Chapter 4 – Bounty Hunter
"At what point can you re-enter spirit world?"
"Oh, any really."
Hiei stopped walking abruptly and Botan stumbled to a halt a few paces ahead of him.
"You mean to tell me I've been walking with you for half an hour for no good reason?" he asked her.
"Not really," she replied. "You only came out here because you wanted a break away from the others, so I thought I was doing you a favour by walking with you."
"You're an idiot," he groaned.
"Maybe by demon world standards."
"You're an idiot by any standard. Get out of here."
"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you–"
"Get out of my sight!"
"Everyone is so snippy today…"
Hiei growled and clenched his fists and the ferry girl finally appeared to take the hint as she mounted her oar and left him. Her flight pattern was staggered and juddering, as though she was attempting to fly whilst intoxicated, but Hiei did not care whether she made it back to spirit world or crashed to her doom; he had only used her exit as an excuse to make his own little journey back home.
It was not so much that he needed the money, it was more an instinctive desire – an uncontrollable curiosity – that motivated him as he returned to demon world and made his way towards a tavern frequented by bandits. It was a place he had never expected to revisit, least of all since he had taken his place alongside Mukuro upon his return to demon world. And, despite the fact that he had not been to the tavern in far longer than he cared to remember, little about the tavern – or its clientele – had changed. The exterior was still a ridged grey mound in the heart of a shanty town, the interior still looked as though it was a poorly dug cave (which it basically was) and the same crabby centipede demon was standing behind the bar leering at his customers over the top of a pair of very out-dated eyeglasses.
As he made his way through the messy arrangement of tables and chairs Hiei tried to ignore the increasing silence around him and the heads turning in his direction, rather continuing about his task and moving to the very back of the cave, to the wall the bar was attached to, where he found what he sought: demon world's wanted posters. He grunted in mild amusement when he saw a crude sketch of Kuwabara and the offer of a reward of three fresh slug sausages or a basket of soft fruit in return for his head. He passed a few other familiar faces before finding the large collection of cat-based posters. Ignoring the whiny protest from the bartender at his side, Hiei tore down all the posters he recognised, including a poster of the only cat demon he had actually see face-to-face: her name was apparently Tora and she had the highest bounty attached to her name as she seemed to be the de facto leader of the rebels.
"Thought you'd given up bounty hunting, Hiei," the bartender squawked at his side.
"And I thought you'd given up existing," Hiei flatly replied, his eyes still on the cache of posters he had taken.
He looked up at the wall and saw there were still several more cat posters there, which could mean that there were several more cat demons hiding in the living world or waiting in demon world or perhaps the posters were out of date; when he really thought about the situation, it amazed him that any rebel cat demons remained active or even alive.
"Hn, your posters are out of date," he concluded as his eyes landed on one cat demon's face that he was all too familiar with.
"I doubt that," the bartender snippily replied.
"Idiot, this bleeding heart perished years ago," Hiei said through a sigh as he tore down the poster in question.
He paused to look at it: it showed a tall female cat demon with flowing pink hair and brilliant blue eyes holding a pink and cream peony in one hand and smiling in an insolent, inappropriate sort of way.
"Open your eyes – you've got three of them – and read the fine print," the bartender hissed.
Hiei growled but obliged, his frustration slowly giving way to concern.
"Is this accurate?" he asked, moving his eyes to the bartender.
"Of course it is," the bartender replied, as though offended by the query.
Hiei cursed and stuffed the posters – including the one of the rebel leader – into the folds of his cloak before fleeing the tavern. He traversed demon world and returned to the living world far faster than he had left it, only slowing when he neared the Kuwabara family house. He stopped on the rooftop of the house, silently walking to the part of the roof over the bedroom Yukina slept in, where he sat down, cross-legged. Yukina was already there and so he closed his eyes and removed his bandana, allowing his jagan eye to explore his sister's thoughts as she drifted off to sleep.
Within a minute Hiei had seen all that he needed to. He stuffed his bandana into the folds of his cloak, inadvertently dislodging one of the wanted posters he had taken from the tavern. He did not pause to catch the poster, instead darting off, his jagan eye still exposed, looking for any signs of the cat demons or Kuwabara. He saw glimpses and hints as he ran until suddenly he felt the slightly unsettling sensation of another psychic demon reaching out to him, another jagan eye watching him back.
