Chapter 2 – What You Know
Yukina stood by the large sliding glass doors overlooking the back garden of the Kuwabara household. She was not really sure how long she had been there, but it was rapidly getting dark outside and she felt that somebody – Kuwabara, Keiko, Botan, Kurama or even Mister Kuwabara or Shizuru – should have come back to the house already. The darker the sky outside the doors grew, the deeper her frown became as she watched it. As the bluish glow on the horizon darkened over, the last traces of daylight fading, Yukina saw something moving on the very edge of her vision. She turned her head slightly, squinting through the darkness at the small shadow moving on one corner of the garden. As the shadow drew closer, the security light above the doors triggered and the patio outside was suddenly brightly illuminated, the sudden change almost paining her eyes; but she was relieved of it as it showed a simple calico cat stalking moths in the garden.
And a pile of petals on the centre slab of the patio.
Yukina froze, her eyes large and staring at the pink and cream petals before her. There was no logical reason for them to be there, set in such a neat pile, and no obvious source for them within the garden. She reached a trembling hand out towards the handle of the sliding doors, gripping it as firmly as she could before attempting to open the door. She was not entirely surprised to find that the door was locked; but she was surprised to see that the key was not still in the door. She fumbled for the lightswitch to aid her search for the key, but as she turned on the interior light the exterior security light cut off and the glass doors ahead of her showed only a blurry reflection of the room behind her.
Yukina froze again, her hand still on the lightswitch.
"Hello again."
Yukina slowly retracted her hand from the lightswitch, her eyes locked unblinkingly on the reflection of the intruder standing at the other end of the room behind her.
"I've been following you for some time."
Yukina swallowed carefully before turning around to face the cat demon.
"I was waiting for the right moment to approach you."
"So you decided to do it when you saw a raspberry sundae? That's very distasteful."
The cat demon smiled wryly.
"You don't remember me, do you Yukina?"
Yukina slowly shook her head: she had encountered a few cat demons during her time in demon world, but there was really only one she could remember clearly.
"I'm Tora," the cat demon continued. "Maybe you don't recognise me because of this."
She pointed to the bandana covering her forehead.
"It's new," she added.
Yukina nodded, but she was not really listening. Her attention was alternating between thinking of ways to escape and wondering if Kuwabara's psychic link to her would hear her if she asked him for help inside her head.
"I can tell you don't want to be here any more than I do," Tora continued. "So I'll cut to the chase: I'm looking for Raspberry Sundae and when I look, I keep finding you."
Yukina rapidly shook her head.
"I-I'm not – I mean I don't – I'm not who you seek!" she stammered.
"I think you are," Tora replied. "Ever since I got this third eye, all I can see is you. I think you know something that might be useful to me. I think you know the truth about Raspberry Sundae."
"I-I don't know anything!" Yukina cried. "I promise you! I can't tell you anything you don't already know!"
"I disagree."
Tora took a step forwards and Yukina took a step back, her heel and one elbow colliding with the glass door behind her.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Tora said.
"I don't believe you," Yukina replied in a low voice.
"Do you know what Raspberry Sundae actually is, Yukina?"
"It's a weapon," Yukina replied. "But it was destroyed along with your leader a long time ago. Everybody knows that."
"It would be very unwise for you to lie to me. I can see the truth."
"I'm telling you the truth. I remember the day your leader was caught and killed. She had her weapon with her. If it was taken from her, then those who killed her must have it."
"Oh but I don't think you can tell me anything I don't already know about a weapon. I think you can tell me something about what really happened to my leader that day."
Yukina shook her head and tried to step back again, her entire body thumping against the glass door.
"I think you saw something," Tora continued, taking another step forwards. "And if you tell me now, I promise I'll leave and never bother you again."
"I didn't see anything, I swear!" Yukina insisted.
Though, she thought to herself, even if she had seen anything that day she would never tell anyone, least of all a cat demon. She had no idea whether Tora was one of the band of rebel cat demons or whether she was a loyalist spy: and either way, divulging any information about the former leader of the rebellion was a dangerous thing to do. Tora started to cross the room and Yukina pressed herself as hard as she could against the glass doors; and, as though she needed to be shown how nervous she felt, she heard a crackling behind her as adrenaline turned into leaking demon energy from her body, freezing the glass as she pressed against it.
