Chapter 12 – Control

Kurama stopped walking as his feet reached the sands of the beach. Puu stopped at one side of him and Yasashi stopped at his other side.

"I think today went well," he said. "Your strongest warriors probably aren't the ones you would expect, but your overall situation is not as dire as I originally feared."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Yasashi asked.

"No, I know exactly what you mean," Kurama replied. "I have yet to spend time with Tora or you."

"Not what I meant…"

"I will return tomorrow as early as I can. Tomorrow is, after all, our last day to prepare. The day after that, you will, I assume, be returning to demon world?"

"I'm not going anywhere until you return my weapon to me."

Kurama turned his head to look directly at Yasashi, who had turned fully towards him and was holding out her hand expectantly.

"I will return it to you when we return to demon world," he told her.

"I can make another one!" she argued.

"Yes, you can," he agreed. "But it won't be as powerful or effective. You spent a long time refining the raspberry sundae with your spirit energy."

"So then give it back to me."

"In due time."

"You don't need to hold onto it to bribe me, Kurama."

Kurama frowned and Yasashi narrowed her eyes at him.

"You left something behind here that will make it impossible for me to return to demon world without your knowledge," she said.

Kurama glanced around at Puu before turning more fully towards Yasashi.

"I have to return home tonight," he said. "But Yusuke and Yukina have no such obligation and you know Kuwabara wouldn't let Yukina stay here without him."

"You didn't even offer to take the cat with you," Yasashi grumbled. "Though I suppose you're taking the bird, so at least that's something…"

"Puu is the fastest means of travel for me," Kurama pointed out.

"I'm surprised Yusuke released him to you without complaint: usually when someone else wants Puu's help he makes some remark about how his spirit beast isn't a taxi…"

"Yes, that's true."

Kurama looked out across the water at the twinkling lights of the city, a strange feeling washing over him as he did so.

"You've heard Yusuke make that remark about Puu already?" he asked, turning back to Yasashi.

A brief look somewhere between guilt and surprise flashed across her face but she quickly hid it behind a smile.

"He does tend to vocalise whatever he happens to be thinking," she said.

Kurama nodded, but something still seemed amiss and he decided to address the issue.

"There is something I must ask you before I go tonight–"

"I'm also not really sure it was necessary for you to spend so long teaching the children to fight."

Kurama hesitated, taken aback by Yasashi's words.

"I know we are few in number, but we're not so desperate that we need to send our children into battle," she added.

"Yasashi, you do realise that those two children are amongst your strongest warriors?" he carefully replied.

"Perhaps so, but they are still children," she said, folding her arms as though she thought the matter was over. "They are the future of our group, I'm not sending them out onto the frontline of battle. I don't mind them supporting in the background, but nothing more."

"The loyalists' primary targets are you and Tora."

"Exactly. So the children don't need to be at the frontline."

"On the contrary. If you expect to remain as a group, you will need to protect yourself and your deputy."

"You know neither Tora nor I would allow that."

"I still have another day, perhaps I can change your mind."

"You're very confident. Shuichi."

Kurama sighed and Yasashi grinned.

"You should go," she said, taking a step back. "Get your beauty sleep."

"I was about to suggest the same to you," Kurama replied with a smile.

He turned towards Puu, readying himself to jump up onto the spirit beast's back, but he stopped as he felt something against his shoulder. He looked down at the fingers lightly resting on the material of his shirt, waiting for Yasashi to tell him why she had halted him.

"I just wanted to…" she began. "Well I… That is to say I…"

Her hand slid from his shoulder and he turned to face her again.

"Thank you Kurama," she said. "For everything. I do appreciate that you came here today and spent time with the girls."

Kurama nodded.

"It was the least I could do," he said casually.

To his surprise, Yasashi looked angered by his response.

"You don't owe me anything!" she insisted. "None of you do!"

"Then perhaps once I am through assisting you, you will owe me something."

"I think I already am indebted to you."

"Then perhaps once I am through assisting you, we can discuss how you can repay me."

For the first time ever, Kurama saw Yasashi look taken aback and a little flustered by his words; it was the sort of effect she usually had on him.

"Good night," he said, before turning and leaping onto Puu's back.

"Good night, Kurama," she replied.

