Doubt
Random beginning notes: Goddammit. Just when I thought that I would have more time to work on this one, I start a bunch more stories. Meh. Scenes from a Hat's almost done and I have a couple chapters left to post for Hands of the Axis (There's not much else left. Just a couple of chapters.)
(And AM stands for ante meridiem and PM stands for post meridiem. Meridiem being noon. Yo tengo bing.)
Chapter 19: Up and at 'Em
"So it looks like the California budget crisis has effected us all and we need to take a pay cut here," Mukuro announced to everyone as she got coffee. She turned around and noticed half the people in the room gave her a look like she was crazy. She cocked a brow and went on, "What? Quit looking at me. I didn't decide that. They did. Schwarzenegger doesn't even know we exist anyway. The president decides all this… Somehow. But you all have to understand we must take one for the team and give up our money to a group that we have no affiliation with whatsoever for the good of the state that doesn't have any connection to our operations whatsoever."
"Who was that again?" Hiei asked. "And I mean the president, not all the bullshi-"
"Hiei, you don't even want to be paid in money, what do you care?"
"I like to know whose shoes I'm supposed to be licking."
She honestly hoped he didn't have the same philosophy about serving Stalin. "It's Youda… I don't know his last name."
"Isn't that that guy who thinks he's better than everyone just because he's… He thinks he's better than everyone? And wasn't that the guy you cussed out that one time?"
She gave him a blank look. "Uh… He's probably that guy, but I've never cussed a person out in my life."
"Everyone does it. You know you've done it. Or maybe just not in English." Hint, hint.
"Hiei, I'm not like you and drop an F bomb every three words just because I can." Awkward silence. She turned around and went back to her business. Then the front door opened and in walked Shura, clipboard in hand. Everyone waited for Yomi to walk in but there was no one. "…Where's your father?"
"Who cares about my stupid dad? What's with all these canceled appointments for next week? There's something going on that you're not telling me. You guys need this treatment," Shura growled. He pointed at Mukuro. She gave him a blank look and shrugged. She knew damn well what was going on.
"Big guy!" Shura pointed at Kirin. "What's the meaning of this?"
"Kid, you know my name. You should use it," Kirin replied.
"Russian guy!" He pointed at Hiei.
"…I'm not Russian, I'm…" Hiei was cut off.
"Who cares? Tell me what's going on."
"Hell if I know." Actually, he didn't want to explain shit.
"…This is going to go on endlessly," Mukuro said with a sigh. "I'm surprised you didn't hear about this, but the Dark Tournament's going on next week and most of us are going there. Of course, I suppose studying until you vomit blood might keep you from finding this stuff out. By the way, shouldn't you be in school right now?"
"Tournament? Fine. It's your funeral and tell me that you guys don't have to pay after this Tournament's over." Shura flung the clipboard at her and walked out, grumbling to himself in Japanese.
"Well, that's theatrical." She sighed and went about her business, still awaiting another interruption.
"You know the Toguro Brothers came out of hiding? They're coming to the Tournament. That's like a once in a lifetime opportunity right there. Finally getting all human washed is worth it."
"And there's this human team. That kid that keeps coming in is supposed to be on that team. Yusuke Urameshi, I think it is. I got it pulled up…"
Kirin sighed as he walked to Mukuro. "So I'm guessing we'll have an earful out of Yomi later. What do you want me to tell him while you're out?"
"If you could convince him we all got taken away by the Rapture and that you and him are one of the people left behind, I would be forever in your debt," she said with a half smile. "His dumb self should be aware of the Tournament anyway. Everybody knows about it at this point. Well, the three of us should be well aware of it. It has the other world involved."
"Well, I'm glad that you're not involved."
Mukuro gave him a hard look. "Kirin, really? You don't need to worry about me. I'm not that weak. That whole thing would be a cake walk even right now. I really swear you must have some ulterior motive."
"You always say that. There's nothing I want from you. It's just that I'm your assistant and I'm worried about your well-being. If you die, then what'll I do?"
"Live." She said it like it was the dummy answer to a crossword puzzle question.
"After all this time? Really, Mukuro?"
"Kirin, you're really over-thinking this and taking this whole situation too far. Unless it involves silver, then I'm not going to die so easily. But if you're digging so I can give you the straight answer, just tell him that people were going to the Tournament and that he should buy himself a computer to tell him these things…" She paused and smacked herself on the forehead when she realized the number of complications from that. "And if he begs to have a word with me, tell him he can just call me on my cell, though he should be aware that I'm at the meeting as well. I really feel like I'm undermining your intelligence by outlining this out for you."
