Chapter 13 – Spirit World Influence

Kurama held out a hand to Tora, who promptly growled and slapped aside his offer.

"I get it!" she snapped irritably. "You're still strong, even in that pathetic body!"

"I'm not trying to beat you down, Tora," he gently replied. "I didn't even launch an attack: you rebounded off of my defence. I think you need to admit to Yasashi – and to yourself – that you are still weakened from the venom of the sinning tree. You're sluggish, off-balance and you don't seem to have access to all of your demon energy."

"I'm stronger than any plant Iruka can summon, even if it was a sinning tree he used!" Tora stubbornly retorted.

"Unfortunately, it appears as though our session today will not be about me teaching you any new fighting techniques," Kurama said. "Instead it seems all I can hopefully teach you today is to know your own weaknesses and shortcomings and to be honest about them. You must remember that you are not acting alone and you are no longer in charge of the rebel movement. You are answerable to Yasashi and you must tell her the truth about your condition."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you "Shuichi"."

Tora slowly and awkwardly got to her feet, her teeth bared, her breathing still laboured and her body still shaking.

"Or are you "Kurama" now that you've changed out of that ridiculous human get-up you were wearing this morning?" she added.

"As much as I enjoy this verbal parrying, the salient issue here is not my name or identity," Kurama smoothly replied.

"Oh but it is," Tora immediately responded. "You put on your little shirt and tie and you live your human life as Shuichi and then you put on your formal fighting clothes and you get to be Kurama, but you're never really Yoko again."

"I'm not sure I understand the point you are trying to make."

"I know you spontaneously revert back to Yoko when you enter demon world. You want to tell Yasashi that I am too weak to stand alongside her so that she will concede to let you join us because that way you get to go to demon world, turn back into Yoko and make a fool of yourself in front of her all over again."

"I resent that. I have done nothing but help you these past few days – I could easily have captured you and returned you forcibly to demon world the first day I encountered you at the ice cream parlour but I have shown you leniency the likes of which you have never received from anyone else. I am not so shallow that I only desire to flaunt the body and power of Yoko Kurama in front of your leader."

"Oh no?"

"No."

"Are you sure about that?"

Kurama narrowed his eyes, not wishing to get drawn into a petty argument but equally losing patience with the constant insults he had been on the receiving end of since approaching Tora that morning. She smiled at his lack of a response and reached up her still shaking hands to commence removing her bandana.

"Did you forget that I have this?" she asked as she revealed her jagan eye. "I can see the truth with this."

"You are a fool if you think you can use your jagan eye to read my mind," Kurama bluntly replied. "Even Hiei, a true master of the jagan, cannot access my inner thoughts and desires. If you think yourself more capable than he then you truly are blinded by arrogance."

"Okay, maybe I can't use my jagan eye to read your mind, but it still allows me to battle in ways you haven't even addressed in this pointless little exercise of ours. Yukina maybe had absolutely no control over her new powers, but I can control my transformation into a more powerful form. If you really wanted to help me by working with my greatest strengths you would have offered to spar with me in that form: but instead you are forcing me to battle with plants I have no experience or knowledge of in order to make me appear weak so that you can justify to Yasashi that you are needed as part of our war on the loyalists."

"Time is not on your side and so it's hardly beneficial for either of us to continue this pointless discussion; particularly so when the argument you are making is so groundless and you are apparently deaf to my replies."

"Wow, now who's the one being arrogant?"

"If you cannot put this issue aside then I cannot help you any more today."

"I bet you'd like that too! Another excuse to go running to Yasashi to tell her I'm not strong enough and that she needs you with her too!"

"I will afford you one more opportunity to cease this bickering or I will turn around and walk away."

"Running away? Oh yeah, that's really helpful!"

"Hey, whoa, not interrupting anything, am I?"

Kurama had not felt so relieved to see Yusuke in quite some time.

"The two of you sound like an old married couple," he added. "What's up?"

"Perhaps you can help," Kurama replied. "Tora needs a sparring partner."

Without waiting to hear what either had to say on the matter, Kurama turned away from both Yusuke and Tora and swiftly left them behind. As Tora had insisted on having the sparring session far from the hotel, he was shortly on his own, walking through overgrown gardens and past a deteriorating tennis court; he suspected Tora had wanted to move their training away from the eyes of her peers, lest they all realise just how weakened she was. As the island was small however, the walk back to the hotel would not take long, but Kurama found himself walking at a slow pace, taking the moment of solitude to try to brush aside Tora's taunts, which had bothered him more than he would ever outwardly show or admit to.

