Chapter 11 – By Any Other Name
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
(Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare)
Kurama opened the front door to leave but stopped at the sound of his mother's voice calling for him. He turned to see her running towards him with a light waterproof coat in her hands.
"In case the weather turns," she said.
"I'll be fine," he said, holding up a hand to refuse her offer. "I drive most of the way and it isn't far from the car park to the office."
"In case you want to go out at lunchtime then," she insisted.
Kurama hesitated, Shiori's words bringing another thought to his mind.
"I may be late home again tonight," he said carefully.
"You've been working such long hours lately, Shuichi!" she replied, her face creasing with concern. "I hope you're not wearing yourself out!"
He made to answer her but stopped as she hurried off again. When she disappeared from sight altogether he lingered a moment longer before stepping out onto the porch.
"Take this jacket instead!"
Kurama stopped and turned again to find his mother hurrying towards him with his formal dinner jacket in her hands.
"That's not necessary," he assured her as she joined him on the porch. "And not really appropriate for the office."
She smiled slyly and Kurama began to grow concerned.
"A mother knows her son," she said in a tone he had never heard her use before. "Just because you're all grown up now, doesn't mean I don't still know exactly what you're up to. You never could hide anything from me."
Kurama tightened his hold on his briefcase, silently wondering if that was what his mother was referring to: it was stuffed to bursting point because he had packed a change of clothes, his collection of demon plant seeds and some bandages into it.
"I know you're not really "working late"," Shiori added, giving him a knowing look.
"Well, I…" he began, unsure how to respond; he never relished lying to his mother, even about matters relating to his demon identity.
"I think it's wonderful that you have a girlfriend."
"What?"
Kurama's head snapped up as he heard a snorting noise above his head and he caught sight of his step-brother ducking back through his open bedroom window.
"You're such a lovely young man, so handsome and kind, I'm just so happy that you've found yourself a nice young lady; I just hope she's worthy of you."
Kurama heard Kokoda laughing out loud in his bedroom.
"It's not like that mother, I assure you," he said, gently pushing away her offer of his dinner jacket.
"You look so fetching in this jacket," she said, pushing the jacket towards him again.
"I'm not going anywhere that would require me to dress so formally," he tried.
"Are you going to a movie?"
Kurama opened his mouth to reply but found himself suddenly racked with guilt: Shiori was smiling up at him with genuine hope. This was a side of his mother he had never seen before. It was not that she had never asked him about girls before – because she had done so almost every time he had been late home because of something related to his duties as part of the spirit detective team or in demon world – but it was the first time he had realised that she actually genuinely wanted him to have a girlfriend.
"Yes," he eventually answered.
"Is it a romantic movie?"
Kokoda laughed louder.
"Yes…?" Kurama faintly replied.
"Oh I see," Shiori said, nodding her head and finally lowering her arms, desisting from attempting to force the jacket onto him. "Well it sounds like it's getting serious."
"I… Um…"
"When can I meet her?"
Kurama froze as, unbidden, a vision flashed through his mind of him returning home that evening and walking into the living room as his mother was helping Kokoda with his studies and his step-father was doing a sudoku, with Yasashi at his side, her furry pink ears twitching and her slinky pink tail knocking over a vase.
"You could invite her over for dinner on Sunday!" Shiori said.
Her offer was horrifying to Kurama, but he was glad of the sound of her voice as it disrupted his thought process and brought him back to reality.
"I'm not sure about that," he said.
"Oh, alright then," Shiori said with a sigh. "I'm just so excited for you! My beautiful boy!"
She touched a hand to his face and he smiled awkwardly.
"Mother, please, you're embarrassing me," he said quietly.
"I'm just so happy for you!" Shiori replied, clutching his jacket to her chest and gazing up at him the same way she had when he had graduated from high school a year early and with the highest overall grade on record.
"Thank you," he said politely. "But I really must be on my way now."
"What's her name?"
"What?"
"Her name. What's her name, Shuichi?"