"Not really… Though he should be aware of all this. I really hope he just didn't tell his son about the…" He paused when he noticed Hiei was standing there, staring at them. "You know it's rude to stare, Zamyatin?"
Hiei was about to answer him when Yusuke practically kicked down the door and ran to Kurama, twisting around to find Hiei. A few moments after, Kuwabara discreetly walked in and closed the door like it was about to shatter on him. Hiei sighed and walked to the other three.
"Hey, you guys, I just found this out. Remember how that paper said that we were supposed to show up at the hotel at ten?" Yusuke asked. Only Kurama and Kuwabara nodded, only because they felt that there was some obligation for them to do so. "You know that they meant ten PM? At night! So this means we're fighting in the middle of the night!"
"Wait, what's PM stand for and what's the difference between day ten, night ten, and twenty two hours?" Hiei asked.
"I just said it's at night, genius."
"Why can't it be twenty-two hours like it is in the rest of the world?"
"It's ten in America, there. Shut up." Actually, that didn't make much more sense to Hiei either, but he decided he wasn't going to bother anymore. "But why would they have this at night?"
"Well, I guess it's so humans won't find out about it. Most people don't go out at those hours really…" Kurama said with a shrug. "I don't really know, either."
"How're we getting there?"
"I'll drive. Or Hiei."
"He can see the road?" ("I'm standing right here…" Hiei grumbled.)
"Yes. It takes us a couple of hours to get to San Francisco from here, right? I google mapped it and it looks like it's just off the coast of San Francisco. We should just leave by six just so we can be early. It's better to be more early."
The door opened again and in walked Yukina, who rushed straight for the bulletin board. She scanned the board and found just what she was looking for. She turned around. "Vova, could I borrow some paper? And a pen…?"
He reached into his pocket and took out a notepad. "You can read that okay? I can translate it for you if you want."
"I have trouble reading at first. I wasn't really taught to read English but… If it's not too much trouble…"
He shrugged and went to do so. He was vaguely aware of Kuwabara glaring knives into him, but it was mostly likely due to Yukina's beaming at him. He was also uncomfortably aware that the conversation had stopped just for them. For some reason, it just didn't sit right with him. He sighed as he handed the piece of paper to her. "You won't lose it, will you?" She shook her head. "Are you really interested in this or are you getting this for someone?"
Apparently she refused to answer that question. "Who taught you English?"
Hiei pointed to Mukuro.
"Mrs. Zamaytin?"
"I'm not his wife," Mukuro said flatly. Kirin cringed a little at the thought. Mukuro turned to him and gave him a look that clearly said, Case in point. (And Kirin replied with a look, We'll flesh this issue out later.)
"Oh… I kind of need help with my English. It's really bad. Could you…?" Yukina paused.
"I'm here most days… Unless I have another mission which would mean that you won't see me at all..." He paused when he realized none of what he just said made any sense. "I don't know how I can teach you. Mukuro just handed me a bunch of flashcards and made me walk out to figure it out…" It's also to be noted that most of his English he learned from watching Hannah Barbera cartoons. "And it's just because it was more convenient that way. Your English isn't that bad really. But if you must have help…" He sighed and looked over his shoulder at Kuwabara. "Ask him. He volunteered for the job."
"Oh. Okay. Thank you, Vova." She kissed him on the cheek. As soon as her back was turned, he swiped his cheek off.
"Wait." She turned around. "Really. What are you doing getting this information for? You're not really thinking of going to the tournament, are you? It's not something you'd enjoy?"
"I'm looking for my brother. I'm thinking that if I go to something like this, I might find him… Because… They said that my brother had a lot of energy on him or something like that. Firey energy. I think he would want to be involved in something like this."
"Who's they?"
"…I have to go to work."
"Wait. One more thing… What would you do when you do find him?"
"Well, I have something for him and then… I guess we'll just catch up on what we missed." She looked at the clock. "I really should be going. I'll be late if I stay any longer."
"You do that."
"Why are you so nice to Yukina but when you're with us you're a jerk?" Kuwabara asked.
"I just made an appointment between you guys, what more could you ask for?" Hiei asked.
"So… On a less awkward note… Can we just meet here and then take off?" Kurama asked. There was more silence. "I'm taking that as a yes. Just don't kill each other before we get there."
