Disclaimer: All fandom-based and real-life entities, including other art and literary works mentioned in this piece do not belong to the author with the exception of original characters, plot, and subplots. The views and opinions of the characters do not necessarily reflect that of the author.
Zwischenzug
by four-eyed 0-0
Part III
"Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art."
– Will Durant
o-o
Zwischenzug
Yusuke hurriedly placed a paper bag containing the bowls of steaming ramen on the counter, grinning at the two of them as they rose from their seats.
"Urameshi, you really shouldn't have," said Aoshi, waving a hand.
"You two met up at a diner. It's kinda ridiculous if you don't get something to eat."
"If you insist, then. Next time I'll make sure to bring you something," the professor said, smiling at him.
Yusuke offered her a smile of his own, and turned to Kurama. "Koenma's sent troops to G&P and other labs within the estimated radius, by the way. We didn't smell anything fishy about the place when we checked earlier."
"I felt nothing in Todai, too," said Kurama, a little dejected, but hopeful. After he and the professor had split up, he took a detour and walked about the campus to see if there was anything remotely suspicious and demonic within the vicinity. "But that doesn't rule out the possibility."
"Sure," said Yusuke, nodding his head. "You better go. Dinner rush will start in ten. Keiko will kick me out if I slack."
"Oh, please tell her I said hi," Aoshi was saying as she laughed at the mental image. Kurama took the paper bag from the counter and she gently took his briefcase from him so he could handle the package more securely. Kurama muttered his thanks at this surprising gesture of hers even when it was completely unnecessary.
"Will do," said Yusuke, grinning.
They moved to exit the diner, and Aoshi waved her hand at Yusuke as the door tinkled close. He automatically took up the side of the path close to the traffic, ambling with the professor as she led the now familiar path they'd taken last night.
"You feel… people's auras?" she asked as they rounded a corner to the main street. "As in, sense them?"
"Yes."
"It applies to demons, too?"
"It applies to everything, actually. I can feel your presence even before you step into the room."
When she tilted her head to look at him, wonder was written on her face. "Fascinating and scary."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. Both advantageous and disadvantageous, you know? You're aware if someone's out to harm you, and you're just aware of everybody else. It's like you're always restless."
She had a perfect grasp of the concept even for someone who was only hearing about it now.
To his surprise, she started cackling. "Though when I think about how you just said that now, feeling my presence and all, it's nothing short of romantic, in a sense."
Her laughter echoed through and she leaned on the wall of a random building, clutching at her stomach as she doubled over. "Geez, I can kill myself."
Kurama's lips twitched as he considered her. "You're easy to amuse."
She wiped at her eyes with her jacket's sleeve. "Urameshi's lame joke almost choked me to death. Tell me about it."
It took her a while to regain mastery of herself, but after dusting her hand on her pinstriped pants, Aoshi straightened up and they continued their walk to the station. With the occasional quips at each other, they reached her apartment, and as she was unlocking the door, a woman exited another unit down the open walkway bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun.
"Professor Aoshi, good evening!" she said, smiling, coming towards them, hands holding a loaded bag of trash. Kurama surmised she was a housewife, if the apron was enough to tell.
"Kitagawa, good evening," said Aoshi just as she managed to slide the key into the lock. "You're putting out the trash this early?"
"My son's art project was all over his room. I had to clean up before dinner," she said, looking up at Kurama. "Hello, sir…?"
"Matsuda," said he, bowing as the older woman did.
"I'm Kitagawa, it's nice to meet you." The woman smiled at Aoshi, eyes sparkling. "I haven't seen you invite someone to your home in a long while. Is he your boyfriend?"
Aoshi's face fell, reddened and appalled at the idea. Kurama couldn't fault her. Even he had to exert additional effort for his internal cringing not to show on his face.
"No," said Aoshi, a little too sharply. "He's a colleague, that's all."
Kitagawa's falsely-pleasant eyes lingered on her before turning to him and the bag he was hugging to his chest. "Well, the take-away figures. You used to cook for your boyfriend, didn't you?"
The housewife didn't seem to be aware of when to stop talking and prying. The professor's shoulders rose as she shook faintly, her fingers clenching to a fist.