"Her name? It's, uh…"
Kurama felt as though a spell had been cast upon him as he was suddenly unable to think of a single female name to tell his mother as a lie. His eyes wandered across the front garden as he tried to find inspiration for a decent lie, all the while painfully aware that the longer he took to answer, the more obvious it would be that he was lying. His eyes passed and then returned to a plant he had recently bought and helped his mother plant in the garden and he blurted out the name of it.
"Raspberry Sundae."
"What?"
Kurama turned back to Shiori, the confused frown on her face making him realise how ridiculous his answer had sounded.
"I mean Botan."
"Botan? Like the flower?"
Shiori pointed at the flowerless peony, freshly planted by the edge of the garden. Kurama glanced over at it again, briefly wondering if it would ever recover from Tora tearing the flowerheads from it, before turning back to his mother and nodding.
"Yes," he said. "Botan like the peony rose."
"That's a lovely name," Shiori said, smiling her proud mother smile again.
"Okay," Kurama said. "I really must be on my way now. Please don't wait up for me. I'll see you in the morning."
"Have fun on your date."
Kurama nodded and started down the porch steps. As he crossed the garden path towards his car, from the corner of his eye he saw his step-brother lean out of his bedroom window again. He glanced up at him as he opened the car door and promptly wished he had not done so, as he began singing "Shuichi and Botan up a tree". Kurama sighed, throwing his briefcase across to the passenger seat and climbing into the car. He gave one last wave to his mother before he pulled out of the driveway and started the journey towards the harbour. As he left the street, he got an odd sense that he had forgotten or missed something; he looked down at his briefcase, wondering if he had forgotten to pack something he might need, but quickly realising that he could not practically have stuffed anything else into it.
He shook off the thought and continued to the harbour, parking up and walking to the highest point on the cliffs beyond the docks. He had discovered the day before that sailing was quite a slow means of travelling to and from Ping Island, and so, in order to maximise the amount of time he could spend there, he chose to travel back there by a different means. He touched a hand to the back of his neck, transferring some of his energy into a specific seed he had stored in his hair. As he felt it start to grow he tightened his hold on his briefcase and then took a running jump off the cliff. At first he fell, before the plant took shape behind him, forming butterfly-like wings that caught an updraft of air, lifting him up and out over the water. As he had suspected, flying was a far more efficient means of travel, as he reached the island in less than two minutes; but as he neared the shoreline, something large shot into the air at his side, creating a Jetstream that tore mercilessly through the leaves of Kurama's makeshift wings.
As he spiralled out of control and began plummeting towards the ground, Kurama caught a glimpse of what had launched from the island, his pending predicament momentarily forgotten as he saw the twin cat girls squealing with delight on the back of Yusuke's flying spirit beast.
"Got ya!"
Kurama closed his eyes briefly, using the moment to try to suppress how humiliating it was to be caught in the arms of a woman.
"I got your handbag."
Kurama slowly opened his eyes, finding himself cradled in the arms of the short but muscular cat demon with spotted legs, who was grinning at him far too cheerfully.
"Do I get a prize for rescuing the princess?" she asked him.
"Please put me down, Chita," he flatly replied.
She did as he asked and Tora limped forward, holding out his briefcase towards him.
"Your handbag, Milady," she said, curtseying as he took back his briefcase.
"You seem to be recovering well," he replied, hoping to distract her from what had just happened.
"Yeah, I'm a fast healer," she said, the slight twitch of her head suggesting she was too proud to admit that her recovery was primarily thanks to Kurama's assistance the day before.
"I didn't know you could use the floating leaf to fly," Chita said, tugging at the remains of the plant still attached to Kurama's back. "Seems a bit fragile, seeing as how you just fell, but it's still a pretty neat idea. Can you show me how to do that?"
Kurama smiled and nodded.
"Gladly, yes," he said. "But first I'd like you to help me with something."
"Sure, what is it?" Chita asked.
