Chapter 12 - Investigation Gone Awry
Music recommendation: Polysics - I Me My Mine
*-*-*-*-*-*
"So we know none of the girls have seen her, but from them we have established that she must have gone missing some time last night," Kurama reasoned as they stood in the elevator. "We should try asking some of the lobby attendants if they saw her." At the front desk they approached a demon with a mostly human-like appearance. "Excuse me, we're looking for a young girl. She has blue hair, and may have been here in the lobby some time last night. Have you seen her, or do you know if she ever went back to her room?" The attendant thought for a moment.
"Blue hair, huh," he tapped a single index finger on his chin, "oh! You mean that drunk girl I saw with you the other night?" Kurama was taken aback, and Kuwabara suddenly took up an offensive pose.
"D-drunk!?!?"
"Yeah," the attendant addressed Kuwabara politely, "she could barely even stand on her own two feet." He turned back to Kurama slyly, leaning one elbow on the reception desk, "didn't you two head outside?" Kuwabara's head almost exploded, but Kurama waved his hands in front of him laughing nervously.
"It's not what you think," a single sweat drop accumulated on Kurama's temple. "So did you see her?"
"Don't try to play this off! What does he mean, drunk?" Kuwabara held his fist close to Kurama's head as he was so conspicuously ignored.
"Well I did see her about mid evening. She had been hanging around the lobby most of the day, but about mid evening, she went outside. Come to think of it, I don't think I did see her come back in."
"Hm, did she talk to anyone, or did anyone go out with her?"
"Hey! Don't ignore me, I'm talking!" Kuwabara shouted in the background of this conversation.
"Let's see," the attendant said stopping to think, "a young man with a pacifier approached her a little earlier in the evening," he said thoughtfully.
"That must have been Koenma," Kurama said casually to Kuwabara, who was still fired up at the prospect of Kurama taking an intoxicated Botan out somewhere.
"Oh, and there was a man who went out not that far behind her, but I couldn't tell if he was following her or anything like that."
"What did he look like?" Kurama asked, sensing a lead in their case.
"He was really short, dressed in all black. I'm pretty sure I've seen him here before with your group, so I thought nothing of him." This put a stop to Kuwabara's angry ranting.
"Hiei! That bastard! He DID do something to Miss Botan!" This of course drew unwanted attention from all of the other guests in the lobby.
"Kuwabara," Kurama said turning to him in a calm voice, "next time you want to yell something like that... don't." The fox demon sighed. Kuwabara's face turned blue when he clamped down on his mouth, noticing the other people starting at him like a guy in a crocodile pit with a loaf of bologna tied around his neck. "Perhaps we should check around for more clues."
"Are you kidding me? You heard him, Hiei followed Botan out last night! That must have been her unmentionables Hiei had." Kuwabara slammed his fist on the reception desk, creating an extra dramatic affect. "I won't forgive him if he soiled her honor!" Before Kuwabara could finish his chivalrous declarations, he was being pulled away by his ear.
*-*-*-*-*-*
After a short walk outside and one ear reattachment for Kuwabara, Kurama released him to take a good look around. It was still raining heavily and people had been walking in and out of the hotel, so following footprints would have been nearly impossible. Just then the fox demon's eyes stopped on the door attendants standing under the shelter of the front entrance. He approached the least angry looking one, "excuse me, have you been on shift all morning?" The attendant looked at him strangely, unsure as to why someone would randomly ask him such a thing.
"Yes, I've been on shift since late last night," he replied eyeing Kurama mischievously. The attendant's expression began to give Kurama the creeps, and he suddenly began to think that perhaps he would have been better off asking the meaner looking one. Even Kuwabara stared blankly at the attendant, sensing a strange vibe from him.
"Did you see a young girl with blue hair leave here yesterday evening?" Almost instantly the attendant replied.
