Southern Fried chapter 9

Sorry again this one is late. It's been a rough week!

Thanks so much to all of my reviewers!

Mickey-Jo slumped back on the edge of the porch with a sigh. Tears of frustration threatened to spill over. She had went in there, apologized to a damn demon, and nothing. She really did feel guilty for trying to hurt that girl-demon after her talk with Keiko. But that just goes to show you, when you bear your heart to a demon, prepare to have it eaten.

Kurama was right too. She wasn't strong enough to take on the demon by herself. She needed the boys and their raw power. The only way to do that was to play nice with all of their friends and to swallow her pride. She could track their foe, but she had the feeling they would have to be the ones to take him down.

The door slid open again behind her and the carrot-top Kuwabara stood there. He looked uneasy. He rubbed the top of his head and blew out a breath. "Listen, Mickey-Jo, uh... thanks for apologizing. Yukina would have come out here, but I wanted to come and say it."

She relaxed a bit and grinned. "You in love with her, sugar?"

Kuwabara ginned. "Yea, we're perfect together." He reached out a hand. "How about you come back inside, Koenma will be here and we'll put all our info together."

Mickey-Jo took the offered hand and pulled up. "Thank ya, sugar. I was almost afeared that I had put m'heart on m'sleeve just to have it eaten."

The carrot-top gave her a strange look. "Are all of your expressions so wierd?"

The cowgirl chuckled. "That ain't even the weirdest, hon."

"I'm not sure I wanna know."

She shot him a mischevious grin and stepped over the threshold. A new, higher, definitely whinier voice, was coming from the room the others were in. Curious, Mickey-Jo led the way and slid open the door. The room went silent. Mickey-Jo stared at the toddler in a blue and pink getup.

"Who the hell are you?" Mickey-Jo asked.

Koenma's expression brightened. "You must be Mickey-Jo! I'm excited to finally meet you!"

Kuwabara leaned down and whispered in her ear. "That's Koenma, ruler of Spirit World."

Mickey-Jo looked confused. "What in tarnation is 'Spirit World'?"

Koenma motion for her to sit down. "We'll get to all that in a second, missy. Just sit down and we'll get this underway."

Kuwabara sat down in his spot next to Yukina. Koenma was in the spot Mickey-Jo had beside Keiko and Yusuke. The only available spot was between Hiei and Kurama. Hiei looked up to see what was causing the holdup and rolled his eyes. "Just keep your grimy hands to yourself, human," he said harshly.

Mickey-Jo sat down.

Koenma cleared his throat. "Alright, now it seems we all know this demon we're after. Mickey-Jo, what do you know about him?"

"I know he's done stole the soul o' my boy Jack," she replied.

"Anything else?"

"Nah, that's the only reason I'm huntin' him. We crossed paths 'n he took somethin' that was mine."

"So you don't know his end game?"

"Didn't figure he had one. Figured he was just some sick demon."

The prince of Spirit World leaned forward. "He is using the souls he steals to power a machine that could destroy the earth."

Mickey-Jo's mouth gaped open. "Ah hell, now that's just crazy talk! They's souls! Souls cain't do physical damage."

"Actually, Mickey-Jo, the way this machine converts them, they can." Kurama interjected. "Think of it this way, you can power your maps with your Spirit Energy-"

"Spirit what?" She asked.

"Spirit Energy." Yusuke said, leaning forward. He held up his index finger and manifested his energy around it. "The power I use to shoot a blast from my finger. What did you think it was?"

Mickey-Jo scratched her nose and leaned back. "Well, back home in the states they calls it magic. There's all types. The Indian tribes on the reservations have their spirit workin's, there's the voodoo and hoodoo down in Loosiana (AN:Louisiana), witchcraft they practice in the New England area, and some Christian folk call it the power of God."

"Either way," Kurama continued, "It is the physical minifestation of the power of your spirit. Your body has the capabilities of channeling the power of your spirit into physical form, which can be used for many different things. That's what this machine does. It converts the energy from the soul into a physical thing." He lowered his voice. "And this machine uses the most tortured and unhappy souls to make its power even greater."

The cowgirl bit her lip and furrowed her brow. "But... but why would he take Jack? Jack was just a lil' tyke. Barely older n' two year old! He was happy n'smilin' n'laughin' all the time. He weren't tortured or nothin'!"