"Can you tell me why Yusuke's spirit beast is here?" he asked, pointing up at Puu, who was looping through the air and crying out along with the girls clinging to his back.
"Your friends used that thing to get here this morning," Tora replied.
Kurama turned to her, hoping that she would tell him she was just making another of her overly sarcastic and highly inappropriate jokes at his expense.
"Yasashi isn't too pleased about it either," she said instead, the darkness of her expression telling him she was serious.
Kurama nodded and tore the remainder of the floating leaf from his back before starting towards the hotel entrance. As he neared his destination, he saw that, with the exception of Tora – whose left leg was still in bandages and bothering her from the damage done by the sinning tree – the rebels were all fully recovered and back on their feet. They were all milling about, but they were mostly playing rather than training, which was what he felt they really ought to be concentrating their efforts on. Some of them were making clothes, some were eating, some were just sitting talking amongst themselves and Chita had just joined Yusuke in a competition to see who could squeeze the most juice out of a watermelon.
"Yusuke!" Kurama blurted out as he neared the Mazoku. "What are you doing here?"
"Not now, fox boy!" Yusuke replied, glaring at Chita as he compressed the watermelon between his hands. "I'm winning this!"
"In your dreams!" Chita scoffed.
"Watch me, spotty!"
Kurama sighed, placing his briefcase down on the frame of what had once been a water fountain. As he waited for Yusuke to finish his pointless endeavour, he noticed that the group of cat demons sitting in a circle chatting were sitting around an actual cat: a tri-colour, very familiar, cat.
"Kuwabara?" Kurama said as he noticed that one of the cat demons in the circle was in fact a red-haired human man.
"I know right?" Yusuke snorted.
Kurama turned his attention back to Yusuke, who was still straining with the watermelon task.
"He insisted on bringing his cat," Yusuke explained. "He said she'd been off her food lately and he thought the cat demons could give him some advice on how to get her to eat again."
"Yusuke, that's absurd," Kurama said sternly.
"I know!" Yusuke agreed. "I told him that! I said "hey, Kuwabara, they're demons, not frigging vets"! But he didn't listen!"
Kurama sighed patiently, looking around the hotel itself and then noticing two figures having a heated conversation on the balcony over the hotel entrance. Realising that Yusuke was in no hurry to give him any substantial answers and already knowing that Kuwabara would not be any more helpful, he grabbed up his briefcase and leapt up to the balcony with the aid of a hollow window-frame halfway up the wall. As he landed on the balcony he was at first surprised by the way he was greeted.
"Oh Kurama, thank goodness you're here!" Yasashi said, walking over to him and putting her hands on his shoulders.
"It's nice to see you again too, Yasashi," he said, suppressing a smile.
"Now that you're here, you can help me talk some sense into this girl!"
Kurama felt something sink in his chest but he ignored it when he realised that Yasashi was indicating Yukina.
"What are you doing here, Yukina?" he asked her.
"I want to help Yasashi," she replied, looking alarmingly like her brother as she took on a look of stubborn determination.
"And I've already told her it's too dangerous!" Yasashi added.
"Are you the reason Yusuke and Kuwabara are here?" Kurama asked Yukina.
"No," she replied. "Well… I didn't ask them to come with me. I only asked Yusuke if I could borrow Puu to come here and when I told him I was coming here, he insisted on coming with me. And then Kazuma found out and he said he wanted to come too because he was worried about me."
"Kuwabara came here because he wanted to ask me if I prefer cod or halibut when I'm moulting!"
Kurama stiffened at Yasashi's outburst.
"Is that a joke?" he asked her quietly. "Your humour is so off-key sometimes I can't always tell when you're being serious."
"Kuwabara thinks I am the same as his pet cat Eikichi," she flatly replied.
Kurama swallowed and nodded his head quickly.
"Yes, I did notice he brought the cat with him," he said.
Yasashi looked over at Yukina and forced a smile.