He had no clue as to what he could do to save their faces as Aoshi didn't look like she was going to say anything harmless. Thankfully, Kitagawa remembered she had something more productive to do than taking underhanded jabs at someone else's personal life.
"Oh, I must go. My husband should be arriving soon."
Not that that statement was any better.
Kitagawa left them by the door, disappearing to the direction of the stairwell. Kurama watched her retreating figure for a long time, wondering if she had intentionally wanted to put Aoshi on a spot. It was almost as if dwelling on someone else's life was a pastime for a bored housewife as she.
Shiori wasn't like that, and Kurama had never been prouder of his human mother until now. She enjoyed the breaks between their arrival and departure from the house, making real friends in the neighborhood and engaging in reclamation activities that didn't have to entail gossiping and bad faith. Only insecure people with nothing better to do would partake in such less-intelligible things.
Aoshi's tightly-shut eyes snapped open and she slid open the door, flipping the lights on as she entered the house. She wordlessly beckoned for him to come inside, taking off her high-heeled sandals and setting them on the shoe rack before slipping into her house slippers.
He deposited the bag of ramen on the floor before he shook off his coat, hanging it on the hook at the back of the door, next to where she'd placed hers.
"The kitchen's down the hallway. Just put the ramen on the counter while I put these away," she said, lifting his briefcase and her bag for him to see. She didn't wait for his response and slipped into the open entryway to what he could only assume was the living room.
He walked the rest of the distance to the kitchen after slipping into one pair of guest slippers and did as she instructed, taking out the now lukewarm bowls of noodle and placing them on the counter. Aoshi didn't come for a good three minutes, probably as she was trying to take her time to simmer down from the unwelcome intrusion of a neighbor, and it was enough time for him to survey the interior of this part of the humble house.
A small square table was placed in the center, completely laden with a plain cream tablecloth and a lace placemat where a small pot containing a dwarf sansevieria was sitting. Along the wall with the blue-curtained windows, the sink was next to the stove and oven, while a refrigerator stood by the counter. Cupboards lined the wall, and a pantry was pushed by a backdoor.
The professor appeared by the doorway and went for one of the cupboards, extracting a small casserole she placed on the stove which she turned on, a small flicker of blue-and-orange flame roaring to life as she bent down.
"Hand me the ramen, please?" she said, and he did as she asked.
She poured the contents of the disposable bowls into the casserole and gestured to the dinner table. "Take a seat. It's my kitchen. I can manage."
There was something about the way that she spoke that made Kurama think twice about helping her out even when she didn't want him to. Sinking into a wooden chair, Kurama watched as she took out her own set of bowls and cutlery, setting them in front of him and on the other side of the table.
"Tea?" she asked with her back turned to him.
"Yes, thank you."
Then Aoshi was serving him heated ramen and freshly-brewed tea. She quietly shuffled through the kitchen, taking out chilled sushi from the refrigerator as sides to their meal.
When she didn't look like she was going to speak to him after mouthfuls of ramen, he figured he ought to apologize for adding to her discomfort.
"Professor?"
She wordlessly looked up at him, raising her eyebrows in question.
"I apologize for having heard all that."
She scoffed, rolling her eyes at him. "Don't. She's always been a nosy bitch."
"She wouldn't have said those things if she hadn't seen me with you."
"It's inevitable," she said, waving a hand to dismiss him. She fiddled with her chopsticks as she averted her gaze, finally dropping them on the rim of her bowl. "Sorry if I'm a terrible hostess to you."
Kurama immediately waved her worrying off. "It's understandable."
She shook her head. "It's still terrible of me. I should be the one apologizing to you. Kitagawa's behavior was rude but that doesn't entitle me to being rude to you as well. I'm sorry."
He only looked at her as she bowed her head. Before he could say anything else, she looked up and resumed eating.
"You know what? Let's just not talk about it, okay?"
"If that's what you want."
"It is."
"All right, then."
Her chopsticks scraped against her bowl, and she stirred at the stock absently. They continued their dinner without much gusto, and when he moved to help her clean up, she didn't protest.
They then proceeded to the living room, and she took out several thin paperback manuals from the shelf across the television set. A kotatsu sat in the middle of the room, and she made herself comfortable, laying the manuals on the table for him to peruse.