"Yes, I did," he hissed, suddenly dawning a creepy grin. Kuwabara stiffened as a cold chill ran up his spine at the attendant's strange manner. Perhaps Hiei wasn't the only one to consider in the abduction of Miss Botan. "She went into the forest, and she didn't come back out," he said in a way that would have best suited a flashlight being shown on his face from below for extra eerie shadowing, "I figured the little fella that followed her had something to do with it." The attendant's gruff voice combined with the lip licking grin nearly drove both boys away.
"Little fella?" Kuwabara asked with much hesitation in his voice, yet still on a quest for Hiei's head. The demon gestured toward the forest,
"You just missed him," they each looked at each other momentarily before rushing off towards the woods.
"That HAS to be Hiei!" Kuwabara proclaimed as they ran trying to pick up the trail. Kurama maintained his composure,
"It certainly does seem that way. But what would he be doing going back in this direction?" No sooner did he begin to consider this that he grabbed Kuwabara's shoulder and pulled him behind a nearby tree. When Kuwabara looked at him as if to question what he was doing, Kurama pointed to a clearing no more than twenty feet away. There stood Hiei, holding what looked like a cut rope. He was examining the area as if looking for something. Clearly someone had been held there, probably against their will, and it would seem as if Hiei knew about it considering how quickly he had found this spot and the fact that he was bothering to examine it. But if Hiei was responsible, why return to the scene? And what was he looking for? Before Kurama had time to thoroughly think this over, he looked over to see a big empty spot where Kuwabara was supposed to be hiding.
"There you are you vile creep!" It seemed evident to Kurama that Kuwabara had decided to take the way of direct confrontation. "What did you do with Miss Botan?" He yelled pointing very rudely at Hiei as Kurama rushed over.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Hiei said turning his nose. In attempts to force a confession, Kurama decided to back Kuwabara's accusations.
"I think what Kuwabara means is everyone we talked to at the hotel saw you follow Botan yesterday, and now you're here looking around at," he paused to crouch and pick up a discarded girl's hair scrunchie from the mud, "the scene of a kidnapping, perhaps?" Kurama eyed the hair tie as he held it in the air, trying to be as discreet as possible in the way he addressed this issue. He was hoping to all things holy that Kuwabara wouldn't mention the panties. Hiei looked to the ground for a second, thinking carefully about how to handle the situation. Kuwabara opened his mouth to speak, but found himself getting a dose of Kurama-smack flavored lip balm.
"Not that it's any of your business," Hiei said seemingly addressing the tree he stood by, "but I... I was just looking... I though I'd try to find," he mumbled as he tried to avoid saying this incredibly terrible thing aloud. "I'm looking for the girl. She is associated with this team, and who knows what these other creatures around here might do to someone like her. "There was something strange about the way he said this, but Kurama had a difficult time placing his finger on it since Hiei had his face almost completely turned away. Whhat Kurama did have his fingers on, he suddenly realized, were Kuwabara's slobbery teeth as they had become exposed when he formed a big stupid grin. Kurama quickly snatched his hand away, staring at the spitty thing with twitching eye.
"So you WERE worried about Miss Botan, and you came out to look for her?" Kuwabara couldn't have possibly said this in a more ridiculous tone. "That whole story form the hotel staff must have just been a coincidence," he smacked Kurama on the back reassuringly. Kurama just looked back at him with a peculiar expression. "Ya know Hiei, for such a big jerk, you sure are a sensitive guy." Hiei shot Kuwabara a lazer-death stare while he chuckled to himself in a fit of relief.
"Aren't you a bit easily convinced?" Yet at the same time, Kurama didn't want to remind Kuwabara of the suspicious item they had found the day before. He figured it best to play along with Hiei's story for now in order to uncover the truth.
*-*-*-*-*-*
Sorry for the overly-drawn-out update you guys, I've been busy with a lot of things the last couple of months ^^;;; Now that I've gotten over a bit of a rough patch in the story line, I hope to make regular updates once more. Thanks to everyone for hanging in there and continuing to read 3