Kurama allowed himself a small smile as he heard her use his name. He waved to her as Puu rose through the air and, as he crossed the water, a backward glance showed him that she remained on the beach watching his departure. Puu flew fast and she soon faded from his line of sight: but she did not move during the time that he could still see her. During the remainder of his flight back to the mainland, his walk back to his car and the drive home, he wondered what lay ahead of Yasashi: he doubted even she herself had seriously considered what fate awaited her upon her return to demon world. By waiting three days she had bought herself and her team time to recover, but she had also allowed time for Iruka to limp back to the hinterlands and rile the loyalist leader Jagasame into a frenzy.

As Kurama walked through the front door, it occurred to him that he had never seen Jagasame and he wondered if the last few decades would have been used wisely by the cat demon tribe leader: if he would have used the time becoming stronger and wiser or if he had become lazy and too dependent on Iruka and his other foot soldiers.

"Oh Shuichi, you're home."

Kurama snapped out of his reverie, surprised to find his mother peering at him sleepily from her place huddled under a blanket on the couch, a table lamp the only light illuminating the room.

"Mother!" he said, stepping into the living room as she sat up and smoothed her hair back from her face. "Didn't I ask you not to wait up for me?"

"Yes, you did," she replied through a yawn. "But I wanted to see you when you came home. How did your date go?"

Kurama had, after enduring such a hectic day, almost forgotten about the lie he had told his mother that morning.

"Very well thank you," he recovered.

"My offer still stands for Sunday."

"Sunday…?"

"If you're ready to introduce her to your old mother, bring her round for dinner on Sunday!"

Kurama laughed nervously as his mother stumbled over to him and put her arms around his shoulders.

"I promise I won't embarrass you," she said as she leaned back from the embrace, resting her hands on his shoulders.

"Don't be silly," he assured her. "I'm not embarrassed at all."

"You might be when I show her all your baby photos!"

Kurama's face twisted against his will as he found himself once more experiencing a vision that came from a dark recess of his mind that he apparently had no control over: he saw Yasashi sitting at the dining table laughing over photos of Yoko Kurama trapped in the body of helpless and entirely dependent infant Shuichi. He could almost hear her jokes about how it was that a legendary fox demon had ended up fully conscious in a body that he could not even control the bladder of. That, he thought bitterly, was an experience that Yasashi had at least forgone by having her soul transferred into an adult spirit body rather than the body of a diaper-clad baby human.

"Don't look so worried, Shuichi," his mother said warmly, the sound of her voice thankfully culling the sequence of potential disasters his mind had been spawning. "You were a beautiful baby and I promise I won't show her the photo of you with the big bee sting on your little nose."

Kurama forced a smile: he could remember the day that photo was taken. He had only been in his human body for a little over a year and he had crawled his way over to a blooming rosebush in the park his mother had taken him to for a picnic. In his mind he had been wondering if, now that his human body was finally mobile, he would be able to access his demon energy and start to influence simple plants. He remembered seeing his own, chubby little hand grab at a dog rose, his clumsy movements disturbing a bee that had then landed on his nose. He lacked the dexterity required to hit the bee away, and after several failed attempts, the enraged bee had stung the end of his nose, leaving it red and swollen and hindering the edges of his vision for the best part of a week.

"You were my brave little soldier that day," Shiori said with a sigh. "You never cried once."

Kurama forced another smile and tried not to think about how he had reacted the next time a bee had landed on his face at the age of fourteen, when he had finally regained control of a portion of his demon energy.

"It's late," he said instead. "I never meant to wake you."

"I have some leftover soup and crackers if you're hungry?"

Kurama opened his mouth to refuse the offer, but before he could speak his stomach betrayed him by letting out a noise he was sure his mother could have heard even if she had been in the next room.

"That would be nice, thank you," he said instead.

As he followed Shiori towards the kitchen, Kurama silently wondered what would happen after the showdown between the two factions of the cat demon tribe.

More specifically, he wondered if Yasashi would wait for him to return to demon world; because as long as his mother was in the living world, he had a duty to remain by her side, as Shuichi.

