A Lesson in Perception

Machiko

We confronted the other human in this room, who'd evidently been knocked out somehow by either Kurama or Kamiko. I wished we didn't have to wake him up, but Kurama had found a note that said Yusuke would die if we tried to progress without this guy's approval.

"If you know what's good for you," Hiei told the guy, "you'll give us your approval…unless you harbor a death wish!"

I like him!

Of course, then the jerk reminded us of the nonviolence rule that was evidently still in play.

At least he escorted us to the next place…a location with seven staircases! Kuwabara made a crack about a stair museum. Then we got the next shot: we had to each go up a different staircase! I hated his end line: "That's for me to know and you to find out!"

Boton pulled out some little gizmo and started explaining it. Apparently it could be stuck to someone and demonstrate the person's physical state, and only the applier could remove it. Plus, if the applier died, the thing just fell off. I was just starting to wonder what her point was when Kurama enlightened me. "I get it. We should write our names on these and stick them on one another so that we can tell if one of us gets hurt."

The jerk in charge gave his assent, and we did so.

Kuwabara leaned over to me while we were doing this. "Hey, Machiko, should one of us stick one of these on your sister or would that mess with her hiding?" he whispered.

I hissed back, "I'll tag her on the sly, don't worry about it."

We all got tagged, though it took a while to convince Hiei to put up with them. My tagging Kamiko on the sly had involved her sprouting wings to keep the devices hidden. It took some maneuvering for everyone else to do the same thing, though I didn't tell them what they were tagging. Plus, she managed to tag everyone with her named toys. When I set mine against Hiei's shirt, I said softly, "At least it's only for today, right?"

He glared at me. Obviously, if I wanted to win him over, I needed a new strategy.

As we got ready to go up the stairs themselves, Kurama reminded us, "Caution is our ally."

I muttered as I started going up, "I hate stairs!"

Yusuke

I ended up yelling at the creep holding me in place when he told me my friends were coming. "They've got four shadows and you've only got two legs!"

He waited until I finished yelling. Then he remarked, "Five shadows, actually, they have a friend tagging along."

"You see?! You're in big trouble!"

Kamiko

I stepped carefully, keeping my wings folded around me like a cloak to hide the tags. I wondered how Machiko was doing; the stairwell was narrow, and when it came to going up, I already knew she preferred flying.

I was probably encountering the least resistance, because nobody knew I was there and I was stepping lightly, barely using the tips of my claws to touch each step.

Finally, I reached a door…and realized that I didn't dare open it. If nothing else had revealed my presence, opening a door would!

Machiko

I opened a door and stepped into a room at the exact same time as everyone else did. And two boys were standing in the middle.

"Hey, what's up, guys?" the black-haired one said. I figured that was Yusuke. For one thing, the other one was keeping him pinned by standing on his shadow.

Then the creep standing there mentioned that one of us was an imposter, and that Yusuke had ten minutes to figure out which one of us was it!

Yusuke's first questions were…lacking. I hoped Yusuke was going to ignore me. He didn't even know me, so trying to guess was pointless.

The most frustrating part was when they got into an argument over Hiei's sister. Then Kuwabara stepped on my tail!

I leaped straight up with a shriek and hit the ceiling! I didn't come down, either, I held on for all I was worth!

"Whoa! Hey, that was an awesome vertical, Machiko!"

"No thanks to you," I shouted back.

Then Yusuke mentioned the seals we were all wearing, and we realized that the imposter wouldn't be able to remove the seals! I came back down to join that party.

And yet…all of them could come off! The only one that wasn't touched was one that was technically placed unobtrusively: Kamiko's. In fact…wait a minute…

I blinked. "Hey, here's a test: how many people came into this crazy mansion to rescue Yusuke?"

They all stared at me.

"Yusuke," I spun again, "the way to figure out who's the imposter is to look for the missing seal! Everyone standing right here was supposed to have five each, but the imposter would have four!"

"Five as opposed to four?"

I nodded with a big grin.

"Nice try," the jerk remarked. "But my friend's power is copy. He can copy body, voice, mannerisms and memories."

I growled.

"And by the way, that means whoever you're referring to can come out now."

I outright hissed. "Kamiko, you can come in."

After a moment of silence, she opened the door and came through, using the same coloration she'd had down in the first room, with a couple of exceptions: she had slight horns, her face and arms were blonde-furred, her hands had claws, and her blonde bat-wings fanning out and revealing the seals stuck on the inner surfaces.

Everyone else responded in surprise. She was awfully dramatic like that.

"I can't put my wings away until these seals are removed, but I'd rather wait until the imposter is revealed, so don't worry about it."

Then the jerk told Yusuke that his time was up, and he had to approach whoever he thought was the imposter and hit them hard, that that was the only way to reveal him!

