The boy woke up suddenly, bolting upright as though from a nightmare.
"Welcome back," Yusuke said. He, as well as Botan, Shizuru, Keiko, Genkia, Kurama, Kagome, Shippo and Hiei had been watching the kid, waiting for him to wake up. Hiei was watching from the roof of the building across the street though, and Yusuke was the only one with a chair.
"You – You're Yusuke," the boy said, his eyes wide.
"That's right Goldie, and that's my bed you're sleeping in thanks to Miss Kagome, Shippo, and the human freight train there carrying you in so she could fix you back up somewhere warm and dry," Yusuke said, jerking his thumb at the sprawled out, snoring form of Kuwabara lying on the floor, and gesturing towards Kagome and Shippo who were leaning against the wall near the door.
"His companions, your victims, have survived as well," Kurama said. He, like Yusuke was frowning as he talked to the boy from where he was standing beside the Detective. "They informed us all of the encounter with you, then we erased their memories of last night so that they wouldn't be burdened by any of the darker truths."
"Like another human fighting for the wrong side," Yusuke added. "Kuwabara saved your life after you tried to kill 'im, an' Miss Kagome and Shippo. D'you think your psychic pals would've done that?" the detective demanded almost softly. "You owe 'em big, so start talkin'."
The injured blonde grit his teeth and looked away from them all.
"You don't understand. You haven't seen what I have," he started. "We should all die."
"Clarify 'all'," Kurama requested. "You mean your fellow psychics?"
"No, I mean all of us. Humans. You'd all think so too if you saw the video tape!" the kid insisted, looking up from his hands fisted in the sheets, earnest belief clear in his blue eyes as he looked around at them.
"What video?" Botan asked, confused.
"It's the video they labelled 'Chapter Black'," the boy answered.
"You've seen it?" Kurama asked, his green eyes wide with shock.
"Yes I have. Every single minute of it," the boy agreed.
"Chapter Black, amazing," Kurama murmured.
"I'm guessing you've heard of it," Yusuke said, looking up at the red head from his chair.
"It's legendary," Kurama answered. "Hiei's wanted to get his hands on that tape for years."
"That good of a flick huh?"
"It is a piece of intelligence, supposedly kept in the deepest bowels of the Spirit World's records department. The video is a compilation of crimes committed by the human race over the millennia. Crimes against their own kind, and others," Kurama answered. "This video documents their most unspeakable acts. It is said to run thousands of hours. I knew of the tape's existence, but never imagined it could be an impetus in this case."
"So many horrifying things marching across that giant screen," the blonde boy said. "You don't know what we really are, what we're capable of. I saw it all. If you saw it, you'd think differently too. You'd understand we're doomed, and so, we have to -"
Yusuke stood, kicking his chair violently as he did so. "'Have to' what Sir Judge? Have to get us all eaten the hell up by some blood-thirsty monster?" he demanded, his cool thrown right out the window.
"That's right!" the blonde answered. "You're defensive 'cause you don't know the truth! Humanity only seems good to you because you were born in a peaceful time, but war's our nature, it'll always come back. Have you ever seen hundreds of frightened people standing in a line to be killed in a camp? Have you seen horsemen raid and destroy a village, dance on the bodies of their victims, crushing them as they celebrate in victory, singing happy songs? Have you ever seen a gigantic bomb wipe away millions who had never even picked up a weapon? Civil war when a mother is hacked out in front of her child, or a child in front of it's mother. And the soldier, breaking up a family who loves each other, leading them into a fire, and his eyes enjoying the torture."
Keiko was on the verge of tears, and Shizuru lead her from the room.
"Yes, I have," Shippo answered in a whisper, one that only Kagome heard. "I have seen all that."
Kagome wrapped an arm around her boy, even though he was older now, and gave him a supportive, loving squeeze.
"And you think you're better than those people on the tape?" Yusuke asked.
"Well I know I'm not! Neither are you! No human can be!"
"What about Kuwabara?" Yusuke asked. "He decided to save you, right? What about Miss Kagome who carried you here after she saw the last few seconds of your fight with him? And what about Shippo who came carrying the biggest, heaviest one of all those guys and didn't even know him?"