Hiei ran to Sarayashiki Harbour and dove into the water. Swimming was not one of his stronger skills, but he made short work of swimming out to the island he sought, dragging his self out of the water onto an outcropping of rocks where he paused just long enough to shake the excess water from his hair and clothing before running to the shore. He crossed a beach, sand dunes and a grassy field, only realising what he was doing when he was already too far in.
He skidded to a halt as he noticed just how many pink and cream flowers there were sprouting amidst the long grass of the field. He cursed under his breath and tried to run on, but it was already too late. After just four more steps he started to feel drowsy and after ten more, Hiei fell, facedown and unconscious, to the ground.
Koenma looked around the breakfast table irritably. Mister Kuwabara had joined them all for breakfast and apparently even he did not feel the need to respond when there was a knock on the front door.
"I believe there's someone at the door," Koenma said politely.
Mister Kuwabara nodded and then carried on eating his breakfast. The others around the table – Shizuru, Yukina and Yusuke – likewise showed no interest in responding to the sound and so, with a sigh of annoyance, Koenma rose from the table and left the room, striding along the hallway towards the front door. He opened it with the expectation of being greeted with the morning's newspaper or mail, but instead he was once more greeted only by a folded up note left on the porch.
"Oh dear…" he muttered as he crouched down to retrieve it.
He opened it out, quickly read it as he stood up again and then carefully folded in over again and made to hide it in his tunic.
"We gotta stop meeting like this."
Koenma's face dropped as his eyes landed on Yusuke's fingers, curled tightly around his wrist.
"Agreed," Koenma said bitterly as Yusuke snatched the note from him.
"Let's see here… "Dear Yusuke"," he began.
"It doesn't say Yusuke," Koenma argued.
"Whatever. "Dear Yusuke, we have Hiei…" What the…?"
Yusuke lifted his eyes to Koenma who could do little more than offer him a tight-lipped, humourless smile in reply to his unfinished question.
""We have Hiei"," Yusuke continued. ""We do not appreciate that you broke our agreement and sent your brother here to ambush us. We are no longer prepared to negotiate with you. Surrender yourself to us immediately and relinquish all information you have relating to Raspberry Sundae or we will kill one of our hostages. You have until sundown to respond." Damn…"
"Hiei's impetuous nature has never really been an asset to the team," Koenma commented dryly.
"They got Hiei?" Yusuke muttered. "How the hell did they get Hiei?"
"Didn't you read the note?" Koenma asked sarcastically. "They didn't "get" him, he gave himself to them!"
"But… Yeah, okay, I understand he approached them, but how were they able to overpower him and take him prisoner?"
"The same way they do everything else: using their old master's tricks and techniques. Yusuke this is getting very dangerous."
"If they can take Hiei, they could take any one of us!"
"That shouldn't be your biggest concern. We need to understand this situation before we can act."
Yusuke smiled darkly.
"Does that mean you're ready to tell us the whole story, Koenma?" he asked.
"I'm not the one who needs to give answers," Koenma plainly replied. "The person these letters are addressed to needs to speak up."
"And who would that be?" Yusuke asked. "Yukoenma or Yokorina?"
Koenma gave Yusuke a withering look, which he seemed unfazed by.
"Gather the others," he said. "We'll talk once Mister Kuwabara leaves for work."
"Y'know, I don't actually have to take orders from you any more," Yusuke began.
"The cat demons will kill Kuwabara and Hiei if we don't act quickly," Koenma reminded him.
"Right."
Yusuke handed the note back to Koenma and then ran off, the backdraft generated from the force of his propulsion ruffling Koenma's clothing. The prince straightened himself out with a small grunt of annoyance before closing the front door and starting back into the house, where he was glad to see Mister Kuwabara was putting on his coat and readying himself to leave. He passed him and continued back into the dining room, where he found Yukina gathering up the breakfast plates, her jaw tense and her eyes down, and Shizuru looking very pale, her eyes unfocused.
"It was them again, wasn't it?" she asked quietly as Koenma sat back down at the table.
Koenma placed the note on the table and slid it towards her. She stared at it until Yukina had left the room before lifting her eyes to Koenma.
"I don't even want to touch it," she said. "It's bad news, isn't it?"
"They have Hiei," Koenma replied.
He had kept his voice quiet, though apparently not quiet enough for demon ears, as the sound of crockery smashing against the kitchen floor answered him.
"The cat demons?" Shizuru asked. "The cat demons have Hiei?"
Koenma nodded.