"Sweetie, would you do me a favour and tell Kuwabara to keep an eye on his cat, in case she wanders off?" she said. "There are a few concealed pot-holes and piles of broken glass amongst the grass, I wouldn't want the little dear to get hurt or lost."
"Oh, of course!" Yukina said.
She hurried back into the hotel, leaving Kurama and Yasashi alone on the balcony.
"You have to get rid of them."
"What?"
Yasashi gripped her hands tighter into Kurama's shoulders.
"You have to make Yukina, Yusuke and Kuwabara – and the cat and the bird – leave," she said firmly. "Yukina has told me she wants to come back to demon world with us to join the fight against the loyalists. I can't let that happen."
"Why not?"
Yasashi's fingers opened out, her hands resting on his shoulders and her eyes doubled in size.
"Isn't it obvious why not?" she asked. "No outsiders get involved in our battle, that's always been the way of it! It's far too dangerous!"
"I think you need all the help you can get," Kurama replied. "And I'm in no position to criticise anyone else for joining your cause despite knowing the risks involved, because I fully intend to return to demon world with you."
Yasashi snatched her hands back from his shoulders.
"I can't let you do that either," she said quietly.
"And neither can you stop me," he pointed out.
"There is an unspoken rule in demon world that no outsiders get involved in the fight between the rebels and the loyalists," she said carefully. "The consequences could be dire: and I know you understand that better than anyone."
"I do understand it completely," Kurama assured her. "Yet I still intend to join you. If you are concerned about Yukina, the best I can offer to do is to help explain to her the risks involved, but I cannot conscionably advise her against assisting you."
Yasashi folded her arms and glowered at him.
"I understand your frustration, but you must understand why Yukina feels obliged to help you," he said. "When she admitted to knowing you, she spoke very fondly of you."
"She's volunteering for all the wrong reasons," Yasashi said, shaking her head. "She feels guilty, she feels indebted to me because Iruka and his men attacked me when I was escorting her back from the living world. I pushed her back through the portal because I knew they would take her for her tears, but I think she feels she could have helped me that day. I think she thinks they only attacked me because she was with me, or that I put myself into their path by going to meet her. She's wrongly blaming herself for what happened to me. I don't want anyone getting involved in this fight because of me. If anyone wants to help out because they believe in our cause then I can accept that, but I don't want anyone making this personal and letting any feelings they might have get in the way of good judgement!"
"…Are we still talking about Yukina?"
Yasashi chewed at her lip and frowned.
"I see," Kurama said. "You're telling me I'm not welcome to join your fight either."
"Not if you're only doing so because of your feelings for me."
"Maybe I do believe in your cause."
"You never cared for the cause before you met me."
"That's true, but I never really understood it before I met you."
"You never cared for the cause after you met me."
"Things have changed. Your situation has changed. My opinions have changed."
"You've changed."
"Yes, I have."
"Shuichi."
Kurama narrowed his eyes.
"That isn't funny, Yasashi," he said.
"No, it's not, I agree," she replied. "You have a life here and commitments here as Shuichi. My problems were never yours and as much as I appreciate that you want to help us, I must refuse."
"You know that what is left of your followers is not enough in either number or strength to have any chance of survival in a head-on battle against the might of the loyalists."
"Yes, I do know that. I don't expect to come out of this alive, which is why I don't want anyone else risking their life."
"If you know you are out-matched, shouldn't you be accepting any offers of help?"
"No. I don't want you or Yukina to get hurt."
"So that's a decision you've reached based on your feelings for me and Yukina, not on the interests of your cause."
Yasashi paused, clearly taken aback by Kurama's response.
"As the leader of this movement, you must do what is best for your followers," he continued. "And the best thing you can do for them right now is to make sure they as prepared as possible and as strong as possible: and that means accepting the help that's being offered to you."
Yasashi pouted and her shoulders slumped forwards.
"I knew I shouldn't have let you talk so long," she muttered.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because I knew you'd use your infallible logic to make me agree to something illogical!" she snapped back.