Tora stopped, her eyes wandering upwards above Yukina's head. Yukina dared to glance up and saw white crystal veins of ice creeping outwards across the glass from her body in every direction. They met eyes again and Tora looked slightly less confident than she had before.
"Hmm, I see," she said. "I misunderstood. I thought the signal I was getting from you was that you knew what happened to our leader, but now I see that's not true. You don't know anything. You just hope that what you've been told isn't true."
Yukina gave a small nod of her head.
"Y-yes," she admitted. "I always hoped your leader wasn't killed that day. But… She vanished. She was surrounded and she vanished. And she's never been seen or heard of since – and I know it's silly to hope, but…"
Tora smiled.
"It's not silly," she said. "It's a nice thought. A very naïve and frankly quite pathetic thought, but a nice thought nonetheless."
She sighed and shrugged.
"Well I'll assume you're being honest with me," she concluded. "Of course if I find out that you've lied to me I'll come back and kill you."
Yukina thumped against the glass door again as Tora started to move; but to her relief, the cat demon leapt back out of the room and disappeared into the shadows of the house. After several seconds of silence Yukina eventually worked up the courage to turn around and peer outside again; through the darkness she could see that the petals were gone and that was indication enough to her that she was once more alone.
"Do they attack using hairballs?"
Kurama sighed.
"You've encountered feline demons before," Hiei reminded Yusuke.
"Yeah, I know," Yusuke agreed as he kicked at a discarded beer can at the edge of the road. "But it's really fun for me watching how much my cat jokes piss you off."
"There is perhaps one discussion we should have on the back of the subject Yusuke has raised."
Hiei turned to Kurama, eying him over incredulously. They had all returned to the living world and as such, Kurama had returned to his human form: no longer a silver-haired fox, he was again a red-haired man-boy inexplicably wearing ridiculous glasses.
"You want to discuss whether or not cat demons use hairballs offensively in battle?" Hiei asked him.
"No," Kurama replied through a small laugh as though he thought Hiei was making a joke. "I meant that we should discuss what offensive techniques cat demons are known to use."
"We're talking about an E Class demon, Kurama," Hiei pointed out. "Even Kuwabara could wipe her out of existence without skipping a beat."
"And perhaps we should also discuss the fact that we need to capture her, not kill her," Kurama added, looking suddenly more serious.
"I don't get why you guys are dismissing my catnip idea," Yusuke said with a shrug.
"One good reason why that won't work is that catnip only has a subduing effect on cats from the living world, it has no effect on cat demons," Kurama patiently replied. "Another good reason is that catnip, in its rawest form, is a plant and cat demons use plants as weapons."
Yusuke frowned.
"I thought that was something only you did, Kurama," he said.
"No," Kurama replied.
"Idiot," Hiei muttered, before deftly side-stepping as Yusuke aimed a kick at his rear-end.
"It's something many animal demons do," Kurama explained. "Some fox demons do it and the entire tribe of cat demons do it. It's their primary mode of battle."
"Just like you?" Yusuke asked.
"In some cases, yes," Kurama replied quietly.
Hiei snorted and Yusuke shot him a curious look; but the dark look on Kurama's face stopped him from explaining his outburst to Yusuke.
"Some are more skilled at controlling plants than others," Kurama eventually added.
"So what you're saying is that none of those pussies can handle a whip as well as you can, Kurama?"
Kurama sighed and Hiei groaned.
"You're going to be like this until we get this girl back to demon world, aren't you?" Kurama asked Yusuke.
"Hn, he'll be like this long after we dump the girl back in demon world," Hiei grumbled. "You know what he's like when he thinks he's being funny…"
"You guys!" Yusuke said, putting an arm around each of his friends. "I've missed you guys!"
Botan was speeding through the air, one hand on her oar, the other supporting a demon compass which her eyes were fixed on. She was getting many conflicting signals and the one she had been chasing kept going out of range, forcing her to fly faster and faster, the wind whistling past her ears. The needle on the compass spun wildly to one side and an instant later she saw something flicking at the corner of her eye; she barely had time to drop the compass and grab onto her oar with both hands before she began to fall.