"Since you're here, I might as well give you a crash course on molecular cell lab etiquette," she said by way of explanation as he opened the first manual. "I'll be reading these reports while you're at it. After we finish, I'm going to give you a quiz. In the next few days, I'll give you practicals. You can't mess up."
That went quick.
"Do you possess equipment for that?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes. "I have my connections. I'll sneak you in somewhere, somehow."
He raised his eyebrows at her, surprised at how willing she was to do something as unlawful as that. "Is that safe?"
"Yeah, I'm not stupid."
Kurama had plans on learning the basics as soon as he arrived home and didn't even ask her to do this, but as he was as knowledgeable in advanced laboratory dos and don'ts as Yusuke was, he might as well take the opportunity. He'd only done high school science experiments, and they were definitely insufficient to pass off as an experienced researcher. They silently began reading, the professor turning away from him as her eyes darted through the pages of the case files, palm pressed to her cheek.
The silence between the two of them was loaded with anticipation, and even as Kurama was a fast reader, he felt like going faster wouldn't help matters. It didn't even seem like Aoshi had any problem with the stretching silence, as for the few times he'd risked glancing at her, she hadn't looked up from her reading. He didn't even feel her looking at him. And so he released a breath, waiting for her to open up when she was ready. For sure, she had a good reason for delaying that exchange.
The professor finished the reports sooner than he did the manuals, and she proceeded to read the book Yamamoto had given her. She was already halfway through, and kept coming back to previous pages as though trying to figure out an unspoken puzzle.
"Is there something you need help with?" he finally offered, abandoning for a moment the third manual he'd read, one concentrated on biosafety cabinets and hoods.
Heavily-lidded eyes looked up at him. "I'll ask for help when I need it. Now, mind your own business."
Kurama knew she had something else in mind.
After another hour, he'd finished the stack she'd given him. She still wore the same expression on her face, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she silently quizzed over something she wasn't keen on sharing with him just yet.
"I'm done."
Aoshi huffed and reluctantly closed the book, taking the stack of manuals away from him and on the floor where he couldn't see them. She had probably wanted to make concrete her inner arguments before he could finish his task.
But she hadn't.
"Which do you use inside a biosafety cabinet? An alcohol lamp or a Bunsen burner?" she said without much ado.
"Neither, if one can avoid it. They disrupt the air flow and can damage the HEPA filters."
"How do you take a liquid specimen through a micropipette?"
"You set the amount through the adjustment knob and soft-press before pipetting out the liquid. You hard-press when you eject the liquid."
"I didn't ask for that last bit, Mr. Know-It-All."
He tilted his head, smiling at her.
"Let's do the lightning round. What does psi stand for?"
"Pound per square inch."
"What's the standard pressure for autoclaving?"
"Fifteen psi."
She was speaking faster now, throwing questions off the top of her head at him. "How diluted is your basic antiseptic alcohol?"
"Seventy percent."
"What kind of alcohol do you use?"
"Ethyl."
"What basic technique can be used to estimate bacterial population?"
"Serial dilutions and Miles and Misra."
"Biosafety level for Mycobacterium tuberculosis?"
He hesitated, wracking his memory. "Biosafety level 4…?"
To his surprise, the professor made a buzzing sound, one similar to that used in quiz shows when the contestant makes a mistake. "Wrong. BSL-3. BSL-4 is typically for viruses. What is the standard volume of media used for slants?"
The laughter caught at his throat as he hurriedly answered, "Eight milliliters."
Kurama wiped the smile off his face as she continued. "Stabs and deeps?"
"Ten."
"Petri plates?"
"Twenty."
"What does CFU stand for?"
"Colony…" he paused, massaging his chin.
"Three, two…"
"Colony…"
"Time's up. Colony forming units. I need one liter of nutrient agar. How many Erlenmeyer flasks am I going to use?"
"Two if you use one-liter flasks. Four if five-hundred-milliliter flasks."
"Why?"
"If you go beyond half the capacity of the flask, there might be a pressure build up while autoclaving, causing breakage of glassware."
They continued with the game until she could no longer think of anything to ask, sinking further into the futon beneath the kotatsu as she got bored.