"You're welcome."
Kurama smiled but Yasashi pouted again.
"I brought a change of clothes and some seeds you may or may not be familiar with," he said, indicating his briefcase.
"Oh good," Yasashi said, brightening a little. "It would be helpful if the girls could learn about some new demon plants. And does the change of clothes help you transform from Shuichi into Yoko?"
She flicked a finger at Kurama's tie and he smiled tightly.
"Only if I put them on in a telephone booth," he said.
"What?"
"Nothing. I'll get changed, can you gather everyone together?"
Kurama smiled and politely accepted Yukina's offer of food: it was late afternoon and he had spent the entirety of the day assessing what the strengths and weaknesses of the rebels were and assigning them seeds accordingly. He had successfully worked with six of the ten cat demons, but the remaining four would prove more difficult, and is in his moment of hesitation, Yukina had brought him some freshly roasted fish on a leaf and the offer had reminded him how hungry he was.
"This is fun, right?"
Kurama turned his head as Yusuke sat down next to him on the wall of the sunken garden.
"Far from it, Yusuke," he solemnly replied.
"Yeah, they're gonna get creamed when they go to demon world," Yusuke said before stabbing a small sharp stick into part of Kurama's fish and taking it for himself.
"Yes, they won't last long," Kurama agreed. "Which is why no part of what we are doing here today can be described as "fun"."
"Relax old man, I've got a plan," Yusuke said through a mouthful of food.
"Yasashi is adamant that she doesn't want us joining her fight," Kurama warned him. "And I'm surprised that you would want to, after all the bother her followers have caused us of late."
"I'm not doing this for Raspberry Cheesecake or any of her freaky friends."
"Sundae. It's Raspberry Sundae."
"I'm doing this because she's your girlfriend and you've always been cool about helping Keiko out with anything."
Kurama watched Yusuke help himself to another piece of the meal he himself was yet to touch. Yukina had cut the fish in half lengthways and then made several horizontal cuts to create convenient little cubes, which was making Yusuke's thievery all the more efficient.
"Yusuke, do you remember what Hiei and I told you at the start of this little debacle?" he asked.
"Sure," Yusuke replied, accidentally spitting a flake of fish onto Kurama's knee. "You said these loyalist bastards are all B Class. That's a big deal for the rebels here, but not really for you and me, right?"
Kurama moved his fish out of Yusuke's reach as he made to take another piece.
"Yes, I did say the loyalists are mostly of the B Class rating," he said. "The tribe leader, Jagasame, is an A Class demon. Iruka is – or rather always was – the second strongest of the tribe. There will be some lower level cat demons to contend with too, but it's not the power differences I was referring to. I was asking if you remember Hiei and me telling you about why nobody else in demon world gets involved in the cat demon war."
Yusuke tried one last time to steal a piece of Kurama's food before throwing away his stealing stick and looking thoughtful.
"Something about the bounty hunters, I think," he concluded.
"Yes, exactly," Kurama said. "As soon as the rebels return, en masse, to demon world, every bounty hunter, bandit, loyalist and general opportunist in demon world will start hunting them. They will kill anyone who stands in their way: and that includes you if you take part in this."
"Hey, it's not like I've not been the under-dog before," Yusuke pointed out. "And besides, I'm stronger than anyone who's gonna come after us and I'm in a position of power in demon world, so a lot of these "opportunists" won't dare touch me."
"Which brings us nicely to the next problem: you are something of a political figurehead in demon world, you can't be seen to take a side in this. It's not even happening on your territory, which makes it even less of your concern. The other leaders might not appreciate what you are doing: I know Yomi certainly won't."
"This "Hinterlands" place Raspberry Squash was talking about is in Yomi's territory?"
"…Raspberry Sundae…"
"I know. It just cracks me up the way it actually pisses you off when I get it wrong."
"I see. And no. The cat demon's domain isn't in Yomi's territory, it's in Mukuro's territory."