"Well… I guess if they're good enough to take Hiei prisoner it's not so pathetic that they managed to take my brother…"
Koenma raised his eyebrows in surprise at Shizuru's response and she forced a smile.
"I was trying to keep morale up," she said, despite looking as though she was moments away from collapsing from emotional exhaustion.
"The problem is that we can't fight them," Koenma told her carefully.
"We can't fight them or we shouldn't fight them?" Shizuru asked.
"Shouldn't," he admitted. "Though the decree not to fight them comes from the highest authority in spirit world therefore, as far you are concerned, you might as well treat the situation as though you can't."
"Where are they holding my brother and Hiei?"
"I don't know."
"Did they take them back to demon world? Won't Hiei's border patrol catch them if they keep coming back and forth?"
"I don't know."
"You're not helping."
"It's a very complex situation."
Koenma and Shizuru both flinched when there was another knock on the front door. They stared at each other warily and, to Koenma's surprise, Yukina ran from the kitchen and towards the door, yanking it open.
"Oh Botan, it's only you," Yukina said dejectedly.
"My goodness, not you too Yukina?" Botan replied as she entered the house uninvited. "Everybody is in such poor spirits lately, I just don't know what to do with you all!"
She shortly arrived in the dining room, looking far too cheerful.
"Look Sir, I got a brand new kimono to replace the one that got ruined yesterday!" she said to Koenma.
"It looks exactly the same as the one you usually wear," Shizuru pointed out.
"Exactly, Shizuru!" Botan said with a grin. "The classics never go out of style!"
"Are you here for a reason, Botan?" Koenma asked her, giving her a hard glare in the hope that she would realise that his question was sarcastic.
"I was visiting Keiko at her house this morning to ask if she had any news on Kuwabara and while I was there Yusuke arrived and told me we were all meeting here to discuss a plan of action," Botan replied.
"This is a very complex situation, Botan," Koenma reminded her. "It's very dangerous. I don't want you getting involved."
Botan's cheerful expression vanished instantly.
"You mean you don't want me to get in the way!" she protested.
"Botan, did Yusuke tell you why we're meeting here?" Shizuru asked her.
"No," Botan said, shaking her head.
"The cat demons have taken Hiei," Koenma said.
Botan gasped in horror.
"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed. "They've got Hiei now too? That's terrible! How could they take someone as powerful and clever as Hiei?"
"That's exactly what I'd like to know," Shizuru said, eying Koenma suspiciously.
"And since nobody – not even you Shizuru – can sense their presence, how can we find where they are holding Kuwabara and Hiei?" Botan asked.
"We can't," Koenma answered her. "Which is the problem we were trying to address before you showed up…"
"If only we had Hiei here with his jagan eye to help us find Hiei…" Botan said, touching a finger to one corner of her mouth and looking pensive.
"Did you really just say that?" Yusuke asked as he rejoined them in the kitchen.
"Surely if a jagan eye could find where the cat demons are hiding, Hiei would have already looked for them and told us where they were, right?" Keiko asked.
"Hiei already did exactly that," Kurama said. "That's how he was able to find them and that's how they were able to capture him."
"He could have at least told us where he was going before he left to find them!" Botan moaned.
"Weren't you the last person to see Hiei before he left?" Kurama asked her.
She turned very pale and then very red.
"Oopsie?" she said.
"It's not Botan's fault," Yusuke said. "She didn't know Hiei was gonna go all Rambo on us."
"I'm not blaming Botan for anything," Kurama replied. "Botan has nothing to answer for."
"Oh, thank you Kurama," Botan said as she attempted to fan away her embarrassment with one hand.
"Yukina however has some explaining to do."
Kurama held up a slightly soggy and sun-bleached piece of paper, which, when he recognised the picture depicted on it, Koenma quickly snatched from him.
"Where did you find this?" he demanded.
"In the front garden," Kurama replied, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.
Koenma looked down at the piece of paper – which appeared to be a wanted poster from demon world – feeling far less than surprised to see Yukina's name mentioned next to a picture of the leader of the cat demon rebels.
"Where is Yukina?" Keiko asked.
"In the kitchen, I'll get her," Shizuru offered, rising from the table.
"I still don't get why Yukina is associated with these freaks," Yusuke said.
"That's something only Yukina can explain," Koenma said, passing the wanted poster back to Kurama.
"The poster also says that "Raspberry Sundae" cat demon is still alive," Keiko pointed out. "I thought she was dead?"
"The poster is out of date," Kurama explained. "Hence why it is so tattered."