"Okay, you pass. Not very impressive, but understandable. I'll have to be extra careful if I were you, though. You're going to bring those manuals home and I'm going to quiz you again tomorrow."
"I'm a fast learner," he said by way of reassuring her and himself, trying to salvage his pride at the jab it just took from the professor's jaded assessment.
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, master, I can see that. There's no need to be too aware. But I'll be keeping an eye out for you. I just hope Urawa would be reasonable enough to assign me as your buddy for even just a week when we start."
Kurama nodded, pushing the stack of manuals away from him and taking Yamamoto's book from the table to inspect.
"What is it?" she asked, sitting straight.
"It's something I haven't mentioned to you, but for a book on demons, this doesn't give off any demonic aura," he said, flitting through the pages and running his fingers on them. He sniffed at the pages, and nothing but ink and aged paper registered. "It is quite intriguing."
"Maybe because it's nothing but a record of observations," she said, taking it from him without preamble and skipping to a certain page. "There's something else bothering me, though. It's said here that demons have souls, too. In fact, anything living should have a soul, save for those without any means of exhibiting higher thought. But in the report, it was stated that the half-demons didn't have any."
Kurama was thankful for the opening. "I've been meaning to ask about that, actually."
"You know I'm not the best choice to consult with when it comes to the supernatural? I can only provide scientific perspective on these things. And even if I do, I myself am not sure if science and the supernatural would mesh well together. Everything's new to me."
She was looking at him like he'd sprouted another head. "Of course. Raw insights are exactly what I desired to get from you."
"Oh… okay, then," she said, wriggling to make herself more comfortable on the floor. "This might sound like I'm getting way ahead of the matter, but I've been thinking since yesterday that there's something definitely unnatural with the creatures… as if they were synthetic."
"What exactly do you mean by 'synthetic'?"
"Exactly as it is. Manufactured and… man-made, even," she said, scratching at her nose. "Think of it like an imitation of an original. There's bound to be some defects here and there, you know?"
Kurama's head spun at the possibility. "Are you trying to say that the half-demons weren't born from the copulation of a human and a demon?"
"Isn't it obvious? They came in hordes and lacked stuff here and there. Mass-produced and looking like hundreds of eggs coming from a single ovary churned out one time, big time. It's even stated in the report that all the creatures coming from the same batch were similar in physique and other attributes! Do you get what I mean?"
"I do, but there are demons capable of giving multiple births. There are insect demons, after all," he said, trying to negate her to see if she could support her statements.
She paused, staring at him for a long time. "Insect demons having sex with humans?" she drawled out, cringing at the thought. "You're kidding me. Is that why you suppose the half-demons had bloated heads?"
Kurama shrugged. "It's possible. Haven't you come across insect demons in Yamamoto's book?"
"No, maybe he hasn't encountered any," she said quickly, dismissive. "Okay, so maybe that's true. What about the four limbs? Insects have six."
"Humans have four."
She huffed. "The lack of souls? Care to explain that?"
"Are invertebrates supposed to have souls?"
"Anything capable of higher thinking should have a soul. From what philosophers had said, having a soul enables an individual to distinguish from right and wrong. Now you tell me, are invertebrates capable of having souls?"
Kurama smiled. "Mostly, no."
"Insects are invertebrates."
"But not all invertebrates lack a brain. From what I've gathered, insects have supraesophageal ganglions."
"Neural ganglions are not sufficient for higher thinking, Kurama."
"Insect demons are higher forms of the mere insect, Professor."
She opened her mouth as if to counter his argument and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Then let me rephrase. Insects can have souls, at least insect demons can. Now, if we're following your theory of the insect demons and humans in a sexual relationship, then some parental characteristics should show in the offspring. If it's the enlarged head for the insect demons, then it must be pincers for the arthropod demons or something else entirely, but still characteristic of them."
"Don't you think you're oversimplifying things, Professor?"
Her lips drew to a smirk. "Ha! Caught you, Kurama! Earlier I asked why the creatures had four limbs and you said they could be attributed to the humans' genetic makeup. Stepped into your own trap, eh?"