"That's what puzzles me," Koenma said, sighing. "The souls of children are new and weak, and wouldn't give much power to the machine."

"He done got plenty of unhappy souls in that drug house I found him at." Mickey-Jo snorted.

Kurama turned to her, a sympathetic look on his face. "Was it bad inside?"

She look she gave him was loaded. "Them people was in hell, straight up hell. You don' get into drugs bein' a happy, contented person. They always searchin' for somethin' get 'em to that happy place. Once they get hooked, nothin' else matters but the next fix."

Koenma cleared his throat. "Back to the matter at hand... Mickey-Jo, how exactly did Jack's soul get stolen? Do you have his body somewhere safe for it to return when you get him back?"

The girl's face hardened considerably. "He don't have a body."

Hiei spoke up then, angered. "You knew his soul was stolen but you buried him anyway?"

She glared at him. "He was dead a'fore the rattlesnake took his damn soul!"

Silence. Every eye was on her.

Keiko spoke up. "What happened?"

Mickey-Jo sighed and rubbed her face. She chewed on her lip for a few seconds before opening her mouth and closing it again with another sigh. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"My momma took me and Jack out Christmas shoppin'. We had taken her car, so when we got back I hadn't planned on going nowhere's so I had just set has carseat in the backseat o'my truck. A few hours later I realized I didn't have everything for supper, so we got in the car and were drivin' into town to get what I needed." She paused, haunted. "I had forgotten to strap in the seat, figured I would'a 'membered next time we got in the truck. It was cold outside and snowin' when momma dropped us off. A random blast o'winter that my neck o' the woods hardly ever gets. Jack was whiney and irritable from bein' shoppin' and such. I was just ready to get inside and warm up.

"Anyway, drivin' down the road into town, I live 'bout 10 miles out, some guy comes blarin' 'round this blind curve, in my lane. He was goin' too fast, and the road's was slick from the snow. Some had melted already, and then refroze when more snow fell on it, so the roads had gotten really bad.

"Anyway, he tries to stop, I try to stop, but the road, it was havin' none of that. I was saved by my seatbelt, but... but.. carseats only work when they're strapped in. Jack was thrown 'round the cab of the truck when we rolled off into the ditch. That carseat was heavy, top of line, his lil' body didn't stand a chance."

Her voice was choked. "For a while there I went certifiably insane. Then I started noticin' little things. I had taken everythin' that was his and put it up in his room, like he was still there. I couldn't stand to toss it out. One day I notice the door was open a crack. I go in and... and his toys.. they was out and set up like he had just been in there playin'. Then 'nother mornin' I wake up and the other side o' my bed is turned down like a lil' person had been there, complete with a lil' depression in the pillow where he would lay his head. Sometimes I would open up his room and his bouncey balls would be rollin' across the floor. He was there. His spirit was there."

Koenma nodded, "It's not unheard of for children to 'come back' so to speak, especially if their death was as sudden as his was."

She swallowed and nodded. "We went on like that for a while. I would talk to him and sometime I would hear lil' footsteps, or him gigglin' like he did so much. Sometimes, a'fore I fell asleep at night I would even feel him crawlin' into bed like he used to. Anyway, after a while, that was when -he- showed up."

"He being the demon?" Yusuke asked.

She nodded. "Mmhmm. He came up to the house one day claimin' to be a medium, talkin' to spirit's of the dead and such. He said with his mirror, he could let me see Jack, talk to him, like he was there with me." She gave a disgusted snort. "I did see Jack alright, after he appeared in the mirror it seemed like he recognized me. He couldn't talk very good no ways, but it was like he was alive again. After I got to talkin' to Jack for a minute, the guy.. changed. He was no longer this kind, handsome psychic who was doin' a good thing for a grievin' mother. He was a monster. He told me Jack was his, gloated over it. Then attacked me. I managed to get into the kitchen and grab my cleaver, cut his finger off. He ran off then."

She took a deep breath and drew her knees up to her chest. "I been trackin' him ever since."

"Well.." Koenma said, "How long have you been tracking him?"

"Prolly 'round two year now," she mumbled.