Yukina sat primly on the edge of the remains of the fountain in the Citron Hotel forecourt, silently wondering how Kuwabara had managed to fall asleep so soundly. He was laid in a hammock the cat demons had made by suspending an old curtain between two lamp-posts, one leg dangling out, his sock-covered foot brushing against the ground infrequently. She was unsure if she was more or less amazed that Yusuke had fallen asleep in the hollow frame of a window, lying on hard stone and snoring shamelessly.

But, she thought to herself as she watched them both, they were deeply asleep and had been for some time; which was giving her an idea.

She silently stood up, looked about to confirm that there was no-one else around and then she carefully removed her bandana. She already knew that Hiei could use his jagan eye to watch other people's dreams – she had caught him doing it to her several times – and she wanted to test if she could do the same. Using the jagan eye to read dreams seemed like a simple exercise to help her learn how to control her new power and she was sure neither Kuwabara nor Yusuke would mind her practising on them.

Yukina decided to start with Kuwabara. She hoped that she would not wake him and she wondered if she might even be able to interact with him within his dream. She moved over to stand next to Kuwabara's hammock, looking down at his face the way she had seen Hiei do to her and then closing her eyes, concentrating on opening her third eye the same way she had when Yasashi had helped her use her power to look ahead to Ping Island. She felt the skin on her forehead moving around to allow the eye to open – a sensation she was yet to become accustomed to – and she saw a watery image of Kuwabara sleeping on the hammock. She concentrated harder, trying to reach into his mind, trying to reach out to anything, but her vision did not change. She felt the same alien rush of power within herself, but still the jagan eye only showed her a flattened, blurry vision of the reality around her.

Yukina gave up with a sigh, opening her eyes again. She enjoyed a brief moment of blissful ignorance before noticing something untoward on the edge of her vision. She slowly lifted up her hands in front of her face, her eyes growing larger as she realised that her skin had turned green. She took a staggering step back, her breath coming in short gasps as she tried to figure out what had happened to her.

"Oh snowflake, you're in over your head."

Yukina spun around to see Tora smiling at her in a very patronising manner.

"You didn't even mean to do that, did you?" she asked.

Yukina started to shake her head and then tried to speak, but she was still too confused as to why her skin was green and why she could still feel the driving rush of energy in her chest despite having opened her eyes again. Tora smiled and held up a shard of a mirror she had oddly been carrying, turning it around to allow Yukina to see her own reflection.

Yukina looked at the green face looking back at her for a matter of seconds before screaming in blind panic.

Kuwabara was the first to respond, leaping out of his hammock before he had even opened his eyes and blurting out a promise to protect Yukina: until he caught sight of her, whereupon he too began to cry out in alarm.

Yusuke stumbled towards them, grunting out curses before noticing Yukina and joining Kuwabara in a yelling contest.

"What the heck did you do to my beautiful Yukina?" Kuwabara cried, turning to Tora expectantly.

Tora rolled her eyes and opened out her hands, allowing the mirror fragment to fall to the ground, where it shattered upon impact.

"I forgot Hiei could do that," Yusuke said as his initial shock started to pass. "Hey New Hiei, good job on figuring out how to power-up already!"

Yukina blinked owlishly before letting out a small sob of confusion and despair.

"She didn't do it on purpose," Tora spat. "Isn't that obvious?"

"Nobody likes you," Yusuke told her.

"Oh really?" Tora scoffed. "Then why are you all still here?"

"I'm only here because of Yukina," Kuwabara said.

"Didn't you come here to ask advice about your pet cat?" Tora asked him.

"We're here because of Yasashi," Yukina said.

Tora arched her eyebrows.

"Yeah, when I encountered Yasashi in her spirit form it did seem as though she was closely linked to–"

When Tora's head snapped back and she staggered back two paces, Kuwabara and Yusuke were left looking as shocked as Yukina felt as her outstretched fist hung in the air at the point where it had made contact with Tora's jaw.

"Nice," Yusuke commented.

Yukina slowly retracted her fist, relieved to see her skin was fading back to its normal colour once more.

"What's your problem, snowflake?" Tora snapped as she righted herself and rubbed a hand at her jaw.

"I'm the only one who has seen the file," Yukina flatly replied. "And you're the only one who has read my mind."

Tora moved her eyes over Yusuke and Kuwabara, appearing to consider what Yukina had just told her.