Something that looked alarmingly like Kurama's rose whip was tangled around her oar at the point where the handle met the blade and it was pulling her oar backwards and downwards with such force that she soon found herself only hanging on by her hands and then only by one hand and then, as she started falling through tree branches, she lost hold of her oar altogether. She crashed and screamed her way through the trees – which did at least slow her descent – before finally landing with a splat against the mossy, muddy forest floor. She paused long enough to groan before trying to lift herself, slipping in the mud and moss and discovering that her kimono and her hair were tangled in the undergrowth, holding her in place. Tears warmed her eyes as one arm slid out from under her and her weight caught on her hair, her scalp straining painfully.
"Hello, spirit world servant."
Botan froze at the sound of the voice apparently addressing her. When she heard a small noise to one side of her she moved her eyes towards it, seeing a pair of surprisingly clean feet in brown gladiator sandals by her right shoulder.
"Oh, don't worry, it's not you I have a problem with."
Botan tilted her head as far as she could and rolled her eyes upwards; but in the darkness of the forest all she could make out was the silhouetted outline of a figure standing over her.
"I've got some questions I need to ask Koenma in spirit world," the voice continued. "And I think you might be a good way to get to him."
"I'll never take you to spirit world!" Botan protested.
She struggled futilely against her bonds before resigning with a small sob of pain. She felt the figure crouch down at her side and she tensed: but to her surprise, hands began untangling her from her bonds, quickly freeing her entirely. She shot to her feet and whipped out her steel baseball bat, staring warily at what she could now see was a young female cat demon before her.
"Ordinarily I'd find it really funny that you think you could fend me off," the demon said. "But I don't have time to joke around right now. I have reason to believe spirit world might have some valuable information on those who slaughtered my leader. Is that something you can retrieve for me?"
Botan screamed and wildly swung her bat about as the cat demon appeared to take a step closer to her.
"Stay away from me, you meanie!" she cried. "If you don't, Yusuke and Kuwabara and Kurama and even Hiei will come after you!"
Botan slowly stopped swinging her bat as she became aware of the change in the cat demon's demeanour: the girl was staring at her, her surprise evident despite the darkness.
"What did you just say?" she asked quietly as Botan lowered her bat to her side.
"I said you stay away from me, you meanie…" Botan weakly replied, her bat slipping slightly in her muddy hand.
"After that…" the demon pressed.
"Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei will come after you…?"
"Hmm, that's what I thought I heard. That's interesting."
Botan opened her mouth, though she was not really sure why as she did not know what to say next. She had hoped that the demon would take her threat seriously and leave, but she seemed more curious than fearful.
"Curiosity killed the cat!" Botan blurted out suddenly as the idea occurred to her.
"Indeed," the demon said dryly. "Let's forego the small talk and get down to business: how likely is it that you will make me a valuable hostage? If I took you prisoner, how big a ransom would your bosses in spirit world – and your friends in demon world – pay to have you released?"
"Lord Koenma does not negotiate with terrorists!" Botan retorted.
"Ah, so in other words a servant like you is expendable and not worth the effort capturing?"
"How dare you!"
Botan readied her bat again but the cat demon vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving Botan alone in the dark forest, her clothing torn and her entire being muddied and moss-stained.
Kuwabara returned to his family house to find it full of chattering voices, which he followed to the dining room, finding Keiko and Shizuru chatting cheerfully at the table over plates of food.
"Hey," he greeted them.
"Oh Kuwabara!" Keiko said, turning her head to look directly at him. "Did you find any traces of the missing cat demon?"
Kuwabara slowly pulled out a chair at the opposite end of the table from her and carefully sat down into it.
"Uh, no," he meekly answered her.
"Darn!" Keiko said. "Neither did I!"
"Same here," Shizuru said.
Yukina entered the room with a glass of fruit juice and a welcoming smile, but Kuwabara's attention was still on his sister.
"Where's dad?" he asked her.
"Welcome back, Kazuma," Yukina said as she placed the drink on the table in front of him. "I made dinner while everyone was out, are you hungry?"
"Dad has his karaoke night with the boys from work tonight, remember?" Shizuru said.