Blue eyes looked from Yusuke to Kagome, wanting to know why.
"Because part of you was screaming for help," Kagome said in answer to his look.
"I thought she was nuts when she brought you in last night, and her and Kuwabara said that to me," Yusuke said, stretching up and locking his hands behind his head. "Of course, looking at you now, I have to agree. Kuwabara's got this big, oafish, bully look that you probably hate, but he cared about you. Bet you weren't expecting that, and then Miss Kagome, who had just watched you seriously hurting one of her friends, and nearly kill three other boys, just rushes to your side to help you."
The boy broke down crying. "Every night I see them, the victims on that tape. I've always seen myself like them, but then in my nightmares, I'm the one holding the weapons, you know? Like all along it's been me doing those terrible things, and I feel dirtier and dirtier, like I need to make up for something, but I don't even know what... Like I'm the bully! I'm sorry! I'm sorry," he wept.
Shippo looked at Kagome, then stepped around Yusuke and Kurama to sit on the end of the bed near the boy, while Kagome handed her handkerchief to Botan and led her from the room, closely followed by Yusuke and Kurama, who agreed that the boy needed to face himself before he faced them, and that Shippo would be the best to help him with that.
"I've seen all that," Shippo told him. "I lived through it."
The blonde looked up sharply, his eyes still raw with tears.
"What's your name?" Shippo asked.
"M-Mitari. Y-you've seen those horrors?"
"I may not look all that old, but yeah. I've been there when bandits raided poor villages, forcing women and killing men, chaining the children up to sell them as slaves on the black market. I saw men getting onto war ships and going out to sea. I heard sirens warning of air-strikes, and I saw people running, limping, sometimes crawling from explosions, their flesh burning on their bodies. I've seen all that," Shippo told him.
"Then you know why the human race has to be exterminated!" Mitari cried.
Shippo chuckled sadly and shook his head. "I think you're forgetting something Mitari," Shippo said gently. "The pain and suffering is only a part of humanity. There are also the good bits, like a mother caring for her child, or a man taking his kids on holiday, or that idiot there who refused to get his revenge for the pain you caused him because he could tell you were in pain already, or Kagome who cares for everybody, even when caring hurts her."
"Why would anybody do that?" Mitari asked.
Shippo locked his green eyes with the boy's blues. "Because as much as some humans are selfish bastards with evil in their hearts, there are also some humans who are genuinely open and caring and selfless. Kagome is one of those truly selfless people, and Kuwabara's got this honour code thing going that has him in almost the same position."
~oOo~
"Hey! Earth to Todder-bitch!" Yusuke yelled into the screen within his suitcase of detective tricks.
"Oh dear," Kurama lamented quietly.
"You shouldn't have just come out and told him that," Kagome commented with an eyebrow raised at her boyfriend.
"I guess not," he agreed before leaving the balcony to hear what Koenma had to say.
"Shinobu Sensui," Koenma said at last. "The Spirit Detective of Earth before you, Yusuke."
"Like hell I'm gonna let some jerk just like me be the end of the world!"
"Well put," Kagome said with a small smirk, moving to warm up her bow and checking that the coiled string in her pocket was still in good enough condition.
~oOo~
"Sensui's world was black and white," Koenma said. "Demons were evil, so he had to destroy them."
"So what changed him?" Yusuke asked.
Kagome closed her eyes, wondering if Sensui actually had changed. After all, he was still out to destroy what was evil, wasn't he?
"Grey. Sakyo began it all."
~oOo~
"Two days until the portal opens," Sensui stated.
"And here we were led to believe we had the better part of a week," Kagome grumbled to Kurama as they joined Yusuke and Kuwabara in the street. Genkai and Koenma were barely a step behind them. Hiei, Kagome knew, would not likely interfere unless one of them was about to actually die, and even then he may not. Shippo was protecting Shizuru, Botan, Keiko and Mitari in the apartment.
"Now child, you should really not trust Spirit World intelligence," Shinobu chided. "Last night we made quite the break through."
"Alright, I'm takin' this one!" Kuwabara announced.
"Shut up, you'll play it like I tell you," Yusuke said quietly, halting his friend.
