Doubt
Random Beginning Notes: More random facts- Kurama's from Tokyo, he actually came to the states when he was twelve. Hiei was born in 1950- June 21. (I think June's a great time to have a birthday. You get Christmas presents in the winter and presents in the summer. You know, if you like that.) Mukuro's born in December 21. The two birthdays were not intended to be on the same day. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Keiko are sophomores. Shura's a freshman. Santiago is really from Honduras. Kirin's Mexican. I have no idea why I made it that way. The military knows Hiei as Vladien Lvov, and he's usually called Vova, which for some reason is the short version of Vladimir. He picked that name off a poster. Most people have no idea why this matters. Spell check would change Tarukane's name to Gains Thyroxin.
Chapter 12 юкина (YU-K-I-N-A)
"Oh look, you decided to show up after your mission, Zamyatin. I guess this was a good mission for you, eh? And you did a good report for once," Mukuro said after filling her cup with more coffee. "It didn't sound like a bunch of sentences you slapped together. Actually, a bunch of words describes it better. I have to decode your stuff half the time. That or Kurama did a great job whipping you into shape... Eh, in that aspect, anyway."
"What do you mean 'in that aspect?'" Hiei growled, turning away from the bookcase, a book of Freudian principles still in his hand.
"You took longer than you were supposed to. I specifically told you three days and that should have been more than enough time for you to complete, assuming that you didn't slack off like you always do. Don't give me that look, you know that I know that you have that habit."
"One day off. That's all."
"One day is twenty-four hours, and that's three of the average shifts here. Three days was how long I... Well, you understand what I'm getting at."
"...Do you even know what an eight hour shift is like anymore?"
"Do you? With your Five Year Plan to be completed in four years? What the hell is that?"
"Stalin's an asshole to factory workers. That is all."
"Sure. I think everyone's agreed to that. Now, back to your report. I've noticed evidence of a significant time lapse. So you care to explain that, First Sarge? You better not have been playing pinball or whatever it is you do in the arcade."
"It's not pinball. It's the one where that fat pie eats the ghosts when it eats the drug laced pill and the balls and those fruits. I think that's the greatest thing that happened to this place. You don't have things like that where I come from. Give me some credit here. I finished the mission with flying colors, Kurama's sitting there perfectly fine, and there's no chance that anyone's going to be dragged to hell. It just so happens that the time lapse had to do with tracking Kurama down. I just decided that I could kill some time until he comes back."
"Hold on. While I was doing who knows what you were playing Pac Man?" Kurama asked. "Fishing for time or not, is that really the thing to be doing? Suppose I really did get taken away to hell, what would have happened then?" Hiei shrugged and started shelving books again.
"Do I have to switch your ranks? Not that is really matters here... But Kurama's gained more of a right to be a sergeant than you have and he's only been here for a few weeks," Mukuro said.
"Since when was I a sergeant?" Hiei asked.
"I guess, Santiago felt bad when I got his position so he bumped your rank to sergeant. And we see that you've shown your qualifications. Did you do this when you were in the army, too? 'Sorry, lieutenant, I would have killed that German man a couple hours earlier, but I was too busy playing around with a pinball machine.'
'Auch, comrade, but he breathed the air too long so do fifty push ups.'"
"No, I was a pretty good guy when it came to missions. The officers loved me even though I was what I was, but that's part of why I got to be a general. I hated it, though. I was one of the few staff members that went out and killed people."
"I'm sure you did. You're like the portrait of a Soviet military man."
"If I were a peasant, yeah, I would. Stalin was an alright guy as a person. I just wouldn't want to go to anymore of his parties. Because..." There was a knock at the door.
Botan rushed in with a tape in her hands, looking out of breath. "I have Yusuke's next mission on this tape. So could you have someone deliver it to him? That'd be great."
"Why can't you just give it to him and go back to... Whatever it is you were doing. You're already here anyway," Hiei replied, though looking somewhat relieved he didn't have to go through with the explanation of Stalin's parties.