Yusuke looked down at the fish still resting on Kurama's knees and the fox demon quickly grabbed up a cube and began eating.
"Didn't think you were ever gonna eat that…" Yusuke muttered. "But if the cat demon's land is in Mukuro's territory, isn't the solution really simple?"
Kurama gave Yusuke a questioning look, his mouth too full of food to voice his concerns; but thankfully Yusuke seemed to understand as he elaborated without a verbal prompt.
"We just need to get Hiei involved. Everybody in Mukuro's territory knows who he is and how important he is there so nobody – none of those bandits or whoever – will interfere. It'll just be you, me, Hiei, Yukina and the rebels against the loyalists."
Kurama raised his eyebrows.
"Probably also Kuwabara," Yusuke added. "I don't think he'll let Yukina go out to fight without wanting to be there too."
Kurama lowered his eyebrows into a frown.
"Don't worry: I'll make sure he leaves his cat at home this time," Yusuke said.
Kurama swallowed the contents of his mouth and folded the leaf over the rest of his meal to prevent Yusuke from taking any more while he spoke.
"Where is Hiei?" he asked as the thought occurred to him that he had not seen Hiei since the fire demon had left Ping Island the night before.
"Back in demon world, I suppose," Yusuke said with a shrug. "We can always find him when we need him. And you know if we go to demon world with the rebels, he'll show."
"I'm not so sure about that," Kurama said. "He's still nursing a wounded ego after the rebels slipped past his patrol and then took him prisoner."
"Is that what's bothering him?"
"Absolutely."
Kurama began eating again, but promptly wished he had not as he almost choked on his food upon Yusuke's next remark.
"I thought he was sulking because he's the only one without a girlfriend now."
Yusuke grinned as Kurama struggled to swallow his food.
"How's that whole deal working out for you, anyway?" he asked.
"I don't know what you mean," Kurama lied. "The day is passing so quickly and I've only managed to work with half of the rebels."
"Stop changing the subject!" Yusuke said, capitalising on Kurama's momentary lapse in concentration and stealing another cube of fish from him. "She's been in spirit world all this time, holding in all those urges–"
"Yusuke, it's not like that."
"What? There's no way she saw any action in spirit world. Wasn't she the key keeper there? Doesn't even sound like she had an exciting job."
"Yes, she was the key keeper, she worked in the secret file room."
"Alone?"
"Yes, she was alone up there."
"Thirty years alone in a filing room with nothing to do or think about?"
"As I understand it, whilst she was in her spirit body, she had no recollection of her previous life. Her memories were only returned to her when she was returned to her demon body."
"So I guess if you help her out with this rebel war, she'll be so grateful you can finally–"
"Don't say "seal the deal"."
"Why not?"
"Because it's not like that."
"Why not?"
"She… Can't take me seriously in this human body."
Yusuke laughed at Kurama's reply but quickly stopped again when he saw the way Kurama was looking at him.
"Oh, you're serious," he said. "That sucks."
"She never took me seriously in my demon body either, so I'm not really sure when she's toying with me and when she's being genuine."
Kurama looked up at the sky, suppressing a sigh when Yusuke stole the last of his fish during his moment of distraction.
"I should get moving anyway," he said, placing down the empty leaf and standing up. "The last four rebels I have yet to spend any time with are the most difficult four to work with."
"That Chita chick is an actual cheater," Yusuke said as he stood up alongside Kurama.
"She's fine," Kurama replied, ignoring the way Yusuke screwed up his face. "And, as she is an upper level C Class demon, she is one of the few I have no concerns about."
"So who are you concerned about?"
"The four that remain: the two young girls, Tora and Yasashi."
"You're gonna make the little girls fight?"
Kurama turned to look fully at Yusuke, who, after a brief moment under Kurama's glare, started to falter.
"Yeah, they were pretty efficient when I first met them, I guess," he muttered. "And then again when they helped us get free…"
"Every one of the rebels will need to fight and that includes the children: who, ironically, appear to be stronger than their mother."