"You are still weak Kazuma," Kagome added. "Master Genkai and I had to heal five people last night, and as you were in the best condition of all of them, you didn't get quite as much attention."
Kuwabara backed down, though reluctantly.
Yusuke took a step forward, only to be cautioned by Koenma.
"I started him off too. He can store up his energy and fire it, just like you. After ten years, we have no way of knowing how strong he may have become," the demigod said.
"Which makes him dangerous," Genkai said.
"And any initial contact a gamble," Kurama added.
"Are you listening to what they're saying Urameshi?" Kuwabara demanded.
"Hm," Yusuke snorted, smirking. "Sounds like fun," he said, and slowly walked up to his opponent. "Afternoon, Detective Sensui. Rumour is you snapped, you could only deal with the baby stuff."
"To the contrary Urameshi," Sensui answered. "I've come to lead you along the path of truth."
"I'll stop you, freak."
"You will fail."
The fight began, energies flaring before they dissipated and charged at each other, Yusuke's punch was blocked, unlike Sensui's kick. Yusuke then did an immediate repeat, before Sensui sent a ball of energy to towards the apartment complex.
"He called that Reiku Rushuyuken? Looked to me like Chu's ball of energy mixed with one of Souta's soccer moves," Kagome said, her eyes not turning to the apartment. She knew Shippo would take care of them, that they were safer than they appeared to be. If there was one thing that she and her fox kit had learned, it was to always appear at a disadvantage, even when you weren't – it was a good edge to have.
Kuwabara, however, didn't appreciate the apparent danger and didn't know Shippo all that well despite having trained with him before the Dark Tournament, so he went charging back to save his sister.
"Kuwabara! Head's up!" Yusuke warned, giving his friend just enough time to duck out of the way before Sensui landed where the boy had been, creating a small crater in the concrete. "Alright guys, you go take care of the girls," Yusuke said.
Kagome rolled her eyes. Another one who didn't know Shippo well enough, but in Yusuke's defence, it was hard to think of a time when those two had said more than five words to each other until the previous night. Everyone in the apartment, heck, probably the whole complex, was perfectly safe with her son standing guard. She blinked at the thought.
"Koenma, Kuwabara, I'm sure Shizuru and Botan will feel better if you aren't in the direct line of fire and where they can keep an eye on you both," Kagome said, trying to persuade the injured and the non-fighter to get out of what was about to become a battle field.
"And meanwhile you'll be -?" Koenma asked.
"Permanently retiring his ass," Yusuke answered.
"For such a dumb kid, you've got a pretty smart mouth Urameshi," Sensui said, distaste written all over his face.
Yusuke charged again. "You like smarts? Tell me if this smarts enough for ya!" His punch was a fake though, and he darted around his opponent, trying to confuse him, but as his next punch was blocked and Yusuke was once again sent flying by a powerful kick, clearly his small plan wasn't very effective.
"It's a shame Junior couldn't find a better replacement," the man said as he walked up to where Yusuke was sitting up from his latest hit. "I'm just not sure if I should be insulted or flattered."
He ran then, and Yusuke chased him.
Kurama and Kagome took off after them, with Koenma and Genkai going immediately to the apartment. Kuwabara was going to follow Yusuke as well, but Shippo ran up to him and grabbed his wrist, halting him.
"They want to use you to open the 'plastic-wrap to hell,' to quote your sister, so you won't be chasing after them this time," the fox demon insisted, dragging him off back to the apartment.
"You're serious? They're actually after me?" Kuwabara asked, even as he let the fox drag him along.
"Yes, now move faster!" Shippo insisted. "Or suffer the embarrassment of being carried by someone a bit over five hundred years old!"
"No way!" Kuwabara answered, running ahead of the fox now, determined to evade both capture and any injuries to his pride as a man by being carried by an old person, even if Shippo only looked about twenty and was a foot taller than him.
He stopped running when he heard Shippo cry out behind him, and turning to look he saw the fox land on the ground, both of his legs bleeding.
"Damn, and Kagome-Kaa-san's the one with the healing, not me,"the fox grunted in his pain.