He looked her straight in the eye. "Your help on this mission to find this demon and stop him would be a great asset. If you've managed to stay this close on his trail for two years, your powers shouldn't be underestimated."

Hiei snorted. "Or she's just that bad. We found him and had him in a fraction of the time."

Mickey-Jo glared at him. "Alright mister High-and-Mighty Demon Spit, where's he at now?"

He rolled his eyes. "I'm sure I could find him without any trouble."

She leaned a little closer, eyes flashing. "Find him? Or join him? Demons stick together don't they? Ain't you like cousins or somethin'?"

Yusuke make an exasperated noise. "Mickey-Jo, leave off! This is the last time I'm gonna tell you!"

She shrugged and resumed her former position. She looked at Koenma. "I'll do whatever it takes to get this summabitch."

Koenma nodded. "Good, well lets get started then."

Mickey-Jo got her maps and laid them out on the table. She brought out the little jar with the finger and upended it on the world map. There was a collective grimace at the red, shriveled demon finger laying on the table.

Kuwabara shuddered. "I still don't get how you can just carry fingers around."

She looked up at him. "A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do."

Kurama studied her as she gripped the edges of the maps in her hands and channeled her energy down into it. The paper glowed a slight purple and the finger started shaking.

"How did you learn how to do this?" He asked softly.

She blew out a breath. "A few days after the damn demon stole Jack's soul, an old cowboy rode up and said he was trackin' a demon that had stolen his wife's. These maps are his. We didn't last long together, he were old and frail, but he taught me just about everythin' I know. He was one of those who thought his powers were the power of God. He passed on the rope to me too. And that rope had been used by many cowboys a'fore him. Each cowboy put their heart and soul into this rope, and it just keeps gettin' stronger. "

"What do you think about your powers?" Kurama asked.

She shrugged. "I think it's just necessity."

Before the fox could ask her to explain, the finger stopped shaking and darted over to Japan and rested there. Mickey-Jo brought out a map of Japan and narrowed their search down even more. However, when she brought out the regional map, the finger just kept spinning and spinnin.

"Aw hell. I'mma have to get 'nother map. The squirrely snake is somewhere in Japan, but he ain't in this region." She rubbed her forehead. "This is gettin' more and more complicated."

Yusuke snorted. "If it was easy, I would be bored."

Mickey-Jo gave him an incredulous look. "Are you serious, boy? Ya think this is fun? People's is gettin' their souls stolen, 'parrently the one behind it is crazy 'nough to blow up the damn world, and if it weren't happenin' you would be bored?!"

Keiko rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "Don't mind Yusuke, Mickey-Jo, he acts flippant but he does take this very seriously."

Mickey-Jo gave the Spirit Detective a hard look and he just grinned. She shook her head. "Damn kids." she muttered. Raising her voice she asked, "How old are y'all anyways?"

"Me and Yusuke are sixteen." Kuwabara answered.

The cowgirl froze. "Sixteen? What the hell?!" She whirled on Koenma. "What the hell are you doin' puttin' damn KIDS up riskin' their lives and such?!"
She immediately turned to Kurama. "And you? How old are you?"

He smiled softly. "This body is sixteen years old, but I assure you, I'm over a century old."

A look of confusion crossed her face before the lightbulb clicked. "Oh yea, miss Keiko told me about that. You're off the hook." She turned back to Koenma. "Answer my question, sugar! How the hell do you sleep at night makin' kids face death over and over 'gain?"

Koenma gazed at her impassively. "I'm sure if you've heard their many accomplishments, you would change your mind. Yusuke and Kuwabara have faced trial after trial and have come out on top. They are the strongest humans on the world."

Mickey-Jo shook her head violently. "That still don't make up for the fact these sixteen year olds should be goin' to school, and socializin' and bein' sixteen!"

"Well how old are you, Mickey-Jo?" Yusuke asked sarcastically.

"I turned twenty-five this year." She nodded her head.

Yusuke did a double take. "Really? You're twenty-five? Pfft. You're not that much older than us."

"I'm still technically an adult, and you ain't boy."

Koenma rapped his little fist on the table. "Back to the maps please! We still have to find this demon BEFORE HE DESTROYS THE WORLD!"

Hope you like it! Sorry it's moving kind of slow...

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