"Wow. But Tora and Yasashi should be alright, shouldn't they? Tora's got that extra eye now and isn't Yasashi an A Class?"
"Tora is foolish and reckless and Yasashi hasn't fought for a long time."
"Then I guess you'll have to spend some time helping her work out."
"Yes."
"Should I put on some music for you?"
Kurama frowned, the growing grin on Yusuke's face doing little to ease the already queasy feeling swelling in his gut.
"Because the two of you don't actually spar like the rest of us," Yusuke continued. "You just "dance", right?"
Kurama's face dropped.
"I don't understand why I ever confide anything in you," he said bleakly.
"Guess you must have a masochistic streak," Yusuke replied. "You keep coming back to me for more and you keep going back to catwoman for more too."
Kurama forced a tight smile and moved past Yusuke, trying to forget the conversation they had just had.
Keiko bent her knees and straightened her back until she felt her shoulder touch Shizuru's. Standing back-to-back in a clearing in the trees, each armed with their new weapons, they watched and waited silently. Dappled sunlight flickered across the tree trunks around them as a breeze played through the branches of the trees overhead. Other than the rustling of the wind in the treetops, the forest was silent and still; but a small, barely audible gasp from Shizuru warned Keiko that their situation was about to change.
A bat demon came screeching towards them – Keiko had encountered him many times before during her training with Kuroko – and she swung her kendo stick at him as he drew near, the end colliding with one of his wings. He spiralled in the air as his wing went limp at his side and Shizuru put a hand on Keiko's shoulder and leapt up towards him, driving her fist into his gut.
When he fell to the ground in a motionless, crumpled heap, both Keiko and Shizuru stopped abruptly, looking first at each other and then at the fallen bat demon.
"That was… Intense…" Kuroko said, poking a toe at the bat demon experimentally.
"It's this stick!" Keiko said. "Ever since I used it to fight those demons, it's become really powerful!"
"Can I see it?" Kuroko asked, holding out her hand.
Keiko passed her the stick and then turned to Shizuru.
"I think I broke his wing," she whispered.
"I think I disembowelled him," Shizuru whispered back, looking down at the brass knuckles decorating her fist.
"This is a fairly rudimentary weapon," Kuroko concluded, holding the stick out towards Keiko. "The powerful blow it can deliver is not because the weapon is powerful or well-made, it's because you have such faith in it."
Keiko numbly accepted the stick.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I mean that little encounter you had on Ping Island seems to have helped you with the one area of your training I was struggling to develop."
Keiko raised her eyebrows and Kuroko smiled warmly, taking a step closer to her.
"I'm talking about what's up here," she said, touching the tip of her finger to Keiko's forehead. "You were holding on to a lot of self-doubt and it was holding you back."
"Oh, well…" Keiko said, looking down at her weapon. "I guess it was just nice to be the hero and not the victim this time."
She looked up at Shizuru and they exchanged smiles.
"What about you, Shizuru?" Koroko asked. "Is that a power amplifier from spirit world you have there?"
"Yeah, it is," Shizuru replied. "I guess I forgot how much stronger it makes my punches."
All three girls looked over at the fallen bat demon.
"He'll be fine," Kuroko assured her.
"Kuroko?"
Kuroko turned to Keiko, who looked down at her kendo stick one last time before hardening her resolve and looking her teacher directly in the eye.
"Do you think we're stronger now?" she asked. "I mean I know we've made some progress since we began our training, but now that we've been in battle, do you think we're stronger?"
Kuroko nodded, but frowned as though suspicious of Keiko's question.
"I think what Keiko is trying very diplomatically to ask you is if you think we're strong enough to go to demon world," Shizuru offered.
Kuroko's eyebrows shot up.
"Why would you need or even want to go to demon world?" she asked.
"Well, our friend Yukina is going," Keiko explained. "And… She's not so much of a fighter, but lately she's been trying really hard and now she's going to demon world to help an old friend of hers in a fight and we want to go with her."