"Can't do it right now. I'm in a real hurry, you see. Bye." She wiggled her fingers in a partial wave as she rushed out, a huge grin pasted on her face.
Hiei picked up that tape, eyeballing it in confusion. Even Kurama got out of his chair, just to see if Spirit World tapes were somehow different from those that already existed in the Human World. Looking at Mukuro, it seemed like it really wasn't, but it was amusing that their technology was still behind the times. Hiei's inspection looked more like genuine confusion. Then again, from what he remembered, Demon World's technology was more advanced in most respects and by now, tapes were the stuff of museum property. Hiei looked at Mukuro, still holding the tape as though it would break apart in his hands. "Hey, if I take this, would this count as redemption?"
"Yes, of course, doing a mindless task like walking a tape would automatically give you a clean slate. No, stupid, but I'll let you do it anyway so you can have some good quality time with that thing. Maybe you'll learn something about the olden days when we all had to write letters instead of calling everyone all willy-nilly with your new-fangled I-P3 players and M-pods." Just when Hiei was going to correct her, she went on, "I know what they're called. And by the way, thank you so much for reminding of that party, Zamyatin. Thanks to that, I'll never be the same."
"Oh. You're welcome." Smugly. Somewhat.
"You smart ass." Groan.
"Well... What's that writing on it? A secret code or something?" Kurama asked. He took the tape and inspected the writing. The first letter looked like an I attached to an O, after that a K, then a backwards N, an H and finally an A. "No wait. I recognize some of this... What language is it?"
"Russian. I don't read it, but I can speak it," Mukuro replied. "You got me on what that means. I'm pretty sure that backwards N is supposed to be pronounced 'ee.'"
"I got it. It says..." Hiei paused and his eyes widened. "...That's a lot of effort to write 'mission.' Must be a top secret one or something. Whether it matters or not, I'll take it. Yusuke's in school right now, right? Seaside High? Right, be back soon." He disappeared.
"Oh, but it matters to you. You're so transparent, Hiei." Mukuro dismissed Kurama. Before he left the room, she told him, "Be prepared for this to get more complicated than it needs to be."
-:-:-
"Yusuke, since you decided to be with us again..." Takanaka pointed at him with a bright smile. "You mind telling us about Patrick Henry?"
Yusuke sat up straight. Crap. This guy must have a half asleep radar on him or something. He scratched the top his his head in though, then crossed his arms and stared at the ceiling. He knew Takanaka was really eating this show up, thinking he was really rattling his brains for this one. Okay, looks like fun's over. Time to string off some random crap. "Patrick Henry? Wasn't that the guy that... Didn't he, uh...? Didn't he go hunting with some guy and accidentally..."
"That was Aaron Burr. Well, actually, he just had a duel with Alexander Hamilton. So really, it's better just to say Dick Cheney for that one. Whichever you prefer. Any takers now?" The door was kicked open. Everyone in the class turned around in their seats to see who it was. Yusuke could've sworn he heard a girl swoon and a few others gasp about how hot they thought the visitor was. Yusuke groaned when he recognized the short Russian man. (Though he would know that crazy DBZ hair anywhere.)
"Is there a Yusuke Urameshi here?" Hiei growled. "I have something for him." He waved the tape around. Everyone in the class turned around to stare at Yusuke.
"What? Hiei? What're you...?" Yusuke asked. He waved his arms around, mouthing, "Hello? Not a good time right now."
Too bad Hiei didn't understand pseudo-sign language. "There you are. I have this tape for you." He walked to him. "Well, quit staring at me. Take it."
"What? Can't this wait til after school? Read the signals here. I'm trying to be a good student for once, and then you just barge in here and tell me you have a tape for me? You trying to make me look like a delinquent and get me thrown in ALC? Don't you know that these things are against the rules?"