Kurama couldn't help but smile at her triumphant attitude, even as he was practically throwing the clues right at her face. "All right, point taken. However, if we're going to go by the theory that it was insect demons and humans that produced such offspring, why then do you suppose do the half-demons not have souls?"
She placed both arms on the table, staring off at the wall for the better part of a minute. "Are you sure half-demons are only produced through the copulation of demons and humans?" she asked, looking at him through her peripheral vision.
"Yes," he said.
Her nostrils flared. "You're lying."
"I'm not." I am. Try seeing through me, Professor.
She twisted and leaned towards him, searching his eyes. Kurama would have backed down if he hadn't anticipated the move to catch him off-guard. Her black irises roved his face, searching for the lie in his.
"Yup, definitely lying," she declared as she leaned back, taking the precious book and flipping furiously to a page. "I've read this book up and down, front and back last night. I wouldn't miss anything my senior had written."
She shoved the open book under his nose, and he took it, trying his best not to smile.
"Paragraph two through three."
She was so sure of herself Kurama was almost laughing again. Kurama turned to the said passage, reading the hardly-perceptible scrawls.
Most demons, as the humans that co-inhabit our world with other animals, are rational creatures. They are mostly higher forms of animal spirits such as the fox, cat, phoenix, or even a butterfly. They can have the capacity for higher thought that would normally require the faculties of a chordate with a functional nervous system. This way of nature does not necessarily ring true for this line of creatures as other forms that would typically lack a complete brain are able to think and be by virtue of their demonic attributes (and other factors I have yet to find out about), e.g. insects and arthropods.
While this is true, reproductive capacity is in turn only available to those that attained humanoid forms displayed by a demon that reached a certain level of spiritual class or a certain age. A perfect example is a kitsune that can assume both fox and humanoid forms. In humanoid form, a demon is generally endowed with four limbs and bipedalism, save for some peculiarities usually inherited from the demonic parent such as an extra pair of ears or wings.
"Now tell me how the heck advanced insect demons, when they can think and be rational, could have produced half-human progeny without souls. It all ties up, you know?"
"You were lying to me."
"It's called economizing the truth. But we're digressing."
Kurama, even as he was amazed by this much information that the late Yamamoto was able to amass and by the way the professor could dismiss something she seemed to loath, continued his pretense. "What do you mean?"
Her hands found their way to her face as she groaned at him. "You've got to be shitting me."
"I'm not. Please enlighten me."
She bit her lip and rubbed at her eyebrow, clearly not picking up on his sarcasm. He couldn't fault her. She was an educator and a scientist through and through. Curiosity and the hunger for knowledge could seriously cost her.
"All right, padawan. Let's forget about the reproductive capacity and deal with rationality and the soul. Four things: one, higher forms of demons are capable of higher thought; two, creatures capable of higher thought are rational; three, rational creatures have a soul; and four, humans have souls. Therefore, anything descending from a line of humans and higher demons should have a soul. At least naturally."
Kurama feigned realization. "I see. Does this mean you're saying that higher thinking equals having a soul? But how are you sure that they aren't capable of higher thought just because they don't have a soul?"
"Are you trying to pull circular reasoning on me?"
He didn't answer her. "Does having a soul guarantee higher thought or does higher thought guarantee having a soul? If an animal has a soul, does that mean it is rational? A fox may have a soul, but is it capable of being rational as humans are?"
Her mouth opened and closed several times as she digested what he just said. When it seemed like she wouldn't be able to counter his argument, she snapped her fingers. "You can't prove the converse of a statement, Kurama."
"That," he said, nodding his head, "is how you prove a point."
"Oh yeah?" she said, scrunching her face to one that could rival one of Yusuke's funny faces. "You enjoy getting a rise out everyone, don't you?"
He laughed. "That's not the case. I was only hoping to see if you could support your theory with substantial evidence."
"Tough luck. I know my game."
"I can see that. So what did we establish?"
"That the half-demons weren't naturally born of copulation. Otherwise, their souls would've paraded towards the Reikai when you crushed them to bacon bits." She cringed, turning green in the gills at the memory. "Eurgh."
His smile widened. "How then do you suppose were they able to come to be?"
"Ah, that," she muttered, leaning on the table top once more. "I've been wondering how the laboratories play a part in all these."