-.-.-
Keiko burst into Mukuro's office the day before the Dark Tournament's beginning with Botan, who was pleading with her to stop, and Shizuru following her, the most calm out of the three. Mukuro stared at her, and then looked down at Keiko's fists when she slammed them on the desk.
"So I'm guessing this is about Yusuke?" Mukuro asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Yusuke hasn't been home in a while. I talked to his mom, but she says she hasn't seen him in a while. It's like every time school's over he runs out and goes off somewhere. I would ask Kuwabara, but he's doing the same thing. And I asked Shizuru, and she said something like what Yusuke's mom was saying. When I asked Botan, she said something about a Dark Tournament and something about him training with Genkai," Keiko said.
"Well, I can tell you that at the moment, they aren't doing anything dangerous. Genkai is training Yusuke. I'm not sure if you know who she is. It doesn't sound like you do, do you? Somewhat, okay. As for your brother, Shizuru, he's doing something similar but with two people that work here. You'll know one of them, I'm sure. Now as for what they're training for… Botan should be telling you that."
"Well, she says that she can't tell me. So I thought you might know."
"I thought it was required that assistants inform both their superior and anyone that might get involved in a conflict. I don't mean that you're intentionally handing out classified information, just information that would help the other party survive… possibly."
"Well, yeah, but I wasn't supposed to tell her at all!" Botan replied, her face turning an absurd shade of magenta.
"Well, if it's classified, then you should have known to keep your mouth shut or lied if withholding information is really in their best interest. I'm really not going to speak for you if you screwed up that bad. If I can withhold information at gunpoint, then you can do it under pressure," Mukuro replied. "I suppose I'm going to be held accountable now…" She sighed and walked out of the room, tore the paper from the bulletin board, and walked back into the office. "Since you two aren't regulars around here, you would have no way to even draw the connection right away. You can keep this paper. Everyone knows what's on it by now, possibly word for word at this point. I'm assuming that you're also intending to go to this thing now that you know Yusuke and Kuwabara's involved. If you do, I want you two to be careful. Yusuke would slaughter half the people here if he found out you died in the crowd out there. I would keep an eye on you, but there's a meeting that I can't miss without a good excuse- if I died, or something like that."
"Y-you're going to tell them everything, aren't you?" Botan was on the verge of tears.
"If it's really that bad, then Koenma can call me out and take it up with me. What's done is done for both of us anyway."
"What is the Dark Tournament?" Keiko asked once she thought that this whole thing was cleared up.
Botan glanced at Mukuro and sighed. Mukuro took up the job anyway. "Apparently humans find this kind of disturbing, maybe I'm just not feeling enough to how it could be so but… This is some Tournament in which teams would compete against each other in fights, usually until the death and they can use anything they can to make sure that the other is defeated slash killed. It's supposed to be a good way for demons to vent out any frustrations with being a law-abiding citizen and not attacking humans. That's what Spirit World says." She went on before Botan could object. "Recently, or so they say, I'm suspecting it's always been this way, the black market in this world has been involved by placing bets on the teams involved. Sometimes humans get involved because they get too deep in demon's business, which is the case for Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara. Should they win, the committee grants them some wish… as long as the committee can fulfill it. Power, to a certain extent, money, et cetera, et cetera."
"Yusuke can't back out can he? I have trouble believing he just agreed to something like this."
"The way I was told this, he would be killed if he turned the invitation down."
"Oh god…" Keiko looked down at the paper. "I don't care. I'm still going, even if it kills me."
"…Please don't. Get killed, I mean." There was a long awkward silence. Then Keiko and Shizuru (after a moment's thought of Oh, what the hell.) shared a laugh, which Botan awkwardly joined in to ease the tension. "…I mean it."
-:-:-
The five gathered in front of the station. Kurama looked at the others, taking a silent roll call. He nodded to himself and he gestured for everyone to get into the car.
"Hey, Yusuke, I gotta question…" Kuwabara whispered as he slid next to him, sandwiched between Yusuke and a smaller person with their face covered with a mask. "Who is this person?"
"Genkai picked this person out. I dunno and I don't give a crap cause right now I'm ti-" He paused and yawned. "-red. Wake me up when we get there."
And that's all...?
Notes:
1. For people who don't watch the History Channel, the rapture is part of the end of the world in which the righteous are taken away to heaven while the wicked are left behind. Or something like that. Also, it's for eternity, so you're kind of screwed. Kind of like the Left Behind series. Like you're stuck reading that for eternity...
2. Vova is a diminutive of the name Vladimir. Which is basically Hiei's name.