"What, you aren't already a delinquent?" Keiko asked sarcastically. She started eyeballing Hiei with deep suspicion.
"Yeah, I second that," Kuwabara added, jabbing Yusuke's arm with a pencil. ("Like you're any better..." Yusuke grumbled.)
"Yes, I would really appreciated it if you stop interrupting my lesson, sir," Takanaka said. "Could you please at least take this conversation outside? I'll have you know that we're extremely behind as it is."
Hiei glanced at the teacher. "What is it about? Are you talking about Dick Cheney? This is more important than him."
"No, I'm not talking about him. There are plenty of things in this discussion that could affect the lives of these students." Someone in the class giggled at the thought.
"I'll take this outside and knock some sense into him..." Yusuke got up and dragged Hiei out the door. Once he was sure the door was shut behind him and there were no security guards around, he growled, "What the hell's wrong with you? If it's about another mission, you better be quieter about it next time. I'll never hear the end of it if you do this again. Seriously, where's the fire? It can't be that important. I mean no one's dying, right?"
"Yeah, they are. They will. If you don't hurry."
He looked suspicious. But he saw Hiei was fidgeting more than he normally did, and he was starting to bite his lip. What the hell is going on here? Must be pretty bad for him to be like this. But still... Something's off even for... "Did someone put you up to this?"
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, rushing into the room and practically kicking down the door acting like it's the end of the world... It's just not you. You're usually acting like you could care less."
"No. This tape's been sitting on that desk all week. It annoys me when things just sit there and don't get done. And for all we know, the worst could be happening or it has happened. That's it."
"Yeah, but even if that were true you still wouldn't've done what you did unless you know the person or something."
"Yeah, well, I don't!" He shoved the tape into Yusuke's hands. "Hurry up and do it!"
He stared at it. What's with this writing? Korean? It looks kinda English though... Russian...? If that's not the best sign that this mission's personal for Hiei, I don't know what is.
-:-:-
"Hey... Where's Zamyatin? He's been gone for over two hours," Kirin asked as he passed Mukuro, who was making a fresh pot of coffee.
Everyone turned to the Chief who looked up and gave them all a blank look. After turning it over in her mind for a few moments, she finally answered. "...Yeah. I don't think he's coming back. He'll come back when he gets hungry or something."
"What, is he a dog?"
"Says the man who told me not to feed him or he'll get used to living with me. I'm sure you know how dog-ish he is." Kirin sighed and walked away. When it hits, it hurts, and it's not snow. Maybe I should have just had someone else do it. But then again... It really kills the fun that this could bring on. Probably makes me a bad person, but there's never a train wreck I don't want to see go down. She went back to watching the coffee pot.
The door swung open and Yusuke rushed in with the tape in his hand, looking irritated.
"Don't break the door. We have to use that to come in here," Mukuro said without turning around. Apparently, she was more interested in the coffee maker than anything else. "Why can't anyone come in like a civilized person anymore?" She looked over her shoulder at Yusuke. "You're not going to try and kick the daylights out of me, too, are you?
"Wait, what? Am I missing something here?" Yusuke shook his head. "You're pretty calm for what looks like the ultimate meltdown of hell."
"The what now?"
"Hell's freezing over so fast that it'll melt your face off, apparently. And I'm gonna need to borrow your VCR for... An hour or something. However long this thing takes." He opened up his backpack and took out a tape. "Figured you might have one. I heard demons like keeping old stuff like that."
"VCR? Do people still have those? And what kind of tape is this anyway? If it's for school, I'm pretty sure they could just give you their VCRs."
"That's what I wanna know, cause it's the farthest thing from school, I can tell you right off the bat. But Hiei practically breaks down the wall and he was all," At this point, Yusuke attempted to imitate Hiei's voice complete with an accent that sounded more Spanish than anything else, "'Hurry up and take this tape. Someone's gonna die. Cause this tape's been here for a week and it needs to get done or I'll murder your face.' Really, if it were that damn important, Botan would've ran over and bugged me about it earlier. She always does if I don't get to my missions as soon as she gives me them. Like I don't have a life." Grumble, grumble.