"Why was it in the front garden?" Keiko asked. "Did the cat demons leave it there for us?"
"No, it looked as though it had been accidentally discarded," Kurama replied.
"Hey, Yukina isn't in the kitchen," Shizuru said as she returned.
Koenma found himself meeting eyes with Kurama, something about the look on the fox demon's face telling him that they had both come to the same conclusion. Koenma quickly stood and Kurama moved with him as he jogged towards the back door of the house. Koenma was the first outside and he was eventually joined in the back garden by all of the others.
"Damn it, now those pussies are kidnapping people right from under our noses!" Yusuke yelled in frustration.
"Is that possible?" Shizuru asked, turning to Kurama. "Could they actually have taken Yukina while we were all in the next room?"
Kurama ignored her question, instead crouching down and tentatively touching a hand to the dew-moistened grass.
"This is getting ridiculous!" Yusuke complained.
"…I'm scared…" Keiko said quietly. "I don't think… I don't think I can be spirit detective if it means dealing with a scary gang of cat demons who can steal any of us away without warning…"
"Ordinarily I'd agree with you," Shizuru said to her. "But those demons have got my brother. I think we should go and see Kuroko Sato. She might be able to teach us a useful skill to use against the cat demons or she might even know something about them."
"That's a good idea," Keiko said, nodding shakily.
"Yusuke, take Keiko and Shizuru to see Kuroko," Kurama said, standing up. "Koenma, I think you and Botan should return to spirit world."
"What will you do?" Koenma asked him.
"I have to check something," Kurama replied.
"Hey fox boy, this isn't the time for being mystical," Yusuke said impatiently. "Tell us what you're really up to."
Kurama sighed and held out one hand, which was closed in a fist.
"I don't think the cat demons took Yukina," he said. "I think she left of her own volition."
He opened out his fist to reveal a gleaming hiruiseki streaked with jade and crimson.
"She's crying…" Keiko said softly.
"What does that prove?" Yusuke asked.
"Guilt."
Kurama closed his fist tightly around the tear gem upon his reply and the others all looked at him warily.
"Meet me back here at noon," he said, before stuffing his hand into his pocket and walking towards the garden gate.
The others watched him go before turning to look around each other.
"You better not be hiding anything from us," Yusuke warned Koenma as their eyes met.
"I think you'll get all the answers you need when Yukina starts talking," Koenma replied.
"So…" Botan said, looking about the others. "When Kurama said he would meet us back here at noon, did he actually mean mid-night? Is that a demon terminology misunderstanding?"
"No Botan," Shizuru quietly answered her. "It means we've lost Kurama too."
"I'm going out to find him," Yusuke said, standing abruptly.
"Are you crazy?" Keiko yelped, standing at his side. "If you go out there on your own, you'll just be the next one they take! Can't you see that's what they're doing? They're splitting us up so that they can pick us off, one by one!"
"I'd like to see them try," Yusuke growled.
"Sit down," Koenma said. "Both of you."
To his surprise, they both did. He glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece at the exact moment that it changed to show that it was just one minute to midnight.
"If there's anything you wanna tell us Koenma, now would be a really good time to do it," Yusuke said darkly.
Koenma turned his attention from the clock to the wanted poster he was still cradling in his hands. Under the heading "Known Accomplices" there were several names, including Yukina's. Koenma was surprised to see her name there; but only because he was surprised that whoever had made the poster had known her name to add it. The fact that Yukina was an accomplice of the cat demons was neither surprising nor new information to Koenma; in fact, Yukina's association with the cat demons had been what had first brought her to his attention.
"The only one who can explain Yukina's association with the cat demons is Yukina," he concluded, lifting his head to meet Yusuke's eyes.
"Okay, that's fine," Yusuke replied. "But you need to go to spirit world and lift the ban on attacking the cat demons."
"I'm sorry I can't do that, Yusuke," Koenma calmly replied.
"If we can't attack these cats, there isn't much we can do," Yusuke pointed out. "They've taken Kuwabara, who can cut through barriers to get them between worlds, they've taken Hiei who could have helped us track them down with his jagan eye and now they've got Kurama who knows all about demon plants, including the demon plants the cat demons use to fight. They've taken all of our best weapons to control them with so now the only option we have left is brute force."
Yusuke punched a fist into an open palm to demonstrate his point but Koenma remained unfazed.
"If you maim or kill even one cat demon, the consequences will be dire," he flatly replied.