Truthfully, he was not really sure how he felt about Yasashi: he was still amazed that she had survived, that she was back in her full demon form and that she was even more driven to rebel against the loyalists despite the passage of time and the loss of many of her followers. It was hard to even think what the future would hold for the rebel leader. She was facing a tough road ahead, as the only way her rebels could ever live in peace in demon world would be if she overthrew Jagasame as leader of the cat demon tribe, if she could somehow reach a peace treaty with the loyalists or if she was killed.

Kurama had almost forgotten about Yasashi and a small part of him felt it was almost cruel that she had been brought back for only three days before potentially getting herself killed again.

"Yo."

As though in response to his thoughts, the rebel leader dropped – seemingly out of the sky – and landed on the path ahead of him.

"Hello," he greeted her.

"If you're walking back this way, I assume that means you've finished with Tora," she said.

Kurama glanced over his shoulder, surprised by the silence behind him, as he had expected that Tora and Yusuke would have commenced some sort of altercation, be it verbal or physical, almost as soon as he left them.

"So now it must be my turn."

Kurama turned back to Yasashi, finding her smiling at him in a way that was not really appropriate given the gravity of her situation.

"We should discuss a little something first," he began.

"Right," she agreed. "Now you're either going to tell me you are insisting on coming to demon world with me or you're going to tell me that Tora is still weak from the effects of having her leg sucked into the sinning tree and she won't be fit for battle unless she can get past her stubborn pride and let someone help her heal or take the time to heal herself."

"You knew Tora was weakened?"

"Of course I did. I'm not an idiot – despite what Hiei might tell you."

Kurama smiled.

"Take heart, Yasashi," he said. "Hiei calls just about everyone an idiot at some point."

"I suppose so," Yasashi agreed. "But don't worry about Tora. I have a plan."

"You will need a rather robust plan," Kurama pointed out. "Among your group, Tora is second in strength only to you. Without her at her best, your team is considerably weakened."

"I have it all worked out."

"Really?"

"Yes. Of course, my plan will work a lot better once you return my weapon to me."

Yasashi put one hand on her jutted hip and held out the other expectantly.

"I already told you I would return it to you when we return to demon world. Together."

To Kurama's surprise, Yasashi smiled at his response.

"I see," she said.

He frowned, wondering why she seemed to suddenly no longer care that he was still holding onto her weapon.

"My training is to fight you for it."

"What?"

"You're not going to just give it back to me, I have to take it back. Right now. By force."

Kurama waited for Yasashi to tell him that she was joking, but her expression and stance remained unchanged.

"Actually," he began, when she said no more. "I–"

Kurama stopped abruptly, leaping back an instant before Yasashi landed where he had been standing. She met his eyes and for a moment both stood perfectly still, looking directly at the other. He caught a brief glint in her eye and took it as a warning that she was literally going to fight him for her weapon. She started to run to one side and he mirrored her actions, watching her closely for her next move. He was not sure that she had ever fought him seriously, but perhaps this time, with her desire to take back her weapon and to prove to him that she did not need his help against the loyalists, she was about to fight him with all she had.

He flinched involuntarily when she suddenly leapt at one of the few tall trees remaining on the island, leaping up it with a level of efficiency that rivalled Hiei's tree-scaling capabilities. He started after her, surprised to see that she was making no move to draw a weapon. She continued to the very top of the tree where she made what looked like a casual swipe at the smaller branches before leaping out of the tree towards the ground below. Kurama watched her land on her feet – something he knew she somehow always managed to do – and then he leapt after her.

Kurama grunted as his weight suddenly caught on his wrists and he found himself hanging in the air, just above the point where his toes could reach the ground. He looked up to see spirals of bark peeled from the tree and wound around his wrists and then he lowered his gaze, finding himself on eye-level with Yasashi, who was standing less than three feet in front of him, her arms folded and a mildly irritated look on her face.

"You could easily free yourself," she said, as though sensing what he was thinking. "You could have done it by now. Why haven't you? Are you going easy on me?"

Kurama smiled.

"I was curious to see what you had planned next," he said.

"Usually I'd use my raspberry sundae to send you to sleep and then I'd flee," she replied.