"If that's true, then I understand their presence here even less than I did before," she concluded.

"I think you should leave us now," Yukina said.

"Ooh, the little ice princess thinks she's something because she got a jagan eye!" Tora retaliated.

"We could say the same thing about you," Kuwabara pointed out.

"This situation right here is laughable: I could crush the little girl in seconds, the big idiot won't fight me because I'm female and the amateur comedian over here has one of the weakest defences I've ever encountered."

"Are you challenging me?" Yusuke asked, stepping forwards.

"Please don't do this!" Yukina said, holding up her hands. "We shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves."

"If that's how you feel, why did you throw the first punch?" Tora snapped.

"I don't care who threw the first punch, everybody stop it right now!"

Tora's eyes doubled in size and Yusuke, Kuwabara and Yukina turned to see what had caught her attention, finding Yasashi hurrying towards them, barefoot, a towel wound around her hair and another towel wrapped around her body.

"Don't you have better things to do with your time?" she asked as she neared Tora.

"Yeah, I do," Tora said, giving Yukina a dark look before darting off.

"I'm so sorry about Tora," Yasashi said, turning to Yukina.

"She doesn't like me," Yukina said.

"Oh, she doesn't like anyone!" Yasashi said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Don't worry about it. She's an excellent fighter and very loyal."

"Were you… Were you taking a bath?" Kuwabara asked.

Yasashi looked down at herself before answering him.

"Most of the interior of the hotel is still in tact," she replied. "There's plenty of clean linen and it didn't take much effort to fill a bath… What's your excuse?"

Kuwabara looked down at himself and looked a little embarrassed, but Yusuke was unaffected, despite his hair having fallen out of his preferred slicked back style.

"What are you looking at?" Yasashi asked him.

"Mee-wow, nice towel, catgirl!" he replied.

She stared flatly back at him.

"So I got a serious question for you," he continued. "It's about the changes that happened between the body you had in spirit world and your demon body."

Yasashi looked slightly concerned, but said nothing and so Yusuke pressed on.

"Which body needs a bigger bra?"

Yasashi growled, flashing her teeth at him.

"Yusuke, you pervert!" she snapped. "You're not even original! We had this conversation before and I will tell you now exactly what I told you the last time: that's not something I would ever discuss with you!"

Kuwabara turned abruptly to Yusuke.

"Gees, Urameshi!" he said. "You only met her yesterday and you've already asked her twice about the size of her… I mean the… I, uh… You're such a pervert!"

Yusuke shook his head.

"I never asked her about her bra size before," he said, turning his attention to Yasashi. "Get your facts right, lady!"

"You tried to get me to tell you what size of bra I wore when we were in the–"

Yasashi stopped abruptly, her face turning pale and her expression neutralising. There was a protracted and awkward silence, during which she barely so much as blinked.

"Why don't you boys go and get yourselves some breakfast," she eventually said.

She put her hands on Yukina's shoulders and pushed her ahead of herself, aiming her back towards the hotel itself. Once they were out of sight, Yusuke and Kuwabara turned to each other.

"That was weird, huh?" Kuwabara asked.

"Kuwabara?" Yusuke asked, his face twisting. "I gotta serious question for you now."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. How is it that your hair never falls out of style, even when you sleep on it or it gets wet?"

"…What?"

Yusuke and Kuwabara exchanged questioning looks.

"Also, Kuwabara, your girlfriend can turn into a green-skinned monster now," Yusuke said after a short silence.

"Oh yeah?" Kuwabara flatly responded. "Well your girlfriend's the new spirit detective, and she does a way better job at the diplomacy side of it than you ever did because she's way smarter than you ever will be!"

Yusuke and Kuwabara exchanged angered looks before turning their backs on each other and walking away in separate directions.

"Keiko, Shizuru! What are the two of you doing here?"

Kurama glanced back and forth between the two new spirit detectives, assuming that they had simply followed Puu without understanding where he was heading.

"We're coming with you," Keiko answered him.

"To Ping Island?" he asked.

"No, to demon world," Shizuru replied.

Kurama smiled.

"That's very funny," he said.

"Oh yeah?" Shizuru responded, turning to fully face him. "What's so funny about it? Because I wasn't joking, "Shuichi"."