"So you keep saying," Shizuru said. "But what else can we do?"
Koenma did not answer her: he was unsure how to without provoking Yusuke yet again and he was shortly saved from having to think up a diplomatic reply when the sound of someone at the front door caught everyone's attention. Yusuke was the first to the door, shouting out a very descriptive expletive before stepping to one side to afford the others a view of what had met him on the doorstep.
"It's worse than I thought," Kurama said breathlessly.
Koenma could not help but agree as he watched Kurama stagger along the hallway, Yukina's limp and blood-stained body barely supported in his arms.
"What happened?" Keiko asked.
"Something terrible and illogical," Kurama replied as he followed Shizuru into the downstairs guest bedroom.
He carefully laid Yukina on the bed and then stepped back.
"Who did this to her?" Shizuru asked as she knelt by Yukina's side.
"That's an interesting question," Kurama replied.
"It was those awful cat demons!" Botan cried, running around to the other side of the bed and kneeling down, her hands hovering over Yukina, her eyes darting about wildly.
"It appears Shigure has a successor," Kurama said, pointing at Yukina's head.
Botan looked up at him curiously before moving her hands to a cloth wrapped around Yukina's head that had been so soaked through with blood, it smudged off onto her hands the moment she touched it. She carefully removed the dressing, revealing a deep gash running across the centre of Yukina's forehead.
"Gross!" Yusuke said, leaning over her. "What the hell did that?"
He made to poke a finger at the wound, ignoring the others when they all warned him to stop: an instant before his finger made contact with the wound it suddenly opened wide to reveal an angry third eye that fixed onto Yusuke at the same moment one of Yukina's hands suddenly sprang to life and clamped onto his wrist. He yelped and Kurama quickly leapt forwards, grabbing Yusuke's arm in one hand and Yukina's arm in the other, forcing them apart. As the contact was broken Yukina's third eye snapped shut and her arm fell limply from Kurama's hand; but Yusuke had been left with a vicious frost burn on his wrist in the shape of Yukina's hand and fingers.
"What the hell was that?" he cried as he saw the damage for himself.
"Someone, or something, made Yukina think that it was a good idea to get a jagan eye implanted," Kurama replied. "I found her in the recovery wing of the new surgeon's offices. He told me she approached him earlier today, offered him some of her tears as payment and asked for the operation. He said his technique won't drain her demon energy the same way Hiei's operation did, but that she will take a long time to adjust and fully recover. Also, after some gentle persuasion, he told me he was responsible for implanting a jagan eye into Tora the cat demon we keep encountering."
"She just tried to take my hand off!" Yusuke snapped.
"It's your own fault for trying to poke her in the eye!" Botan snapped back at him.
"Why would she do this to herself?" Keiko asked tearfully.
"Isn't it obvious?" Kurama asked.
"No!" Yusuke yelled, waving his wounded wrist in front of Kurama's face.
"I'll make you a poultice for it," Kurama offered.
He left the room and Yusuke glanced about the others.
"I'll help Yukina," Botan said, moving her hands over Yukina's head.
"Stop!" Koenma warned.
"Why?" Botan asked innocently.
"Because this!" Yusuke answered, pointing at his wrist.
"I don't want you touching Yukina, Botan," Koenma said, ignoring Yusuke.
Botan's face changed, a strange look passing over her features, forming an expression Koenma had only ever seen her wear a handful of times during her time working with him.
"You think she should be left to feel the pain of her wounds as punishment for what she did," she said.
"I didn't say that."
Botan's assumption was wrong but, in Koenma's mind, what she was accusing him of was very much easier to explain than the truth.
"I don't agree with you," she said firmly.
Koenma moved closer to the bed, leaning over it towards Botan.
"We've lost Kuwabara and Hiei and now the only one who could help us recover them and rid the living world of the cat demons has incapacitated herself," he said carefully. "We can't afford to lose anyone else."
"That's true," Yusuke said. "Even having a ditz like Botan is better than having one less body."
"If Yukina is the only one who can help send the cat demons back to their realm and help us get Kuwabara and Hiei back then wouldn't it make more sense to heal her as quickly as possible?" Botan asked, as undeterred as ever.
"Botan, leave her be," Koenma sternly replied.
Kurama returned to the room and wrapped a leaf spread with a paste around Yusuke's wrist.
"I'm going to heal her," Botan said, positioning her hands closely over Yukina's forehead.
"That's a good idea," Kurama said.
