Doubt
Random beginning note: Who uses the word hooligan anymore anyway? Just like "Don't be cross." And I have Persona 4 music stuck in my head. I like Wednesdays. I wish it were a Wednesday.

Chapter 4: The Drawing

There was a knock at Mukuro's office door. After a moment, a small woman in her mid seventies walked in. They both exchanged a smile. Mukuro shut down the computer and turned to the older woman, excusing herself for a moment to get her coffee pot. When she returned, the older woman was sitting in a chair pulled next to the desk.

"It's been a while since we got to talk, Master Genkai. Been what, almost a year?" Mukuro said as she poured some coffee into her cup. She offered the pot to Genkai but she turned it down.

"For you that's nothing, you know that?" Genkai replied with a smile.

"Yes, but for humans, it's like dog years, isn't it? You've been busy lately, have you?"

"Not quite. I've just finished working with my apprentice." The smile faded quickly. "He was a pain in the ass to work with but I know he has potential."

"Is he someone I know?"

"The name is Yusuke Urameshi. I doubt you have met him. He seemed too much like he had to be put up to come to the tournament. He needs a good kick in the ass. Can't tell you the amount of times I had to smack him so he would do what I tell him. One day his dumb ass is going to figure it out and realize it was necessary. Or I hope so."

"Urameshi? I have met him before. And now that you mention it, I did get a strange vibe from him. If I had noticed it before, I probably could have been able to open that up..."

"You really need to stop doing that. You already have Spirit World's eyes on you as it is, and this isn't a risk you would want to take." She sighed when Mukuro shrugged.

"By the way, have you noticed the strange miasma in the air? Then there's been these demonic insects. Lately..."

"Has there been anything happening in Demon World lately? Someone must be causing someone to react enough to send insects in this world."

"Well, East and West Germany have split Europe in two and are getting ready to turn around and go after each other. There's been a lot of tension between those two, so I've heard anyway. It's been confirmed that they both have nuclear weapons, but that's pretty much the standard for any country if they want to look like they can hold a good defense. And the United States' economy is continuing to drop. I'm surprised that they haven't gone into a full depression. If they did, then they would be screwed. Over there, they're really dependent on foreign goods, as reluctant as they are to trade with anyone. That's all I've heard. It's really nothing new. At least, the people in this world are tame. They commit heinous crimes but they still don't compare to the demons. Though really, we should think about the time frames. I'm sure that with time, humans would be just as bad. But then again, who's to say..." Mukuro looked down at her cup and cocked a brow when she saw it was empty. She stood up. "By the way, I'm making more coffee. Are you sure you don't want any?"

"Positive." Slight pause. "You should watch your caffeine intake."

"Why?"

-:-:-

There was a loud beep from the loudspeaker. "Mr. Iwamoto?"

He paused, in the middle of the lecture. "Yes?" No answer. He sighed irritably before repeating himself, "Yes!"

"Hi, Iwamoto, this is Dorris again. Could you send Yu-Yu... Yu-su-ke Uram-se-shi-" Someone in the class groaned at the horrible mispronunciation of the name. "-to the office please? There's someone here to see him."

"Of course." Iwamoto shook his head. "Urameshi! Urameshi!" He scanned the room and frowned. "Oh, he's not here, is he?"

"I saw him this morning," a girl replied. "He was here in art, too. Or did he get kicked out for drawing those weird pictures again? Or was he picked up for detention? Well, I can't remember, but he's here... But not here."

"I'll go get him. If he's in detention, I'll go in and tell him. The speakers don't work in that room," Keiko stood up. "I'll need a note, too." She was obviously not up for the task but she knew from experience that no one else would take it unless they were actually called out by the teacher. Besides that, she was the only one that seemed to break into the brick walls that was Yusuke Urameshi's skull. Knowing a guy since you were barely out of the womb must do that, she figured.

"Of course, Yukimura. I'll have the notes ready for you when you come back. And get that hooligan to stop causing trouble." Iwamoto handed her the note with a smile and Keiko felt a slight chill in her spine. "You are a good influence on him, if I say so myself. But you can't bring a rotten apple back to health, can you?"

Sure, if that's what you want to call it... Keiko sighed at the thought. If that were true, then he wouldn't be getting in detention, and he wouldn't have been a trouble maker at this point. But I know that's not what he's doing. And there he was, just as she thought, sitting behind the library, cigarette in his mouth.

"Yusuke Urameshi! Of course, skipping and smoking. You've got some nerve smoking in school. We're still sophomores and you're..." She paused and looked around to make sure there was no security guard to hear her. Looked like the coast was clear. She turned back to him, lowering her voice just in case. "How many times do I have to tell you to...?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." He flicked the ashes and the tip of the cigarette and grinned. "You're on time as usual, too. I should change my usual spot. Or have you apply for security. Doofuses never catch me."