Mukuro finally did an about face, sighing irritably. "He lied. Not that that's any surprise, really. You know him long enough and you'll realize that he does it pretty often. The past four days he was on a mission, and when he came here today was the first time I've seen him when he wasn't on an assignment. Three days before that was when you all were working on that business with Maze Castle, or getting it sorted anyway. There's no way a tape can come in with his knowing. Botan wouldn't have been as concerned about this if it was made in Maze Castle... Eh, you do the math. You're a smart, guy, right? Yeah, I'll take that blank stare as a yes. Other than that, I do get things done. He's OCD about getting things neat and organized, and I can't sleep if I don't have something urgent taken care of. I wasn't a lieutenant for nothing."
"Yeah. Doesn't look like you would do that either. Actually, you could've handed some of this stuff over to someone else, too. But why would he say something like that? I get that he lies, but why would he do that for something like this? Unless... Hey, you know a bunch of languages, don't you? You know what this writing says, right?" He held it up.
"I can speak it but not read it. It's Russian if you can't tell." She turned to the nearest person. "Oh, Minamino, you mind going through my desk and looking for a dictionary? It's a Russian dictionary. I think it's white. But you'll know it when you see it. Top drawer on the right... And there's nothing personal in there. Just a collection of dictionaries so you won't feel guilty about it." She did a right face. "I've got to find that VCR somewhere now... And a TV. Hang tight."
As soon as she walked into the closet, Yusuke heard the sound of shattering glass, a gunshot, and a screeching sound. The hell does she have in that thing? Actually... Do I even want to know?
At that moment, Kuwabara ran in. He looked around the room before finding Yusuke, who was sitting on the table, right next to the coffee machine, tape and backpack in his lap. He walked to him. "Hey, Urameshi. I had a feeling that you'd be in here. It took me forever to find you. I was lucky Yukimura was there to tell me you left the school. You really need to give me your cell number so I can keep track of you."
"That'd be nice if I had a normal one." He took it out of the small front pocket of his backpack. They both stopped when they heard the sound of a duck quacking following yet another sound of a gunshot. Kuwabara shot him a questioning look and Yusuke shrugged. He held up the cell phone. "The one I have does the numbers of the places saved on there. So if I had to dial 911, I would be screwed if that's the only phone around. Check it out."
Mukuro came out of the closet dragging a small TV on a cart with a VCR piled on top. "Could find almost anything in that thing. You're lucky Santiago was a packrat."
"Hey, I know you. You're that girl that was always with Shorty," Kuwabara said.
"Ah, Kazuma Kuwabara. The one who was always getting possessed. I guess you've been doing good the past couple of years? No more old women chasing you with cleavers?"
"What? Well, I've met Genkai. She really helped me out so..."
"I know who she is. She's a friend of mine, coincidentally. So what brings you here this time?"
"Well, Shorty, Henry, or whatever his name was. Can't remember..."
"Hiei. Strange name, isn't it? Wonder why he ended up going with that one of all things..." Slight shrug.
"Oh... Yeah... I saw Hiei run in class like he was on a mission or something to find Yusuke."
"Are you kidding? He always does that. Act like he's on a mission, I mean. You should remember that."
"Really? Cause I don't. Anyway, so then Yusuke takes off when class ends so I thought there was an emergency or something. Really, what's going on here?"
Kurama walked over with the dictionary. He had it turned to the first few pages of it. "I'm assuming that you're wanting the alphabet."
"You read my mind." She marked the page with her thumb and continued pushing the cart to the office. The other three followed her in. Once they had everything plugged in, Mukuro finally looked at the dictionary. "So to decode this... YU-K-I-N-A. Yukina."
