all come here." He looked down at Genkai, waiting for a response.
She shook her head. "I don't think it would be a good idea to tell Kuwabara that Yukina's in danger, so sending her to live with him wouldn't work. Hiei wouldn't like it, anyway. As for your little girlfriend, I'm not sure how much her parents would appreciate an ice maiden coming to stay." She sighed. "It'll have to be the last of your harebrained ideas. I'll send an invitation for a week or two to you, alright?"
Yusuke counted on his fingers. "Me, Keiko, Kuwabara, Shizuru, Kurama, Hiei, Botan.. And because the gangs all here I'm sure the toddler'll drop by, too."
"Without a doubt." She headed back to the interior of her home. "We'll figure out what to do once you all get here, alright? I'm sure Kuwabara will keep Yukina busy enough when we need to discuss. Now get lost."
"You got it," Yusuke replied, not really hearing what she had been saying. He headed down the mountain of stairs that lead to the road. So there's a demon after Yukina? It's Tarukane all over again... He shook his head, and, leaning against the red entrance to Genkai's abode, waited for the bus.
So.. yeah! That's Chapter 2!
R&R