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the cigarette, putting out the butt on the library wall. "Iwamoto sent me to tell you that someone's waiting for you up front. I'll just tell Iwamoto that you immediately went to go see them. Don't make me a liar."

"I won't. Sheesh."

"I don't even know why I keep covering for you like I am. You're two years away from graduating. That is, if you're even going to make an effort and TRY to pass."

"Well, that's awful cheery. How do you know that I don't like to ask if you want fries with your meal? I guess, I'll make you true to your word and go. By the way, you want fries with that order or something low fat? Your face has been looking more than a little chubby lately." Yusuke jumped to his feet, dogding her slap. He ran towards the attendance office at the front of the main building. The last thing he heard from Keiko was an agitated sigh. When Yusuke made it to the front of the school, he stopped, nearly mid-step, his cheery mood blown to bits. He knew that blue hair anywhere. "Aw, crap. What do you want, Botan?"

"Why so glum, chum?" she asked with a grin that made Yusuke want to go home and brush his teeth. "Aren't you glad to see me?"

"Keep smiling like that and I'll get diabetes. And every time I see you it's got something to do with demon stuff. As if Rando wasn't bad enough."

She shrugged, "Someone's gotta do it."

"Yeah, well, why just me then? Just cause I got jammed in between heaven and hell? There's gotta be more to it than that. I mean, do I have some kind of weird special power waiting to be discovered or something? I can't believe that I'm the only damn person around here that was caught in that position and had to be brought back to life or that I'm the only person in this whole damn country that has these powers. Look at Genkai. Make her do it, shit."

"I dunno myself. I'm just a lowly grim reaper-slash-assistant... But I came here because I have to give you this phone so we can keep in touch. I was told to keep an eye out for strange things. I noticed this strange aura in the air. I'm sure the ones at the Lovecraft Department already know about this. Gah! I just remembered that I meant to pay Reed a visit... I always forget to... I'm such a dope when it comes to those things..."

"Wait, Lovecraft...?"

"You met the Chief the other day. When I had you give her coffee. Come to think of it... The last one wouldn't function without donuts and this one can't function without coffee... Must be a pattern..."

"Yeah, but Lovecraft? Isn't that the guy who made Cthulu? Who the hell picked that name?"

Cthulu? "Um, sure... But you remember her, don't you?"

"Yeah, basically. So what did you want me to do right now? Are we going over there?"

"No. I just wanted to make sure you keep an eye out for anything suspicious that could lead into another case for you. I'll contact you when-" Yusuke started walking off campus. Botan ran after him, "Hey, where are you going?"

"I know if we don't you'll send me back to class and then Keiko's gonna do the Renee Zelwegger scrunched up face routine and say, 'Yusuke, go back to class!' And then I'll have to deal with security and... I'd rather deal with that British girl than go through all that. At least she won't nag me if I'm not in class or have crappy grades. Besides that, I think it's time you talk to your people again." Noting Botan's slightly off the wall British accent.

"She's not British, she's Canadian. And I'm pretty sure she would ask you why you're not in class. She's a cop, remember?"

"Same difference! Everybody knows that Canadians are failed British people. And if that's the case then I have a few important questions." And with that he walked away with Botan hoping from the bottom of her heart that he wasn't going to ask her about milk coming in bags. Or the bacon... Or maple syrup for that matter. Oh, or...

They arrived at the station by bus twenty minutes later and Yusuke burst right into the chief's office. (Though Botan smacked him on the back of the head for that.) Mukuro looked up at them and nodded, indicating for them to take the two seats in front of the desk.

"Oh, it's you. You were the one with the coffee. Yusuke Urameshi," she greeted them when they came in. "But... shouldn't you be in class right now?" She waved a finger at him. "Can't undermine the use of a quality education if you're the future of America, you know."

"Man, most people don't remember my name that fast," he replied, trying to change the subject. "I remember you. You're Mukuro."

"I have good memory. Of course, when you know twenty different languages, you kind of have to. But really, why aren't you in class?"

"It was a holiday."

"...You're lying."

Long silence. Yusuke scratched the back of his head. "Hey, so is it true that in Canada milk comes in bags?" Botan smacked him on the back of the head. "What? It's a genuine question."

"They do, as a matter of fact. You know how cereal comes in bags here? They sell the milk like that."

"And maple syrup? I bet that's like gold there."

"Only if oranges are in Florida. And for the record, I think Canadian bacon is better than..."