Koenma shot the fox demon an admonishing look, but he appeared not to notice.
"The sooner she wakes up, the sooner she can explain herself to us and the rebel cat demons," Kurama added.
"Exactly my point," Botan said, nodding smugly at Koenma.
The spirit world prince winced as he watched a glow form on Botan's palms, illuminating Yukina's pale face.
"If she takes off your arms it's your own fault," Yusuke warned her.
"She won't hurt me because I won't try to poke her in the eye," Botan answered him. "And also because she knows I'm helping her, like I always do."
Koenma reluctantly retreated from the room and he was surprised to see Keiko following him.
"I don't think I can do this," she whispered to him as they moved away from the doorway. "I can't fight an army of demons!"
"Fighting won't help this situation," Koenma whispered back. "I have to go back to spirit world – to buy us some more time to get rid of the cat demons – can you make sure that nobody leaves this house before I get back?"
Keiko nodded.
"I can do that," she said, smiling ironically. "I can boss people around, I'm good at that!"
"You're good at many things," Koenma reassured her. "Stay guard and I will return as quickly as I can."
Keiko nodded and Koenma quickly left the house before anyone else could notice his departure and question him on it. Once outside he quickly made his way back to spirit world, reverting to his toddler form and scurrying through back corridors to a room he rarely visited. There he found a single large metal container filled with several small mailboxes, each requiring its own key to be opened. He retrieved the key from inside his shoe and opened the box he sought – which was thankfully on the bottom row and easy to reach in his smaller form – removing the paper file and locking the box once more.
Koenma then did something he rarely did in spirit world and transformed back into his adult form, his larger size allowing him to more easily hide the paper file under his tunic. With the file safely concealed he stuffed the key back into his shoe and quickly left the room, checking about himself as he crossed spirit world, bringing himself to one of the portals to demon world. To his relief, it was not guarded on the spirit world side and he was able to slip through, landing in demon world beside a troll who gave him an odd look before lumbering off. Aware that he was very conspicuous and easily identifiable, Koenma quickly and quietly made his way to where he needed to be – which thankfully was only a five minute walk from where he had landed – and was relieved to see the demon he sought sitting by a fire roasting something that looked completely inedible.
"Hello."
The demon looked around at Koenma at the sound of his voice.
"I need to ask a favour of you."
Koenma gulped nervously as Enki stood up, his enormous shadow falling over the prince.
"I need to ask you to hold onto this."
Koenma removed the spirit world file from his tunic and held it out towards Enki with a shaking hand.
"What is it?" Enki asked.
"It's a file," Koenma replied.
"A spirit world file?" Enki asked. "Why would you bring it here?"
"I need to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands and I think it will be safe with you."
"If it shouldn't fall into the wrong hands, wasn't it really, really stupid of you to bring it here yourself?"
"…It wasn't really, really stupid, it was really, really brave."
Enki shrugged.
"Seems really, really stupid to me," he said.
"Can you keep this safe or not?" Koenma snapped irritably.
"That depends," Enki replied.
Koenma sighed.
"How much do I have to pay you to do this for me?" he asked with a roll of his eyes.
"I'm not looking for payment," Enki replied. "I just want to know if holding this file will make your spirit world soldiers come after me or any of my people."
"No, that won't happen," Koenma lied. "This file is about Raspberry Sundae. Do you know what that means?"
"The cat demon tribe?"
"Yes. The rebel leader became a spirit world informant and this file contains details of everything she reported to us. It also contains details of her death. Everything in this file is contentious and if any of the cat demons – loyalist or rebel – ever got sight of the contents, the war they are waging against each other could spill out across your world and mine. Do you understand?"
Enki nodded.
"So can you help me?"
"I think I can."
"You promise to guard this file with your life and you promise not to read the contents?"
"I can look after the file, make sure no cat demons see it."
Koenma could not help but notice that Enki had failed to promise to protect the file at all costs and he had also not promised not to read the file: but, he reasoned, it was far better that Enki read the file than anyone else did, and so he nodded.
"Thank you," he said as Enki accepted the file.
"You'll come back for it?" Enki asked, holding it up.
"Yes," Koenma confirmed. "Soon, I hope."
Enki nodded and Koenma turned to leave.
"Do you need an escort back to spirit world?" Enki asked him.
Koenma watched a spiny reptilian demon fly over the route back to the portal to spirit world.
"That would be nice," he said, grinning nervously at Enki.