"Yukina? What's that supposed to mean?" Yusuke growled, even more irritated than before. "Is that some kind of fancy word for mission or emergency or something?"
"Yukina...? Isn't that the name that Hiei says in his...?" Kurama stopped when he realized he thought aloud.
"What are you saying that he...? Don't even go there."
"Yes, Yusuke, we'll publically talk about a fifty-eight year old man's personal issues. So everyone can laugh and at the thought that even while technically being eighteen he still has wet dreams just like everyone else. Times like that I really remember that I'm in a room with high schoolers." Long awkward silence. "Yeah, that's what I thought. So without further ado and further disturbing details, let's watch this before we end up with Hiei the vigilante."
"Hey... I'm not sure I wanna take part in this one. I mean, we almost died last time..." Kuwabara mumbled. He was ignored so he decided he didn't want to talk for the rest of the day. Immediately, the screen was covered with Koenma's face and everyone except Mukuro jumped in surprise. Of course, she often noted that, "Once you live as long as I have, you'll stop being fazed by things."
Kuwabara was the first to recover. In fact, he nearly died laughing despite his internal vow of silence. "Hahaha. Your boss... Is a little baby? You've gotta be kidding."
"Yeah, it sucks. He never stops complaining about it, but at least none of my missions mean I have to change the little twerp's diaper," Yusuke grumbled. "Now, shut up, I can't hear him."
"Assuming that Botan DID give you the tape like I told her to, I hope you found a good place to play this. Actually, anywhere would do since anyone passerbys would just see this as a bunch of static. Humans anyway. Demons wouldn't be interested. Or not the ones you may be thinking. Anyway, I've given you a pretty light mission all things considered. This is a rescue mission. The place- a manor owned by a notorious Black Market dealer Gonzo Tarukane." The screen showed a stocky man with big coral colored lips and saggy cheeks that looked like they were ready to scrape against his thighs. His head was even abnormally shaped, like a hill with a cartoonish bump on the center of his crown. "In the past, he was well known for selling genetically engineered animal hybrids, but now he...
"Oh god. He looks so... Ugh... He looks like a real sleaze, all right. Actually, he looks kind of like that guy that they had on Family Guy... What was it? Jake and the Fat Man? Except he looks kind of more like someone's sack," Kuwabara whispered to Yusuke.
"Please silence your cellphones," Yusuke replied simply, pushing Kuwabara away..
"In his mansion, he holds captive a girl named Yukina- that's the name written on the tape, in case you were wondering. It makes for a good effect, doesn't it? He makes money off her by creating Hiroseki stones..."
"Those are worth hundreds of thousands over on the Black Market, too..." Mukuro mumbled, mostly to herself.
"And gets these through her tears. This is actually because she belongs to a clan of demons called Ice Maidens. Extremely rare off their floating called Koorime. The details are pretty shady on how it came about. Even Soviet records have little on the subject. Ask Hiei if you feel you need closure on that if you want. All that I can tell you is that it broke off some part of what's now called Sibera, around the Bering Strait long before anyone knew what Russia was. I'm sure that someone who lived in isolation like that must be extremely distressed. I have an image of her from certain sources..."
And there she was. Mint green hair loosely tied in a ponytail by a crimson ribbon. Her eyes were just as red as her ribbon, large and rounded like cat's eyes. Her skin was the same white coloring of a doll's and looked to be completely flawless. She stared out the window, hopeless until she looked up at the source (which by that time everyone knew was a bird based on the sounds of fluttering) and smiled, noticing its presence. Her mouth moved but they couldn't hear what she was saying. Kuwabara felt his face burning. He shot up in his seat and shouted, "Pause it!"
Kurama practically pounced on the TV to do so. "What is it, Kuwabara?"
"Geez, Kuwabara, it's not like she's gonna come out of the tape and kill you like the girl from The Ring or something," Yusuke growled. "I swear, are you this annoying when you watch movies, too?"