"That's honest."

"Yes, but impossible to enact as you still have my weapon."

"In this position, you could probably take it back from me."

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On where you've hidden it."

Yasashi began to pace back and forth, looking quite thoughtful – though in Kurama's experience, she usually only wore such an expression when she was building up to an insolent punch-line.

"You originally put it up your sleeve," she said as she paced. "But that was on your Shuichi shirt, not your Kurama clothes. You like to hide things in your hair but I also remember Gama falling foul of your hair once before so I wouldn't want to risk just putting my hands in there."

"Gama?" Kurama echoed.

"Yes, in the dark tournament," Yasashi replied. "He secured your arms and legs but you still managed to attack him by controlling your rose whip with a flick of your hair."

"…You saw my fight against Gama too?"

"I saw all your fights in the dark tournament. And I know you probably couldn't hear it from down in the ring but let me tell you the audience were stunned by that little "rose whip in the hair" trick you pulled. Stunned. It was the first time some of them actually shut-up for more than three seconds."

"How do you know how the audience were reacting?"

"And that's assuming – of course – that you have hidden my raspberry sundae up your sleeve or in your hair. You could have left it at home today as an excuse to come back here tomorrow. Or you could have hidden it somewhere else about your person…"

Kurama froze when Yasashi took a step closer to him and purposefully raked her eyes over his body.

"Are you happy to remain in that position?" she asked, her voice lowered as though she was afraid someone might overhear her.

"I can think of worse positions I could be in," he replied, lowering his voice to match hers.

"So does this mean that Shuichi is a submissive?"

Kurama sighed and Yasashi smiled.

"Or maybe Yoko is the submissive," she said.

"What?" Kurama echoed.

"In my experience, some of the more powerful demons in demon world quite like to take a submissive role since they are normally always so dominant in other areas of their lives."

Kurama tilted his head slightly, an idea occurring to him. Deciding that he had nothing to lose, he let himself ask the question that had arisen in his mind upon hearing Yasashi's last remark.

"As an A-class demon who habitually lived amongst far weaker demons, does that rule extend to you also?"

She looked at him as though confused, her eyes searching his before a brief look of understanding passed over her features and she found her smile again.

"Well, well," she said, her voice still quiet. "It seems Shuichi has a sense of humour."

"There's a lot you don't know about Shuichi," Kurama replied.

"I probably know more than you think," Yasashi replied, an odd look briefly fleeting across her face.

"I have a question for you now, Yasashi."

"Okay…"

"Since you claim you have studied my fights in the dark tournament, I wonder how many of my tactics you are familiar with? You say you saw my fight against Gama: did you see my subsequent battle against Touya?"

"Of course."

"And did you notice what tactic I used against Touya?"

"…You planted the seed of the death plant into your own body… Please don't do that right now. Even Yoko isn't that determined."

"I wasn't referring to how I finished my fight against Touya. I was referring more to how I started my fight against Touya."

"Started…?"

Yasashi pressed the tip of her index finger to her chin and rolled her eyes upwards as though trying to remember what Kurama had asked of her. She stayed that way for some time, eventually forcing Kurama to end the moment.

"Too late," he said.

"What?" she said, her hand dropping to her side and her eyes meeting his.

"The tactic I was referring to was how I distracted Touya with my words in order to buy myself enough time for Gama's curses to wear off," Kurama explained. "And you just fell for that exact tactic and now I have the upper hand in this altercation."

Yasashi gasped as Kurama slid loose from his binds and held out his hands clenched into fists.

"All that time you wasted talking, I was able to transfer my energy into the ivy growing on the tree you bound me to: and I used the plant to take the contents of your sleeves."

Yasashi turned far paler than seemed necessary, looking more horrified than surprised at Kurama's words.

"In this hand I have a ball of string," Kurama continued, opening out one fist. "And in this hand I have all your seeds and–"

Kurama stopped abruptly as his own eyes landed on the contents of his hand. He had not realised what he had recovered as his hands had been above his head when the ivy had brought him the contents of Yasashi's sleeves: but what he could see was the last thing he had expected to.

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't expect you to still have any… Mementoes from spirit world on your person…" he said quietly.

"I don't even know what that is!" Yasashi said, snatching the three mejiru shiiru labels from Kurama's hand and flinging them aside. "Anything from spirit world is bound to be garbage though, right?"