Kuroko's eyebrows dropped back down into a frown.
"Girls, I can't stand here and tell you it's a good idea to go to demon world or to get embroiled in any demon world affairs," she said sternly.
"This is different," Keiko said.
"Usually I'd agree with you, Kuroko," Shizuru said. "But when we saw the situation ourselves and when we saw how strongly Yukina felt about it, we felt we wanted to help if we could. I don't really want to go to demon world, but I don't think I can sit back and let Yukina go into this without us."
"I see," Kuroko said, nodding her head. "And what does Koenma have to say about the two of you – as agents of spirit world – going to demon world to take sides in a demon war?"
"We don't know," Keiko replied. "He's in prison."
Kuroko balked.
"Well…" she said, before clearing her throat awkwardly. "Things certainly have changed since my days as spirit detective…"
"He's in prison because he was harbouring the leader of the rebel cat demons," Shizuru explained. "Yukina told us the rebel leader will go to spirit world and help bargain for him to be pardoned, but she isn't going to do it until she's gone back to demon world and had her big showdown with the loyalists."
"Right," Keiko agreed. "So in a way, we're joining the fight to help Koenma. In a way, it's our duty to do this."
Kuroko sighed and shook her head.
"I really don't think this is a wise decision," she said. "You're taking guidance from a demon."
"Yukina's probably the most benevolent demon ever born," Shizuru pointed out.
"But she's still a demon and you shouldn't forget that," Kuroko warned. "And you said yourself that she is emotionally invested in this conflict. She might not be thinking rationally herself."
"The rebels managed to abduct Kuwabara, Hiei and Yusuke," Keiko said. "They're pretty cunning. I think everyone else might have underestimated them."
"Yeah, and it wasn't even like it took all of them to incapacitate the boys," Shizuru added with a smirk. "They were all taken down by a pair of little girls in pigtails."
Keiko giggled but Kuroko remained stern.
"You need to take counsel on this from a more reliable source," she insisted. "If you can't reach Koenma, you should at least take advice from Botan before you embark on anything rash."
"Botan's MIA too," Shizuru replied.
"What?" Kuroko echoed.
"We think Botan was arrested at the same time as Koenma," Keiko explained. "The last time we saw her she was on her way back to spirit world and Yukina said she's in prison."
"If King Enma has detained his own son and his most competent assistant, this is serious," Kuroko said.
"Yes, it is," Keiko agreed. "And that's why we have to join the fight."
Kuroko glanced back and forth between her two students before sighing again.
"I can see I can't talk either of you out of this," she conceded. "So instead let's spend the rest of this lesson on an area I never expected to have to cover with either of you: I'm going to show you how to make your own protective and defensive talismans. There isn't anything that can stop a powerful demon altogether, but some of the talismans I know of can deflect certain attacks, slow down some demons and cause minor injury to others."
"Sounds good," Shizuru said.
Kuroko nodded and started to leave. Shizuru followed after her but Keiko lingered, jabbing the toe of her shoe at the bat demon. When he groaned she yelped and hurried on after the others.
A/N: I couldn't find anything to back this up, but I thought Kokoda was 7 years younger than Shuichi/Kurama, so I'm saying he's 18 and in his last year of high school in this fic. This may seem like a minor/irrelevant point, but I figured I should add it in. During my research I did find out that his original name was also Shuichi, which isn't confusing at all…
Also, the opening scene of this chapter is like my favourite part of this story and my favourite aspect of this story. It's one of the two reasons why I was previously afraid of writing and posting a fic like this – I think it's really funny that super-powerful Kurama has to pass most of his days being super-boring and straight-laced Shuichi to his doting mother, but I don't think too many people share my opinion. The second reason I was wary of posting a fic like this in the past is because of what I am doing to the female characters: I know a lot of people don't like it when fanfics give new powers to characters that previously just had supporting roles in the original story. Don't care any more though, haha!