"Hang on, I'll get you back to the apartment. I'm sure Master Genkai can do something for it," Kuwabara said, doubling back to help Shippo, only to get hit by something himself.
"Ow!" he cried, turning to see what had hit him. Sticking out of his back was a dart, and he could feel himself getting woozy. "Dammit," he cursed, as he collapsed. The last thing he saw was Sakyo, from the Dark Tournament, stepping out of the alleyway, a dart-gun over his shoulder.
~oOo~
Yusuke was knocked down, and Kurama charged, whip flying. Sensui dodged and jumped out the window, shattering it on his passage through, before he landed in the middle of town on a bridge for pedestrians to cross above the road traffic.
"Now, are you going to use that weapon where it could hit all these bystanders?"
Kurama ground his teeth as Yusuke and Kagome caught up with him.
Yusuke moved to attack again, only for Sensui to jump over the side onto the open back of a small truck. Kuwabara was also lying there, unconscious, with a large man sitting on him.
"Sakyo was driving that truck," Kagome said as she watched it turn the corner.
Yusuke wasn't listening. His friend was there and in trouble. He didn't know why, all he knew was that for some reason Sensui had joined up with the man who had pulled their strings like puppets during the Dark Tournament, and who had inadvertently screwed Sensui's mind over, and they had just kidnapped his best friend.
Shizuru showed up then at a run, panting.
"They're gonna use my baby bro to break the barrier between the human and demon worlds," she said when she caught her breath. "Mitari told us, and Shippo went out to get him, bring him inside where it was safe, but they shot him down, then nabbed Kazuma."
"Is Shippo alright?" Kagome asked desperately, her eyes wide with fear, even as Yusuke stole a push-bike and took off after his best friend, rescue and ass-kicking his intended goals.
"Yeah, Master Genkai fixed him up once Keiko and me got him to the apartment, then I ran here," Shizuru answered.
~oOo~
At the apartment, Mitari gave the full details of exactly what Sensui's plans were for Kuwabara, though he was clearly still confused about if he was their enemy or not. Kagome added her healing to Shippo's injuries until he was, once again, fighting fit.
"I trust Yusuke with a lot these days," Genkai said, "but not this."
"Then we must come to his aid," Kurama answered firmly.
"If we can find him," Genkai pointed out. "We'll round up Kaito and Yano while we're at it," she added. Her third student had been kept at the hospital. It would have been suspicious for someone so horrifically injured to be taken away from a place of medicine to get fixed up, after all.
Kagome and Shippo nodded their agreement.
"Keiko, Shizuru, you stay here in case Yusuke comes back looking for us," Genkai continued, falling easily into the role of leader.
"Okay," Keiko said, nodding.
"What about me?" Mitari asked, confusion still in his eyes. "Is there anything I can help you do?"
"You should search your soul for the answer to that," Kurama said. "You are free to go with us, or you are free to be our foe, but if you choose the latter, know that the next time we meet I will show you no mercy. You must choose what you believe, and make your stand."
The group reached the bottom of the stair when they realised that they had no idea where they needed to look for Yusuke.
"Wait up! Please wait for me," Mitari's voice came from the top of the stairs. "Or is it too late for me to go with you?"
Kagome, Shippo and Kurama smiled at him, but it was Kurama who went up to offer him a friendly hand.
"It's never too late to reform one's ways, trust me," he said. "Welcome to our team."
~oOo~
The sun was going down when they found Yusuke, and Hiei with him.
"Been keeping him out of trouble?" Kagome asked the demon quietly. "Your 'avoiding everybody' act had everyone more than just a bit nervous you know," she added.
"Hn, I had no reason to defend your world Miko," Hiei answered.
"Not even ice cream?" Shippo asked.
Hiei glared at the fox demon.
"I'm glad to see you again Hiei," Kurama said, smiling genuinely. "It wasn't the same without you."
"And I'm glad you decided there was a reason worthy of you fighting, even if it's only a five-litre tub of Neapolitan ice cream," Kagome whispered, a promise in her voice.
Hiei smirked. "If I even stay after it's over. My home is in the demon world," he pointed out, though he appreciated the gesture, and would likely hold her to that promise if he did remain in the human world.
~oOo~