She laughed a little too loudly and falsely and Kurama could not help but feel suspicious.

"Is there anything else you're hiding from me?" he asked.

She stopped laughing and met his eyes, the look on her face doing little to ease his concerns.

Keiko turned to Shizuru, but found that her friend was still staring blankly ahead, seemingly at nothing.

"We've been here a long time," she commented.

Shizuru made a small sound of acknowledgement but otherwise did not respond.

"Do you think we will be allowed to visit Koenma?" Keiko asked.

"We're not leaving here until they let us through," Shizuru replied.

Keiko nodded and turned to look in the direction Shizuru was, wondering if she would be able to see what it was that was captivating her attention. Both girls were sitting on what appeared to be the only two chairs in a long, poorly-lit corridor that they had been left in after being passed between several different ogres in their attempts to visit Koenma. The last ogre had sat them down with the promise that he would arrange for them to see the prince, but a considerable length of time had passed and the corridor had become completely silent in that time.

Keiko moved her eyes upwards, scanning the dark recesses of the roof overhead, partly expecting to see cobwebs and rogue spiders: which then left her wondering if there were any spiders in spirit world. She had not noticed any other kind of wildlife – there were no birds in the skies or worms in the ground – and any spiders that were in spirit world were probably considerably larger and more powerful than those found in the living world. Keiko shuddered at the thought, drawing a small smile from Shizuru, as though she had already sensed what her friend was thinking. Keiko made to explain herself, feeling a little embarrassed that she had reacted the way she had for no apparent reason, but she stopped as she heard movement at one end of the corridor. Shizuru stood up, squinting through the darkness and Keiko joined her, watching as a lone figure started towards them.

"Hi girls!"

"Damn it, not this guy…" Shizuru grumbled under her breath as the ogre moved under a light in the corridor, revealing that he was Koenma's assistant George Saotome.

"He should be able to help us though, right?" Keiko asked.

"I guess that depends on what you mean by "help"…" Shizuru replied.

George stopped in front of them with a nervous grin – though, even in the short time she had known him since becoming spirit detective, Keiko had learned that almost all of George's grins were nervous – and he bowed his head in greeting.

"I heard you were here to see Lord Koenma?" he said.

"Yes," Shizuru sharply replied. "We've been waiting here for hours, what's the hold-up?"

"Well, Lord Koenma isn't actually supposed to be allowed any visitors," George replied, his nervous grin becoming an awkward one. "King Enma sent him into solitary confinement because he was with-holding information and he refused to perform an order given to him."

Shizuru nodded.

"We know that," Keiko said. "But a lot has happened since he left and we really need to speak with him."

"I can take you through, but you only have ten minutes," George offered.

Keiko tried to tell the ogre his offer was sufficient but her words were drowned out by Shizuru.

"Ten minutes? We've been waiting here for ten hours!"

"Has it been that long?" George asked.

"Just take us to Koenma!" Shizuru snapped back.

George obligingly turned and led the way back down the corridor. Keiko checked her watch, surprised to see that – although they had not been waiting to see Koenma for ten hours – most of the day had in fact passed since their leaving Ping Island. She hoped that Puu was still at the temple gates where they had left him – or parked him, as Yusuke sometimes joked – and that their visit with Koenma was only brief, as they had little time left to prepare for their journey to demon world the following day. She had been hoping to spend the day finding out as much as possible about demon world from Yusuke and Kurama and she had hoped to have an early night to get plenty of rest; but it was starting to look unlikely that she would achieve either goal.

George eventually led them to a room guarded by two larger ogres, who opened the doors to allow Shizuru and Keiko access. George remained behind and the doors closed after them.

"What, this is it?" Shizuru blurted out, looking about herself.

"I guess I always pictured the cells in spirit world prison being a little more…" Keiko began.

"Like a prison cell?" Shizuru offered.

"Yeah…" Keiko slowly replied.

They were in a room that was only a little smaller than Koenma's office and similarly decorated, only without the television and with a bed in place of the desk. Koenma, in his toddler form, was sitting on the bed, looking smaller than usual.

"What are you girls doing here?" he asked.

"We could ask you the same question," Shizuru boldly replied. "You must have done something pretty naughty for your father to ground you…"

Keiko suppressed a smirk, unsure if it was an appropriate time to be making and laughing at jokes.

"Yes, I've dug myself into a bit of a hole," Koenma reluctantly admitted.