"This is so frustrating!" Keiko said with a sigh. "I sure hope we find this demon soon!"
"Right…" Kuwabara muttered, giving her one last sceptical look before turning his attention to Yukina, who was sitting down at his side, facing him from around the corner of the table. "I'm sorry I had to leave you alone tonight, Yukina my love," he said to her. "Especially since Wednesday is usual one of our special nights together."
"It's alright, I understand," Yukina assured him.
"I hope my sister didn't talk your ear off the whole time I was gone," Kuwabara added in a whisper.
By the way Shizuru was glaring at him he realised he had not been as quiet as he had hoped.
"Actually, Shizuru only got here ten minutes ago," Yukina replied. "She met Keiko on the way here and they returned together."
"So you were alone this whole time?" Kuwabara asked. "On our special date night?"
"It's alright, it gave me time to prepare dinner for you all."
"And nothing happened while we were gone?" Keiko interrupted, much to Kuwabara's chagrin. "You didn't get a call or a visit from Botan or Kurama or anything at all?"
Yukina shook her head.
"I just set about making dinner," she said sweetly, before quietly rising from her chair and leaving the room.
"Oh well," Keiko said with a sigh. "Maybe Kurama will find something to help us in demon world."
"It's kinda strange that nobody felt the presence of a demon in the living world," Shizuru commented casually before taking a sip of her tea.
"Are you saying my keen senses are failing me?" Kuwabara snapped at her.
Shizuru slowly lowered her mug of tea to the table.
"I didn't sense anything either," she reminded him. "Relax baby bro, nobody's accusing anyone of anything here."
"Yeah, but I'm the one who can always feel the presence of a demon," Kuwabara moaned. "And she just fell right out of the sky today and I didn't feel anything!"
"Hey, I'm the one who should feel bad about this, not you," Shizuru assured him. "I'm supposed to be assisting the spirit detective and I'm not doing a very good job if I can't even sense or find a little cat demon."
Yukina placed a plate of steaming hot food down in front of Kuwabara but he barely noticed it.
"What…?" he muttered, frowning at his sister.
"Well, since you're busy with school and you already served your time for spirit world, Koenma thought maybe I should get someone else to help me," Keiko said.
"…What…?" Kuwabara muttered.
"I've done a little training with Kuroko Sato too," Shizuru said, sounding far too casual for Kuwabara's liking. "She's taught me how to focus my energy and how to stay in control when really dark, negative energies weaken me."
"…Why the hell are you training with the old spirit detective?"
"We just told you why!" Keiko snapped irritably. "I'm the new spirit detective and Shizuru is the new…"
"I'm the new Kuwabara," Shizuru finished for her, raising her mug of tea in a mock toast.
"Wait…" he said slowly. "Is this a joke…? This has to be a joke, right?"
"A joke?" Keiko echoed. "Why would we joke about this?"
"You think the only way I could fight is as part of a joke?" Shizuru said, thumping her mug down onto the table again.
"N-no!" Kuwabara replied. "It's just that… You're both girls!"
"Why don't you just shut-up and eat your dinner?" Shizuru suggested darkly.
Kuwabara opened his mouth to argue further, but the dark look his sister was giving him and the irate look Keiko was giving him was warning enough and so he quietly lowered his head and started on his meal.
"Oh wow, this is amazing!" he said through his first mouthful of food.
Yukina, who had sat down at his side once more, smiled sweetly.
"See Yukina is a real girl, not like the two of you with your…"
Kuwabara slowly stopped talking as he caught sight of the glares his sister and Keiko were giving him.
"I'll just shut-up and eat my dinner now," he muttered.
Botan stumbled into Koenma's office, her splintered oar in one hand and her other hand tugging a prickly twig from her hair.
"Botan!" Koenma yelped as he caught sight of her.
"I had an accident Sir," she snivelled, flicking aside the twig. "And on the way back here, it started to rain. Which was good in a way, because the rain washed away some of the mud and moss, but it did also drench me from head to toe."
"You're dripping all over my office!" Koenma barked, pointing a small, chubby finger at her from his seat behind his desk.
"Oh yes, a towel would be lovely," she replied.
Koenma's face fell.
"I didn't offer you a towel," he growled.