Kurama cleared his throat and adjusted his tie self-consciously before answering her.

"My apologies," he said tightly. "I assumed you had seen Puu travelling to the bay or perhaps you were eager to get in touch with Yusuke or Kuwabara on Ping Island."

"No, we want to join the fight in demon world," Keiko said. "We're going to Ping Island today to find out what the plan is for tomorrow."

"As neither of you have ever been to demon world, I must advise you against this," Kurama tried.

"Can it fox boy, we've already made up our minds," Shizuru bluntly replied.

"I'm disappointed that you would be this rash, Shizuru."

Kurama leapt up onto Puu's back before either girl could answer him, settling himself at the base of Puu's neck. To his surprise, Shizuru leapt up effortlessly behind him. Keiko made a clumsy attempt to follow, only reaching her goal thanks to a helping hand from her friend.

"You have no obligation to get involved in this," Kurama continued as Puu stood up and spread his wings. "Either of you."

"We work for spirit world," Keiko replied. "And this whole mess started because spirit world were harbouring a demon fugitive, right? So that really makes this a spirit world issue and something that – if he wasn't in prison – I'm pretty sure Koenma would have asked Shizuru and me to look into."

"Exactly," Shizuru added.

"The loyalist cat demons alone are too powerful a nemesis for even your combined efforts," Kurama insisted. "But the rebels will not only be facing the loyalists, they will be constantly fighting off every bandit and bounty hunter in demon world."

"We know," Keiko said. "But we think we can handle it. Yasashi is a little… Eccentric… But Tora was strong enough and clever enough to capture Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei, and Tora says Yasashi is much stronger and smarter than she is, so we think Yasashi is strong enough to lead this battle. Yukina believes in her and Yukina hates violence, but she's joining the fight anyway."

"Yukina is acting out of a misplaced, guilty sense of obligation," Kurama pointed out. "Neither of the two of you have such burdens on your consciences. I am warning you, as a friend and as someone who better understands what lies ahead, to consider your actions very carefully before committing yourself to anything."

There was a short silence and, as Puu began the descent towards the forecourt of the Citron Hotel, Kurama thought that he had finally struck a chord of understanding in Keiko and Shizuru.

"I've thought about it, but I don't feel any differently."

Kurama suppressed a growl at Shizuru's words. Puu landed and she was the first to disembark, followed closely by Keiko.

"Sorry Kurama," Keiko called up to him. "We've already thought a lot about this and nobody can change our minds. Not even you."

Kurama lingered on Puu's back, watching Keiko hurry over to join Yusuke and Shizuru continue into the hotel. He then turned his attention to the pair of eyes he could already feel watching him, finding Tora watching him almost expectantly.

"Yasashi said I should train with you today," she said as their eyes met, sounding about as enthusiastic about the idea as Kurama felt.

"Yes, I promised her I would work with you this morning," he replied, disembarking Puu.

"Are you gonna change first?" Tora asked, walking over to stand in front of him.

She ran her eyes over him critically and he copied her action before giving her a small smile.

"I dress this way when I leave my home as a ruse," he explained. "I have to convince my human family I am merely leaving for another day of work at the office."

"That's fascinating, but I wasn't talking about you changing your clothes, I was talking about you changing your form," Tora flatly replied.

"My form?" Kurama echoed, genuinely unsure what she was referring to.

"No offense, "Shuichi", but you're not really much of a challenge to me in your princess form. I was rather hoping I could spar with Yoko today."

Kurama sighed quietly.

"What's the problem?" Tora asked, her amusement starting to show. "We all know Yasashi prefers Yoko to Shuichi. I thought you would have transformed before now for that reason alone."

"I will change my clothing, but nothing more," Kurama coldly replied. "And the first lesson I will teach you is how myopic it is to judge your opponent based on physical appearances or apparent lack of physically strong characteristics."

Tora rolled her eyes but Kurama ignored her, marching away with his briefcase and leaping through a hollow windowframe to take himself inside the hotel to find a more private place to change his clothes.