"What do you mean?" Keiko asked. "Yasashi is back with the rebels and they're all going back to demon world; the problem is fixed, why are you being blamed and punished like this?"

Koenma slid off the edge of the bed and began pacing across the room with his hands held together behind his back.

"I was informed of the rebels' presence in human world some time ago," he confessed.

"Any particular reason why you didn't tell us about it?" Shizuru asked. "Or was figuring it out for ourselves part of our training?"

"I didn't tell anyone," Koenma replied without breaking stride. "Not even my father. I was told by one of my ferry girls who had passed over Ping Island–"

"Wait, you knew where the rebels were hiding?" Keiko interrupted.

"Yes, I knew where they were, I knew they were all there and I thought they had come looking for me. When they started addressing notes to Yukina I was surprised."

"Yusuke was right, you were keeping vital information from us all this time…"

Shizuru smiled and Keiko shot her a questioning look.

"Sorry kid," Shizuru said. "It just tickles me how shocked you are that Yusuke was right about something."

"Well, it's not often he knows more about something than I do," Keiko replied, trying to ignore the feeling of guilt creeping up on her.

"More to the point though Koenma, if you knew the rebels were in our world and you thought they were looking for you, why didn't you come clean when they took my brother prisoner?" Shizuru asked, turning her attention back to the young prince.

"Because I knew they wouldn't get anything out of Kuwabara or Yukina."

Shizuru's face dropped and a dangerous shadow passed over her eyes. Knowing the look only too well, Keiko quickly took a step forward and attempted to negotiate the situation into a more neutral place.

"But you sent the SDF to help when they took Hiei and Yusuke because then you realised it was serious," she tried. "And you probably thought Kuwabara could have freed himself – he's a lot stronger than those cat demons, right?"

Koenma made a small noise in the back of his throat and Shizuru clenched her fists at her sides.

"I'm starting to really appreciate some of the names Yusuke calls you behind your back, Koenma," she said tightly.

"I understand your anger Shizuru and I know it was wrong of me to act the way I did," Koenma plainly replied. "But releasing the rebel leader was never an option. Her return will cause chaos in demon world: she has quite a high price on her head, and probably doubly so now that it appears that she was strong enough to come back from death."

"You let your own personal feelings for her cloud your judgement," Shizuru said carefully. "Those rebels could have caused chaos in our world."

"But Koenma did send the SDF to help," Keiko began. "Remember Yasashi said that–"

"Yasashi said that the SDF allowed more demons to come to the living world to take out the rebels."

"I was afraid of that too," Koenma said. "So you see, my plan wasn't entirely emotionally motivated. I was trying to stop any more demons entering the living world."

"More demons would have come to the living world as soon as word got out that their best bounties were all conveniently located on one tiny island there," Shizuru pointed out.

Koenma stopped pacing and turned to face Shizuru and Keiko.

"Oh no," Keiko said. "I'm the least spiritually aware person of the group but even I know what that look means!"

"It was never Tora's jagan eye that was keeping the rebels' location concealed, right?" Shizuru asked.

"The cat demon conundrum is a very complicated one," Koenma quietly replied.

"There's nothing complicated about it," Shizuru denied, shaking her head. "This whole mess is your fault: you're the one who didn't give the rebels the land you promised them, you're the one who hid their leader all this time and you're the one who protected them when they came to the living world!"

"Yasashi gave a lot to spirit world," Koenma said. "During her time spying for spirit world, we learned just how wanted she and her followers really were in demon world and we in spirit world realised that it would be too dangerous to let the rebels live in the protected territory we had previously promised to them because strong demons would constantly be trying to reclaim the land and capture the rebels. We couldn't let that happen after we had worked so hard to take control of the land and rid it of demons."

"Oh great, so you lied to the cat demons too!"

Shizuru turned around, staring down at Keiko through wide eyes.

"Well really!" Keiko said. "This is getting ridiculous! He's lied to everybody! He was running around trying to keep everybody happy but all he's really done is made everything so much worse for everyone involved!"

"I'm not disagreeing with you," Shizuru assured her. "I guess I'm just pleasantly surprised to hear you saying what I'm already thinking."

"Okay," Keiko said, nodding her head and self-consciously tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "So, Koenma, if you couldn't give the rebels the land you promised them, why didn't you just tell them that?"

She turned to Koenma expectantly.