"Reed!" Botan slammed her hands on the table, toppling over a pile of papers.

"One, it's Reeve, like Christopher Reeve. Not Reed like the couple who testified against each other. Two, you need to pick those up." She stared at the book shelf absentmindedly. "Anyway, I know why you came here. We've got several people on possession or what we though was possession. They didn't react to prayers or any of the exorcist rituals. Once they continued to attempt to attack the exorcist we had to knock them out with a tranquilizer, that was all we could do at that point. It really just freezes the host's body but it helps if the victim can't be held down much longer. Well, when they were unconscious some type of demonic insect left their body. We've been clear of those for years with the Kekkai barrier up. They typically get incinerated just as they go through it. Even if those things over time did find a way in they wouldn't be able to become parasitic. And I mean parasitic in the sense that they have total control over the host's body, not in the sense that they drain the host's body over time- though when it comes down to it, it really does drain the human. Physically and psychologically, since that's the nature of the possession. Most would only think they're mosquitoes since they don't cause much harm, and those are the ones that can see them. Most humans don't have the awareness that you have, Urameshi, therefore most aren't aware of the insects flying around the city.

"I've gotten reports from the nurses and psychiatrists from various hospitals and they told me that some of their patients were sedated and once the drug wore off most of the patients showed no sign of ever being mentally ill. I have the file right here if you want to take a look at it." She uncovered a manilla folder from under the pile of toppled papers and held it out to Yusuke, who took it. He started to flip through the pages as Mukuro went on, "Their initial diagnosis for those patients were typically along the lines psychosis but now they aren't sure what to believe. There were few members of the staff who reported seeing insects leave the patients' bodies after they had been sedated. Of course, I'm sure you can guess what the rest of the staff had to say about all that. Kind of causes a vicious circle. If you're trying to find a pattern, there isn't much of one. Sure there's a lot of people in there who were dealing with financial troubles and the like, but there's also a few that don't really have that problem. Yet..."

"So somehow these bugs found a way to make people psycho. How're we supposed to deal with that?" Yusuke asked, cocking a brow. "Hate to break it to you, but I'm not a massive bug exterminator."

"To state the obvious, someone's sending them here to distract us so they can do whatever they're planning to do. So what really needs to be done is stopping whoever sent them."

"Oh that's so detailed. Write a novel about it. You'll sell more than Stephanie Meyer."

"If I went on about all the people I know that could do this or any type of demon out there that can be behind this, I'd be going on until tomorrow. You might be surprised by the amount of people on the Otherside who would want to take over this world. Personally, I'm not. But I'm who I am..."

"Wait. I think I remember something a while back. Wasn't there an agreement between the Spirit World and where in Demon World? Maze Castle I think..." Botan paused to think about it. She put the last of the papers back on the desk and her brows knitted together in thought. "I think two hundred years ago or something like that? I think they're in this area, roughly."

"I think I know what you're talking about but I don't know the details, actually. I really should but I don't. I didn't pay much attention to details back then. It wasn't until I was in the FBI that I actually did," Mukuro replied.

"That's right, I kind of remember now... They used to push us for years that they wanted to come into this world and have it as part of their domain. Of course, we objected. If we do that, all wars in Demon World will be a war here and seeing how technologically advanced they are, they could just wipe out all of human life here altogether. Maybe anything other than a cockroach. Somehow I doubt that means anything to them..." Her face blanched a bit when she realized she was speaking to a demon.

Mukuro shrugged. "Yeah. Well, that is if opening up a tunnel big enough for anyone to march right in won't kill everyone first. I've heard humans can't breathe in our air. I can't say for sure. Obviously, I never had the chance to bring a human back, nor has one really had the joy of crossing over as far as I know."

"Hey, wait, if I have to take care of stuff like this, then why are you guys here?" Yusuke broke in to the conversation.

"...You have to pay delinquents like us for something, right?" Mukuro replied. She paused as if considering whether to say more. "By the way... Have you heard of the Butterfly effect?"

"The movie? I hated it."

"Not the movie. It's part of the Chaos Theory, I'm sure you haven't heard of it. It's one of those higher forms of physics that I'm sure they don't teach you in high school. And even if they did, I'm sure you missed out on it, too." Yusuke chuckled nervously in response. "The idea is that even the small wings of a butterfly can influence the atmosphere just enough to move a tornado or hurricane just off its course possibly saving thousands of lives, or killing them depending on how you look at it. But that last bit about death aside... Isn't that just the most encouraging thing you've ever heard? Even something we take for granted and underestimate so much can do something that great."

"Okay, so what's with the movie then?"