Yusuke was freed, and he glared around at all six of us. Finally, he rushed…

…And punched out Kuwabara! Which turned out to be the right answer, fortunately for us.

"Well, you actually figured it out! How'd you know it was Kuwabara?" the creep asked.

"I chose him because he's the most used to my punching his face in, if nothing else."

I giggled a bit.

"Besides, Hiei and Kurama are too smart to get caught in your trap."

Kurama couldn't resist a shot at Hiei in an undertone about his saying the word hot earlier.

"As for the two demon girls, I don't even know them, and if this was supposed to be a test for me, then having one of them be impersonated would have had no point."

I nodded, while Kamiko wandered over to me so I could remove my seal from her wing, and she took her seal off of my side where it had been hidden under my arm.

"That left Boton. And if you jerks were low enough to pick on the only non-fighter, it wouldn't matter if I lost. Even if you killed me, I would come back from the dead and drop-kick your ass!"

I started snickering again.

"So Kuwabara was the safest bet," Yusuke finished. Then he basically told the guy to give Kuwabara back while Kamiko wandered over to the other three to get those tags off them and herself.

The response was effectively, "Sure, but first let's meet the person who engineered this whole rig."

The doors on one side of the room opened…

And a small woman came out! Probably about middle-aged, pink-haired and shorter than Hiei! Plus, the way the others reacted to her, they knew her!

"Why don't you explain it, Fox-Boy, because I'm obviously going nuts!" Yusuke yelled at Kurama, who seemed to have a basic idea about what was going on.

"She was trying to teach us a very valuable lesson: a lesson in perception."

I ignored the rest of this and waited for the little woman that one of them had called Genkai to explain what was going on.

"You four are well-trained fighters, however, three of you have learned that there can be situations where your body is useless, so you must rely on your mind. If you'd used that lump three feet above your ass you might have held onto your soul! Make that two feet for you."

It was amusing to see poor Hiei flinch in response to that shot.

And when Yusuke started mocking Hiei, she told him off about letting himself get caught. Then she turned her attention to me and my sis. "I'm sorry to get you two involved, but if you made it this far in your lives you must have a few useful skills that can be applied to the current situation."

I shrugged.

Kamiko asked plaintively, "Thanks, but can we get Kuwabara back? I'm not used to having my wings out for extended periods of time without officially using them, and they're getting sore!" Kuwabara's seal was the only one left on her right wing, and she couldn't just put one wing away – not wouldn't, actually physically couldn't, it was a balance thing.

Finally, we got some explanation. There were new psychics appearing, had been for a month, and the cause was to be the greatest threat!

"I assume some of you have already noticed the demon insects flying through the city."

Kurama reacted in horrified shock, and so did Kamiko, so apparently they had.

"Someone is carving out a tunnel to the demon world. Sakiyo's plan from the Dark Tournament was not buried with him."

"What Sakiyo plan?" Yusuke asked, sounding almost worried.

Kuwabara came in, explaining that Genkai had told him already. Someone named Koenma had found out and never told them. "Sakiyo wanted the money so he could drill some doomsday tunnel."

"But, more importantly, we've answered the question: boxers or briefs."

I could have smacked Yusuke for bringing up that Kuwabara was in his underwear – I'd been trying to ignore that!

"But isn't Sakiyo dead?" Boton asked.

"He's dead, we made sure of that. And now he's probably rolling in his grave because someone's continuing his plan without him!"

"It just keeps going," Yusuke sounded stressed, "doesn't it?"

Kuwabara came back over from getting his clothes, swiping the seal from Kamiko's wing. Then he paused as she shifted back to her standard form with a sigh of relief. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

She blinked at him. "You may, but I make no guarantees that I'll answer."

He pointed in the general direction of her chest. "What happens to your clothes when you change colors to blend in with the walls? Do they change color too?"

She looked at him with narrowed eyes as Hiei started outright snickering.

Kamiko

I just kept studying him for a minute. I had two answers ready for him; I just didn't know which one I was going to use: "You don't want to go there" or "I'll let you figure it out yourself."

Stop snickering, Hiei, I know you already know the answer to that question!

Finally, I did a coin toss in my head and answered him. "I think I'll let you figure it out on your own. Just don't hurt yourself." I wandered over to Hiei and moved my tail up to cover his mouth. "And if you tell him, I'll figure out some way to punish you."

His snickering subsided enough to allow him to reach up, tug my tail tip away from his mouth and answer, "I think it'll be more entertaining to wait and see how many days go by before he gets it."

I rolled my eyes and tugged my tail free from his hand. Then I glanced over at Kurama and smiled shyly.

And when he smiled back, my face turned as pink as his outfit. It took all control to keep the rest of me from matching that color.