Shizuru moved silently through the halls of the hotel. She was not surprised that Keiko had not felt what she had as Puu approached Ping Island, but she was a little surprised that Kurama had not noticed it. Regardless, she found herself investigating alone, the pressing feeling of something miserable and conflicted leaning on her shoulders and head in a way that was starting to give her a headache. She felt a little disappointed in herself, mildly angered that her training was not sufficient for her to overcome the adverse effects she was feeling, but when she finally got close enough to the source of the sadness, she heard something that proved to be enough of a distraction that she forgot all about her creeping migraine.

Whoever it was that was sobbing nearby was someone she knew: the sounds she could hear were unmistakable.

Shizuru had heard those same stifled snifflings before but she could not quite place when, where or even who they belonged to. Everyone she knew on the island was outside the hotel and so the sound made even less sense; and just as she thought she could not feel any more confused, Shizuru reached an open doorway, the weather-worn door only hanging on by one hinge, and in the room beyond, she saw the leader of the cat demon rebels standing facing a wall, one hand on the wall, the other hovering by her mouth.

"Hey, are you okay?" Shizuru said as she entered the room.

Yasashi spun around, and despite the look of shock on her face, it was still evident that she had been crying.

"Hi Shizuru!" she recovered after a brief moment of panic. "I'm feeling great! In fact, so great, all I want to do is smile!"

Yasashi grinned in a way that almost looked maniacal and Shizuru silently wondered if the cat demon had any idea how terrible an actress she was.

"You know, there should be a law against feeling this great!"

"Okay, now you're over-selling it."

Yasashi faltered slightly and Shizuru moved closer to her.

"I've been getting this strange vibe from you from the moment you first followed Yukina into my house," Shizuru said. "It's like you're hiding a great amount of conflicting emotions and I guess at this stage, the day before you lead your rebels into battle, you really need to figure out what's bothering you and try to sort it out."

"It's just that…" Yasashi began, looking back over her shoulder out of a hollow windowframe.

Shizuru leaned to one side to share her view, finding herself looking down at everyone else on the island – with the exception of Kurama and Tora.

"When I died, there were forty-six of us."

Shizuru gasped involuntarily, turning wide eyes to the rebel leader.

"It's true," Yasashi sadly confirmed. "Including me, there were forty-six rebels. I've been gone for thirty years, and now there are only ten of us – and two of our number are children. In my absence, thirty-six rebels have been killed or converted: that's like one every ten months!"

"That's not good, but that just means you have to be stronger for those that are left," Shizuru replied.

"I don't know that I can be!" Yasashi said, her eyes watering again. "The rebellion was never about a war! It was just about me and Tora escaping the oppressive way of life we faced if we remained living under Jagasame! We were supposed to get that land from spirit world, we were supposed to find a safe place to live in peace!"

"Come on now, that's surely not entirely true. We all saw how happy the other rebels were to see you when you returned to them."

"I'm just a symbol of hope to them. Most of them – with the exception of Chita and the young girls – are older than me and can remember when I was born. They remember that I was being groomed to be Jagasame's wife and they remember how I used all my lessons to become stronger and learn how to break free. I've never faced Jagasame himself: they all think I'm stronger than he is, but how would they know? He always hid behind Iruka and his other foot soldiers, nobody knows how strong he is! My hand has been forced, I have to fight this head-on now."

"You won't be alone in your fight! Keiko and I are joining you, you know Yukina and Kurama are coming with you and, by the looks of things, my baby brother and his good friend Yusuke are joining in too. I'm pretty sure this Jagasame guy isn't any stronger than any one of the boys, least of all more so than all three of them combined."

Yasashi seemed to consider what Shizuru had said, but again she could sense that strange air of conflicting and powerful emotions barely concealed beneath the surface of the cat demon's demeanour. As Yasashi saw the way Shizuru was watching her she forced a smile despite the tear that escaped one of her eyes,

"Oh Shizuru!" she said. "We have to stop meeting like this! Me crying in corridors and you coming in and being all sensible with your words and your… Reassuring words!"

Shizuru took a step closer to Yasashi and made to put a hand on her shoulder, but gasped when the rebel leader pounced at her, grabbing her into a fierce embrace. Shizuru awkwardly patted her on the shoulder, unable to escape the series of ideas that washed over her as she started to feel the warmth of Yasashi's body pressed so tightly against her own.

"Hey Yasashi, there's something I've been meaning to ask you," she started.