"That... That's not it..." He turned to Yusuke, who noticed at that minute that he was almost glowing in the dark. "We need to go. Now! Quit looking at me like that. She's trapped and she's suffering. I won't let this continue."
"What's your problem? First you were saying 'Oh I don't think I wanna go' and then all of a sudden you see her and you decide you wanna go out in a hurry?"
"I... I'm in love..."
"You're... WHAT?"
"I have to go to the train station... Or bus station whichever one's fastest. I have to get a million dollars and go there right now." He practically kicked down the door and ran out. Kirin stood in the doorway and looked at the screen. Mukuro shrugged and he walked away from the door again.
"You're not going after him, are you?" Kurama asked Yusuke after a few moments of silence.
"Nah. He'll come to his house in two hours when he realizes that he doesn't even know where we're supposed to go. But I swear, this guy falls in love with every girl he meets. You know how many times he tried proposing? He's worse than the guy in How I Met Your Mother." He paused. "The nerve of that ass hat. So he did know this girl. He was lying about that, too. Shouldn't be surprised. It's his people, I guess."
"He's a master at the art. Can't blame him though..." Mukuro sighed. "What time did he come to you with that tape?"
"I dunno. It was fifth period. So it was probably... Twelve. Twelve thirty."
"We got this from Botan at ten thirty plus or minus ten minutes. He ran off with it. I'm assuming this tape's about forty minutes. We've killed roughly twenty minutes on this. So that would be... If he runs he'll get home at ten-thirty-two about. Plus the forty-five minutes is about eleven-seventeen. Plus five minutes if he wants to make it to your school, from what I'm guessing. No matter where he goes it'll be seven minutes at the most. That would be eleven-twenty. Then he had to search each building for you since I know he thinks he's too smart to just call you up front like a normal person..."
"Lunch is at eleven-thirty five. We come back at twelve."
"Short lunch. So he had to find someone that knows where you are. Assuming that they did tell him it would probably take him a while to find where you are. So..."
"You really amaze me. You're the first person that would be that willing to crunch numbers like that."
"Yeah, people tell me I should be an accountant or something involving math. Personally, I hate math but I'm cursed so no choice there. I think you should try and beat him there. He's really got no sense of direction, but that's no reason to take your time. I don't know what he would do. If he goes to far then..." She sighed again and shook her head. "And they're looking for a reason to... Ah, never mind that. So we'll be finishing this, won't we?"
-:-:-
"Great job, Kuwabra. You just wasted two hours of our time. Well, three counting in the time isn took us to get here..." Yusuke said with a smug look. He finished his can of Mountain Dew and crushed it under his shoe. "At least you got me a good drink. I'd say put on my tab but that's not necessary."
"Shut up, Urameshi. I didn't know where to go because you didn't tell me," he growled. He gulped down the last of his Pepsi, and glared at the crushed can. "And throw that away. You're contributing to global warming."
"Where's the trash can? You want me to walk fifty miles with a can in my hand? Some can collector's gonna find it someday and be grateful that you probably helped homeless one armed Joe pay for an Egg Mcmuffin. By the way, everyone knows global warming's a lie. You heard the president, and he knows what he's saying, cause he's the decider, remember?"
"You're stupid..." Grumble, grumble.
"You didn't watch the rest of the video. If you didn't just run out an did what you did then you would've known. But seriously, thanks for the soda, though. You don't know how long I've been craving one." Actually on second thought, it might've been better if he didn't know. I mean...
("There's something important you should know about this case. It concerns... I guess, you could say it's like a personal debt you owe. You see... Yukina is also Hiei's sister, and well..."
"Roswell, JFK, Moon landing, and Deep Throat. Case Closed," Mukuro replied simply.)
But I wonder why he's so bent on finding his sister. Most people wouldn't care. Okay maybe not. But he probably wouldn't... Wait, he yells her name in his sleep... Ew, what if it's like THAT? Wait, that's just stupid. The guy's too smart to do that... Or he wouldn't do that. That's the point! And...!
