Chapter Ten: Itsuki

Once again, Kuwabara had a dream:

[Five departed ghosts were waiting their final judgment in one of the afterlife's many Gardens of Waiting. No one from team Urameshi had ever been there, but they'd heard of them from Koenma who was swamped with paperwork as usual. In these busy days high profile cases got first dibs on appointments and the rest of the less "troublesome" individuals had to sit wait. The garden was fairly small with its trees sporting big beautiful pink flowers and the blue-green grass was soft to the touch. As a whole the garden was sweet smelling and pleasant. An elderly miko had been there the longest and so she had taken on the task of consoling the new arrivals, especially a young boy child who had died by falling in a river. As the miko comforted the little boy two teenage girls sat on the grass together talking. They had been friends in life and it was only a tragic coincidence that had led them to meet again in the afterlife. Lastly a young man who had the most unfortunate of endings, murder, was examining the beautiful tree blossoms.

"Hey, there's a snake in this tree." The young man called out to the miko. The other's looked startled. Aside from the pleasant plants there should be no other souls playing in the garden.

"Bring it over here so I can see it, Itsuki-san." The miko told him. "It's probably just one of the garden's caretakers." Itsuki brought the creature over and just as he placed the tiny snake in the miko's hand, it bit her.

"Ouch," One of the teen girls came over and examined the wound carefully after the snake had slithered safely away quickly.

"Don't worry." The other girl said with a goofy smile, "It'll hurt for a bit, but it's not fatal." The other ghosts glared at her.

"I'm glad to see death hasn't killed everyone's sense of humor." The joker muttered before sitting back down with her friend. "Speaking of which, what are you doing here?" She asked her companion. Her friend had failed to disclose how they both managed to end up dead at the same time.

"I don't want to talk about it." Her friend replied bitterly.

"Just relax everyone," The miko said. "You'll find your place soon."]

Yusuke roughly shook his friend awake. When Kuwabara opened his eyes, all of his teammates were looking down at him.

"Are you ready?" The team captain asked.

"Yeah," Kuwabara nodded, and to himself added, Always.

He glanced at the "masked fighter". Kurama wasn't the only one who had sensed something off. Kuwabara's focus, however, was on the girl's left arm. Something felt about it felt wrong, sick, but the human instinctively knew that there was nothing he could do about it. There was nothing anyone could do about it, but feel sympathy.

"Good," Yusuke said. "Let's go kick this guy's ass."

"Itsuki will be ready for us," Amaya cautioned them.

"Then he should have tea hot and waiting." Yusuke had the last word

Itsuki's place of residence looked normal enough, for a tricked out temple of doom. Amaya was familiar with the style (considering where she grew up) but she thought the décor left much to be desired. Much of the walls and furniture was painted black.

It's a trap, Macha warned.

"I know that," Amaya whispered. She knew her teammates did to.

It was a particular trait of Yusuke's. Oddly enough it worked. Walking boldly through the front door always did wonders for team moral and displayed confidence that certainly made an impression on one's opponent. Yusuke and Kuwabara 'got the door' by kicking it in against the hinges. Itsuki was waiting for them. This time he was alone.

"What's the matter, Itsuki?" Yusuke asked. "Your friends decided to skip out on the party?"

"Perhaps," Itsuki replied. He had changed his style of dress out of the scrappy fighting clothes and back into a suit. The sharp dressed appearance definitely made him look older. He didn't seem at all nervous that the legendary heroes of earth were knocking in his door. The mad-man-made-a-god still clung to the belief that his way was just.

Itsuki nodded to Amaya, "You're friend did a wonderful job of scaring them off." Then he added smugly, "But I don't need them to defeat you."

A bright circle appeared beneath the young man's feet and a dark wind of energy whipped around him as Itsuki charged up his own power. The small cyclone forced team Urameshi to take a half step back. Their guards were up.

"I'll give you the same offer I gave the great lady," Itsuki said pleasantly. "If you surrender now, the girl can keep her life."

Team Urameshi's former masked fighter smothered a cry. A sharp pain ran up the arm she had favored and kept concealed. Amaya's face paled and beads of sweat formed on her forehead.

"I-it's nothing!" Amaya snapped. "Don't listen to him."

"Don't listen to him," Itsuki mocked in a high falsetto. "I'm impressed you held out this long. That snake bite must be killing you." Itsuki laughed at his own humor. "It's something of a family recipe. Not even Ra could handle the pain."

"Bastard! When did-?" Yusuke growled at Itsuki.

"Oh, I'm very familiar with your little lady friend." Itsuki told him. "It's one thing to reject my advances, but it's something else entirely if you go against my plans." He tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"You know the plan guys," Yusuke said as he charged forward.

They were in top form, as always, but a little something extra had been added to the mix. With someone to protect they found themselves fighting Itsuki with more power than usual. Itsuki sensed something odd. The girl stood off to the side and away from the fight, but that didn't mean she was doing nothing.

"Do you like my realm?" Itsuki asked the girl pleasantly as he warded off the warriors like flies.. "I believe, m'lady, your people would have called it a síd."

Amaya snorted in distaste. "It's missing a few skulls."

Itsuki's eyes brightened. "I know just where to get them."

"Don't think you're getting ours without a fight." Yusuke warned.

"Ah, ah, ah," Itsuki scolded them. "My realm, my rules."

"I had a feeling he'd say that." Kuwabara muttered. He, Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei were all on high guard. They had been in a situation like this before. During the Sensui case humans had gained the ability of "territory" where, depending on the individual, humans could form alternate dimensions each with their own special rules. The difference in scale, however, was not something to sneeze at. The tiny human territories were like comparing a match to a blow torch.

"As she said, Itsuki," Macha commented as she appeared and tended to Amaya's arm. "It leaves much to be desired."

"Who's the lady in black?" Yusuke asked aloud.

"Macha, a western war kami." Kurama told them.

The combatants all paused the moment she entered the room. Itsuki had lost interest in the mortals.

Yusuke gave his fox friend a look. "One of these days I'm going to make you show me that cheat-sheet you have with all the answers on it." He warned him. "This is just ridiculous."

Kurama shrugged without a verbal reply and returned his focus to the antics of the gods.

"Alright Mr. Mysterious," Yusuke kept badgering. "Assuming you have a life outside of playing Trivial Pursuit-"

"Now's not really the time for that, Yusuke." Kuwabara interrupted as he shifted uneasily.

"Do I make fun of your coping methods?" Yusuke asked his kitten-loving friend.

"All the time, but shouldn't be figuring out what to do?" Kuwabara glanced around trying to follow his own advice.

On one side Itsuki was poised at the ready, across from him stood Macha cracking her knuckles waiting for some to make a move, Amaya was standing off to the side and lastly team Urameshi was at the furthest point from Amaya with Itsuki inbetween. Macha had done well to insure that king Araku hadn't joined the party. He was probably still standing in his empty office ordering his guards about in all various directions.

Amaya tensed. This hadn't been a part of the plan. For all tenses and purposes they had the man in question cornered, but the problem was without a physical body (as the vision had revealed to her) there was no way to actually capture Itsuki effectively. Worse, they weren't just facing a human ghost, they were facing a god.

"It was nice of Koenma to leave that part out." Amaya muttered to herself as she recalled something else.

Itsuki wasn't the only one. Macha was among them, but she was very far out of her jurisdiction. Koenma has warned her not to use her mana and breaking such a promise would not go unpunished for whatever the reason. It wasn't a simple matter. It wasn't that Macha wouldn't use her mana, but couldn'tat least not to the degree that they needed to capture the renegade god. Amaya had to think of something and think fast.

But alas, she wouldn't be given the chance.