"What is it?" Yasashi asked, her hold as tight as ever.

"How do you know my name is Shizuru?"

Yasashi slowly loosened her hold of Shizuru and the two slowly stepped back from each other. The look on Yasashi's face only confirmed Shizuru's suspicions that something untoward was going on, that the rebel leader was hiding something vital.

"Because when I came into your house, I was told your name was Shizuru," Yasashi mechanically replied.

"No you weren't," Shizuru corrected her. "Yukina introduced you to us, but she didn't introduce us to you. How did you figure out that my name was Shizuru?"

"Because that's not what happened," Yasashi said, her voice as flat and her face as stiff as before.

"Yes it is," Shizuru insisted.

"No! It's not! I remember! Yukina said that Kurama, Keiko and Shizuru were in that house! And Kurama was gone and that left Keiko and Shizuru – which is you!"

"Yukina never told you which one of us was Keiko and which one was Shizuru."

Yasashi blinked.

"I figured it out when I heard you talking to each other," she said. "You called Keiko by her name and then I knew that you must be Shizuru."

"That's funny, because that's not how I remember it," Shizuru replied. "The first person to call one of us by our name was you: you called Keiko by her name seconds after you walked into the house without anyone telling you that she was the one called Keiko."

Yasashi's mouth moved but no sound came out.

"It's almost like you already knew who we were," Shizuru continued. "But I don't remember ever meeting you in spirit world. I thought you were the key keeper in spirit world and you never left the room with all the secret files. I've only ever been to Koenma's office in spirit world and even then only the once. And I'm pretty sure you'd never met Keiko before then either."

Yasashi stared blankly at Shizuru for several seconds before suddenly breaking out into an incredibly awkward and nervous laugh.

"Oh Shizuru, you do crack me up!"

"What?"

"You're such a comedian!"

"I'm not – hey!"

Shizuru tried to protest and tried to resist, but with surprising strength of grip Yasashi grabbed her shoulder and pulled her around and then began pushing her towards the open doorway.

"I have such a busy day ahead of me, I was just so nervous, but your wonderful jokes have cheered me up so much, thank you for stopping by, Shizuru!"

Shizuru grabbed at the doorframe and tried to halt herself there, but she only succeeded in slowing her exit as Yasashi pushed her on relentlessly, pushing her all the way to the exterior doorway of the hotel that she had entered through minutes earlier.

"Have a lovely day now!"

"Hey!"

Shizuru spun around as Yasashi released her, but with an impressive display of speed and agility Shizuru had not previously thought the cat demon possessed, she leapt up through a hole into the floor above and vanished from sight. Shizuru stepped back into the hotel, positioning herself directly beneath the hole in the roof, scowling up at it: something was definitely amiss with Yasashi, and she intended to find out exactly what it was. As soon as she was sure that the rebel leader was not going to return, Shizuru turned and left the hotel again, looking about those gathered outside. She focused on Yukina, who was standing patiently listening to Kuwabara regale her with a tale of his bravery. She wondered if the ice maiden would be able to answer the questions she needed to ask: after all, she had already demonstrated that she was fiercely loyal to and protective of Yasashi. It was a situation Shizuru had never expected to be in, but she actually felt unsure that she could trust Yukina to be entirely honest with her.

And so Shizuru turned her attention to Keiko.

"Hey sweetheart, you got a minute?" she said quietly as she reached her follow spirit detective.

Keiko turned to the cat demon she had been talking to, who nodded politely.

"Sure, is everything okay?" she asked as she turned back to Shizuru.

"Not really," Shizuru replied. "I need to go to spirit world to check out a few facts. And I need you to come with me."

Keiko looked about herself with wide eyes as though confused and a little afraid of what was being asked of her.

"Please Keiko, it's important," Shizuru insisted. "We have to go and we have to go right now."

"O-okay," Keiko agreed.

"Let's not make it obvious though," Shizuru said. "I'll go down to the beach we landed on and you bring Puu and meet me there in ten minutes. If we both go at the same time, someone might notice."

"Why are we sneaking away?" Keiko asked.

"I'll explain on the way."

Keiko nodded and Shizuru took one last look about herself before quietly departing from the group and starting towards the beach.