"Where's the freaking house-mansion-thing? I can't see anything from over here." Kuwabara whined. "Might take us til tomorrow to get over there. And I didn't even bring any food. Well, except this Snickers, but I think it's melted."
"Yeah. If we don't get lost," Yusuke replied. "If we still don't make it and we're still starving, I call eating your ribs."
"You're sick. How can you even think about... Here's something for you. We won't get lost. I know the way."
"You know the...?" A dust cloud passed by. Yusuke rubbed the dirt from his eyes vigorously, choking on the dust. "Hiei, you... You get back here. I know it's you!"
"What? Hiei? Why would he be here?" The dust had settled and Yusuke was already running down the path. "Urameshi!" He ran after him. "Get back here!"
Yusuke stopped in a middle of a path, catching his breath. He looked around for any sign or the demon. "Dammit Well, fine! Don't show up then! You better not do anything stupid then cause I'll kick your ass if you do! Douche bag." He turned to Kuwabara. "We can't waste any more time. Show me the way, then, Mr. Sensitive."
-:-:-
"Yusuke, there's something I want you to know. Kurama, you might as well know too. You're in the same boat as Zamyatin even though you're in a human body. Honestly, I don't think our superiors have our own interests at heart. If Hiei does go out and kill Tarukane, then we'll have to kill him. Spirit World orders. He's still kind of on probation. He did SOMETHING, I guess is what they're trying to tell us. That's how we're told to accept it. That's why no one really volunteers for this job. It's like signing on to be on Death Row. Except we're not on suicide watch. They'd encourage you to do that if it comes to that actually..."
"But that guy's a complete... You know..." He didn't feel like going all out and saying it in front of Mukuro or Kurama plainly, disregarding any other comments he made.
"It's not all black and white like that. Demons are more like guests to this world. Unwanted guests, I guess is a better way of putting it. So if we cause the slightest damage, we're in for it," Kurama replied, a nod to the chief. "I've talked with some of those people, and I've found that's how it is. You could have tried to kill someone like... Hitler, I guess or someone that horrible and you would still be punished for it. Severely. We do the punishment here mostly. They want us dead but they don't want to get their hands dirty."
"Just the thought of it..." She clenched her teeth and wrung her hands. The other two saw an image flash before their eyes of someone lying on the floor and a pool of blood around him. They knew that... "Sorry. Tend to do that." She sighed again.
"How annoying." Yusuke muttered under his breath.
"What is?"
"Well, you're worrying about him and doing all this stuff to watch out for him, but he's always talking about how he doesn't like you."
"Oh. Right. It's not like I'm in love with him or anything like that. I'm not. It's more like I'm looking out for my own. It's a bit more personal because we were partners. And the other thing is that it puts me in a bad position. If I can't manage my ex-partner correctly, then that just tells them my leadership is no good either. Well, we live together, too, for god's sake, and they know that, too. So all the more reason to..."
-:-:-
Dammit. This whole thing's getting more and more complicated. I swear to god if Hiei does go out and do it...
-:-:-
Don't worry anymore, sister. I'm coming. And the nightmare will be over...
/And there was none.
Notes:
Yusuke, why are you making a bigger hole in the ozone layer? Al Gore and his material wasting house would be ashamed. You're the... You're what Teddy Roosevelt hated! (No, not really. But I doubt anyone has any idea what I'm talking about...)
The Five Year Plan was really supposed to be completed in four years. By the way, it really was reported that Stalin's parties tended to turn into drunken orgies. I shit you not. ALC is supposed to stand for Accelerated Learning Center or something like that. Which doesn't make sense because you're locked in a room all day when you should be in class all because you didn't go to go to detention... That's how it was when I was in high school, anyway. Don't know what everyone else does. And we do know who Deep Throat is. Guess Mukuro doesn't read the news... Right, W. Mark Phelms?
Much love, JC.