"I need to check something in the library," Botan began. "Kuwabara saw the demon–"
"First of all Botan you have to get out of my office and clean yourself up," Koenma cut her off. "You cannot stay in here making a mess like this and you definitely cannot go into the library and make a mess there! And secondly, if Kuwabara saw the demon that's escaped into the living world, why didn't he do something about it?"
"Oh dear," Botan said, tilting her head to one side. "You seem a little snippy today Sir."
Koenma thumped his stamp down onto a one of the many pieces of paper sprawled across his desk.
"Did you just sign off another piece of paperwork?" Botan asked.
"Yes I did," he tightly replied. "It involved you and a very sharp stick."
Botan looked momentarily worried before laughing nervously. She started to tell Koenma how much she enjoyed his jokes but he quickly cut her off.
"Where is the escaped demon now Botan?" he asked as patiently as he possibly could.
"I don't know Sir," she replied. "I was following her with the demon compass – or rather, I thought I was following her with the demon compass – when suddenly, out of nowhere, I began falling out of the sky–"
"Do you have anything useful at all to report to me?"
"Not really Sir. All I know is that the demon approached Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei and Yukina in the living world. I believe she ripped up a plant Kurama had bought for his mother and then she ran off."
"The demon approached Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei and Yukina and none of them thought to apprehend her?"
"She's quite sneaky Sir. She attacked me."
Botan waved a hand at her dirty and dishevelled clothing to illustrate her point.
"…And you did nothing to apprehend her either?" Koenma asked through gritted teeth.
"She took me by surprise!" Botan cried. "And she tried to take me hostage! She said she wanted to see you Koenma Sir!"
"A lot of demons want to see me."
"That's true, you are very unpopular in demon world. A great many demons would like to kill you with their own hands."
Koenma glared at Botan, who was nodding as though she had no idea how blunt she had just been.
"Well get yourself cleaned up, go back to the living world and tell Kuwabara to help Keiko and Shizuru in apprehending this demon," he said, hoping to bring Botan back to the point of their conversation.
"Oh but I wanted to use the library first," she replied, much to his chagrin. "I need to check some facts."
Botan began rummaging around in her sleeves before eventually recovering a slightly sodden notebook, which she flicked through curiously.
"I don't appear to have any notes whatsoever on the type of demon we encountered," she muttered to herself. "I thought perhaps there might be something on cat demons in the library."
Botan flicked through her notebook twice more before looking up and appearing to notice the unblinking way Koenma was staring at her.
"Did you say cat demons or rat demons?" he asked as their eyes met.
"Cat demons," Botan replied.
"Cats like… With the claws and the furry ears and the whiskers?" Koenma asked quietly.
"Well the cat demon I saw was more human than cat in appearance, though she did have furry ears," Botan replied.
Koenma nodded slowly.
"Is that bad?" Botan asked.
"No, it's not bad…" Koenma muttered, slipping one hand under his desk and pressing a red button positioned there. "Botan I need you to go back to the living world right now, without delay, and I need you to make sure that Kuwabara and Kurama – and Hiei, if he's still there – all search for this cat demon. I'm going to send word for Yusuke to assist with this. I also want you to tell Keiko to stand down."
Botan tilted her head as though confused.
"This isn't something she's ready to handle," Koenma explained. "I need you to also tell everyone that I want that cat demon captured – unharmed – and I want her returned to demon world as soon as possible."
"Of course, I'll get right–"
"No Botan, I need this done immediately."
"I was about to leave – in this muddy mess that I am, because I am dedicated to my job – and make sure that everybody gets your message."
"If that cat demon is not back in demon world within 24 hours, I will be deploying the SDF to complete this task. Do you understand?"
Botan screwed up her face and Koenma sighed.
"This is a very complex matter," he said.
"Too complex to share the details with your favourite ferry girl?" Botan said sweetly, pulling her best cat face.
"That expression is inappropriate," Koenma warned her. "You're not my favourite ferry girl, you haven't been here long enough to remember why cat demons are a significant issue for us here in spirit world and I don't have time to try to explain something this complicated to you."
Botan pulled a sad kitty face and Koenma stood abruptly.
"Get out of my office and don't come back until someone has apprehended that cat girl!" he barked.