"Kill a butterfly today and you'll affect the hurricanes and how many people could die later on. That and if you change the past, you'll change the future. That's why I never understood these Go back in time and change the past from something horrible to something better scenarios. If you go back to change it, wouldn't whatever was changed already have happened? But I guess that's why they invented odd loops and I'm my own father scenarios to go with it."

"Oh, like going back in time to stop Hitler only to take over and become Hitler?"

"I guess..."

"About the case... What about the ones infected by the insects?" Botan asked.

"Until I know who sent them, I can't say much. I've still got people patrolling the streets in the case that someone else gets infected and goes out of control. That's all I can do right now. I'll have everyone take more action if something even more serious would happen. I can't send every force just on something that isn't causing extreme damage. At the first sign of a moderate threat you'll be sent to the source, Urameshi. I know Koenma didn't put you in the position you're in for nothing and just by looking at you, I know you've got potential. I trust you won't do anything stupid."

"Gee, you sure have a lot of faith in me..." Yusuke mumbled. "And what'll you do then? Just take care of the easy part, waiting at home?"

"I might send someone to go with you, if the source looks like it'll be too much for you to handle alone. It'll be hard to call as to how to determine if you need help..."

"Meaning you'll just walk out of this office and grab the nearest people and send them?" No comment. Yusuke sighed and stared at the bookshelf just as Mukuro glanced at it again. "What, you need someone to get that organized? How it that arranged by first name or..." He made an abrupt stop and he dropped to his knees.

"Yusuke?" Botan held him up before his forehead hit the desk. "Yusuke? What's going on?"

Mukuro shook him a bit. "Hey." Yusuke groaned, indicating that he recovered. "Sorry. The air in here must be getting too tense. In any case... We've finished our business unless you want to stay here for coffee." She looked into her cup which was nearly empty. "But it's probably time you head home. Your mother would be worried if her son didn't come home right after school."

"Not much of a coffee guy actually..." he mumbled. He got back to his feet with Botan's help. "What the hell was that...? It was like someone was thumbing through my head. Like all my memories and thoughts... It's creepy. It better not be one of those bugs, I'd be pissed. I'd be off the hook, but I'd still be pissed."

"No, you would see the thing enter your body. It goes in through the host's mouth or their ears. Those with a sixth sense would see it going towards them. Like I said, it's just the air." With that, Mukuro left the room with Botan following. "What, did you want coffee too?"

"I know what you did just now. Why do you insist on just digging into people's minds like that? You know the strain it puts on the person's body when you do that? And on a human, too! You could have blown up his head!" Botan growled.

"I could have, yes. I could have. Assuming that this was a poorly thought out B rated film, I would have, but that's not how such things work, Botan," Mukuro replied. "I just wanted to research something. And it's not something I can just ask anyone either. And besides that... I just wanted to see if I can find what I'm looking for."

"And what's that?" Silence. Botan shook her head. "Just don't do it to everyone you meet. You know if you cause permanent damage, they would..."

"I know. Isn't it terrible? For me, anyway. But then again, they've been trying the find the perfect excuse to get rid of me. I guess all I am is a ticking bomb. I could be a second from detonation for all they know. But aren't we all... Just minutes from midnight... And... Minamino, what day is it?"

Kurama looked up from the file cabinet. "Um... Isn't it Friday? Why?"

"I like Wednesdays. I wish it were a Wednesday.." She smirked. "What were going on about, Botan?"

"Ugh, never mind. Just make sure you take care of this as well as you can..." Botan walked away. She's so hard to talk to. Or maybe she's just got her mind all over the place. But if she really didn't have anything to say, I wish she would just go on and say it. ...This is why dealing with demons creeps me out.

/And there was none.

Notes:
I thought I could have gotten around going into Genkai's Tournament but... And then I've come to realize it's a pain in the ass to write the next part when the guys don't really know each other. Damn it.
I miss poor Iwamoto. But he reminds me of Mr. Morooka in Persona 4... Vice versa actually. And I don't know why I used the name Dorris for the person on the intercom. I hear the name a lot. Because everyone makes fun of the poor woman. But it's an inside joke really. Same with the scrunched up face thing... Well, if you don't watch Family Guy anyway.
I met someone from Canada at Anime Expo, the creator of Vampirates! (The webcomic, mind you.) But I'm pretty sure it was her that said that milk really comes in bags. No joke. And a teacher told me about the bacon... I just wanted to have her be Canadian because you don't hear too much about Canadians in general. (You know, I was thinking about making Hiei French? How many tough guys do you see on TV that are French? Though Mukuro is a French Canadian.)
Much love, JC.