"I was under orders to keep up the pretence that we would pay off our best demon world spy," he explained. "I hated doing it, because by then I had grown quite fond of her. When she was attacked by Iruka and his bandits I sent the SDF to rescue her – which was also against my father's wishes. They brought her back to spirit world and we tried to heal her but it was obvious that she was beyond salvation. I asked her if she had any dying wishes and the things she said surprised me. And… I took pity on her and I convinced my father to let me hide her in spirit world. He allowed it on the condition that I erased her memories of her demon life and that, as soon as she had regained her strength, I would return her to her demon form and release her back to demon world."

"Another promise you didn't keep, right?" Shizuru flatly asked.

"In my defence Shizuru, Yasashi didn't regain her strength overnight," Koenma replied. "It was incremental. It was just little things, like how she could do things other girls in spirit world couldn't: her healing magic was exceptionally powerful, she could use the special spirit world items with ease and she even learned to use the spirit gun attack. And it wasn't bad that she was more able, because she proved really useful in a lot of our investigations of demon world, even without her knowledge of who or what she was. She is a great loss to spirit world and others will realise that soon enough."

"Now I understand," Shizuru said, her tone more even, her expression softened. "Now I get why Yusuke was suspicious of your presence in the living world: because he was right, it was unusual for you to spend so long there. You were hiding. You fled spirit world so that your father wouldn't make you hand her over. And you took with you the one thing spirit world needed to give the rebels back their leader."

Koenma gave Shizuru a hard look and Keiko glanced back and forth between them in confusion.

"What do you mean, Shizuru?" she asked.

"It seems you are even more perceptive than I ever gave you credit for, Shizuru," Koenma reluctantly admitted. "And the trait is even more powerful in you than it is in your brother, because you have the logical mind to follow ideas through to their conclusion."

"Flattery isn't getting you out of this," Shizuru told him. "It is true that you need her back to plea your case to your father?"

Koenma's eyes widened.

"Oh let me guess what look means," Shizuru drawled. "If she comes back here to spirit world, it's gonna get more complicated, right?"

"I'm surprised that she would even consider coming back here, for any reason," Koenma replied. "I know she can't be pleased that I didn't uphold my end of the bargain to give her followers the land I promised them."

"She thinks you traded that for her life," Shizuru replied. "She doesn't know you never intended to follow through with your side of the deal."

"…I'd prefer it if we kept it that way."

"Fine by me. Then I guess there's really only one more thing we need to discuss: Keiko and I are going to demon world with the rebels. We're gonna help them find a safe place to stay."

Koenma started to shake his head.

"You can't talk us out of this," Keiko said firmly. "We've already made up our minds."

"You shouldn't feel obliged to do this," Koenma said. "Just because she was your f–"

Koenma stopped short as the doors to his confinement were opened and one of the guards stepped into the room.

"Oh come on, that's never been ten minutes!" Shizuru snapped at him.

"I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave," the guard replied.

Keiko looked up at Shizuru, who nodded her head. Taking the gesture as a sign of agreement, Keiko started for the door, only stopping when she heard Shizuru's voice behind her.

"One more question," she said.

Keiko looked back to see Shizuru still standing in front of Koenma.

"They're not holding you here as a punishment for what you've done, they're holding you here to stop you from doing what you want to, right?" she asked.

Koenma gave a sorrowful sigh.

"My goodness girl, you're competing with Kurama for analytical skills today!" he said.

"They don't call me New Kurama for nothing," she said, smirking ironically. "We'll come back for you."

"Since I can't stop you, can I at least ask you to take Yusuke with you?" Koenma asked.

"I don't think we can stop him from coming," Shizuru replied. "Come on kid, let's go," she added, turning to Keiko.

Keiko waved a hand at Koenma before leaving the room with Shizuru following after her. In the corridor beyond they found George waiting for them, his hands clasped together and another nervous grin on his face. He led them back to the main temple doors and bid them goodbye there. Outside they found Puu reliably waiting for them despite the significant passage of time since they had left him.

"So, um, what was that you were saying to Koenma about him being held in that room because of something he wanted to do?" Keiko asked Shizuru.

"Isn't it obvious?" Shizuru replied as she climbed up onto Puu's back.

"Not to me," Keiko replied, accepting Shizuru's offer of her hand to help her onto Puu's back.

"If they let him go, he'd be joining his feline friend in her fight in demon world."