Botan moaned dejectedly but obeyed the order, backing out of Koenma's office and narrowly missing stepping on someone who was waiting outside the room. Koenma waved at Botan to leave and beckoned the girl behind her to enter. Botan paused as though she might attempt to re-enter the office, but Koenma quickly threw a book at her and she fled. The girl entered his office, closing the door behind herself before approaching his desk.
"We have a problem," Koenma said solemnly.
The girl nodded, her long pink hair rustling at the sides of her head as she did so.
"I need the key for the Raspberry Sundae file," Koenma told her.
Her blue eyes grew wide, but otherwise she did not respond.
"And I need to ask that you don't tell anyone that you have relinquished the key to me," Koenma added. "If anybody asks you, I expect you to refuse to divulge the location of the key and I expect you to protect that information with your very soul. Do you understand me?"
She nodded again and then silently set about the task he had set for her.
"Urameshi, hey," Kuwabara said as Yusuke entered the room.
"You don't sound so happy to see me Kuwabara," Yusuke replied with a smirk. "Try saying that again, once more, this time with more feline."
"Oh God…" Kuwabara groaned.
"Get used to it, he's been at it since the moment we found him," Hiei spat bitterly as he stomped into the room.
"Any news on the missing demon?" Kurama asked as he joined them all.
"Sorry, no," Keiko answered him.
"It's a little strange that this girl managed to slip past all the barriers and everyone's detection," Shizuru commented.
"Is that a dig at me?" Hiei and Kuwabara asked her in unison.
"Wow, it's not often the two of you think alike," Yusuke said.
"It is very unusual but we must press on," Kurama said. "We should split up into teams to search."
"Right," Yusuke agreed. "I'll go with Keiko – it's a good training experience for her, one spirit detective to another–"
"You knew Keiko was the new spirit detective?" Kuwabara interrupted.
"You didn't?" Yusuke echoed.
"But you've been in demon world for months! How did you find out when I don't even know?"
Yusuke started to answer him but Hiei held up a hand to stop him.
"Don't let the idiot interrupt you with the machinations of his feeble mind," he said.
"The "machinations of his feeble mind", huh?" Yusuke repeated. "That's a good one, Hiei."
Kuwabara glowered at Hiei, who simply continued to look bored and mildly irritated with everyone and everything around him.
"Okay, so I'll go with Keiko," Yusuke continued. "Kurama you go with Shizuru and Hiei you can go on your own."
"Hey, what about me?" Kuwabara protested.
"You need to stay here," Yusuke told him. "So that we have someone to report back to and also in case catwoman comes here looking for us."
"Oh no," Yukina said, standing abruptly from the table. "I-I mean, it's okay. I will be here, you can all report back to me, I can take a message."
"But you need somebody here in case the demon we're after comes here," Yusuke reminded her.
She shook her head.
"I can't think why the demon would come here," she said.
"…You can make money with your tears?" Yusuke reminded her.
"I can also erect a forcefield to protect myself," she replied.
"Yukina, none of us – not even Kuwabara – have been able to detect this demon's approach," Kurama pointed out. "You wouldn't know to cast a protective aura until she was already too close to you for it to be effective."
"You left me alone earlier and I was fine," Yukina told him. "It's no problem, really."
"I kinda want to find this cat lady anyway," Kuwabara said.
"Fine, then you team up with Hiei," Yusuke replied.
"I don't think so," Hiei snorted.
"Fine, then both of you go on your own," Yusuke sighed. "We'll meet back here at ten o'clock. If anyone doesn't get back by ten-thirty, we'll come looking for you."
"I'll be back in ten minutes with that cat's head on the end of my blade…" Hiei grumbled as he marched out of the kitchen.
"Hiei, we've already had this discussion," Kurama reminded him.
The others all filed out of the dining room until only Yukina remained. She waited until the front door had closed and the sound of voices in the street outside had faded before making her way back into the kitchen: where she was not entirely surprised to find Koenma, in his adult form, waiting for her.
"I didn't hear you come in," she said, moving towards the sink. "Would you like some tea?"
"You and I both know I'm not here about tea, Yukina," he solemnly replied. "I need you tell me how much you really know about Raspberry Sundae."