Kurama waited for her to continue. He was fairly certain where she was driving this conversation.
"I said the half-demons seemed synthetic. Laboratories are the perfect venue for synthesis of unnatural products."
"Are you insinuating that scientists produced the half-demons?"
"I'm not saying it's the only possibility but it is a possibility. I still think everything's too convenient, and that the people behind this deliberately made it obvious, but we shouldn't rule out something this evident. I can't shake the feeling that Yamamoto's death wasn't just another puzzle piece. It's as if his death was pivotal, you know? As if he had wanted me to know that he was important. If anything, his book suggests that there are more of the scientific community involved in this gigantic mess."
"I agree with you, but we can't be complacent with just one theory. By accepting this, are we one step ahead of them?"
"The fact that we can put these little things together means we are. The fact that we've managed to infiltrate means we are. It's like chess, you know?"
"Chess?" The professor was being random.
She nodded. "Do you play it?"
"Sometimes, albeit not quite enough to be an expert at it."
"Do you know zwischenzug?"
"I've heard of it."
"[ˈtsvɪʃənˌtsuːk] n. an in-between or intermediate move in the game of chess; an intermezzo: posing an immediate threat against one by the opponent before playing the move expected of you, thus gaining advantage of the game," she recited, a sly smile tugging at her lips.
His mouth twitched in amusement; it was the perfect word. "The threat is lying out in the open; they left G&P and Todai for us to deal with. The infiltration—is it the zwischenzug?"
"I like you. You're smart. It is, but we're not about to reveal that just yet. We'll first let them think that we're blindly chasing their pawns. They want us to do something about G&P and Todai. We'll prevent G&P from collapsing and I will go to Todai. But your being among us will be the zwischenzug. When they will have finally realized your presence and the opening has been made, we'll have to do what they expect."
Kurama tilted his head, smiling broadly her. "We'll meet them head-on."
o-o
Kurama withdrew his hand from the pot that held the Sansevieria, letting her see as a small, pale shoot rose from the hole he'd dug, its equally pale leaves and dried cotyledons sparkling in life for one whole second before vanishing before her eyes.
"It's gone," said Chiaki, looking up at him unseeingly.
He shook his head. "It's not, you're just unable to see it."
"How did you do that?"
"I'm a plant master," he said with a small smile, proud of himself.
Chiaki wrinkled her nose at him and watched as he took out another seed, this one sickly white and as small as a japonica rice grain. He went for the kitchen counter and pressed a finger on the nook from where the counter was attached to the wall, slipping the seed into the space.
He paused, staring at the spot without doing anything, and Chiaki's eyes bugged out of their sockets as ten or so glowing vines shot from the nook, slithering against the kitchen walls, spreading out like wildfire. The shoots were quick to cover much area, in no time enveloping the room with their thinness almost imperceptible to the unknowing and small number of oddly-shaped leaves and campanulate buds.
Chiaki stood on tiptoe as she observed one particular flower dangling off the frame of the entryway. Soon, the glow off the plant dissipated as the buds opened to reveal the shadow of what looked like an… eye? The small eyes seemed to have a terrible case of cataract, the irises as clouded as the scleras, only a thin, faint line of grey demarcating their boundaries. She managed to hold back a screech as the eye blinked at her before the flower disappeared with the rest of the plant.
She looked about, trying to spot any traces of the plant, but her kitchen looked like it always did, innocent and typical.
Kurama was watching her, a satisfied smirk on his lips. "They're called Eyevines, native to the country of Gendar in the Makai. They function as security cameras and are now around your apartment, except for the bathroom."
"How do you use them?"
He tugged at something above his head, and the plant glowed back to life, a leaf in his hand. "By projecting some of my power into them, I can use a leaf even one coming from another plant in another place as a toggle and viewing screen."
He beckoned for her to come closer and offered the leaf to her that was surprisingly bigger and heavier, and upon closer inspection, she could see a set of white buttons in the adaxial face along with what looked like a joystick in the other. The screen suddenly blinked to life, and Chiaki's eyes widened at the sight of her and Kurama as though viewed from an angle behind them.
She automatically spun to see the flower directed at them, its eye unblinking from the post it occupied just above the sink.
"Wow," she said, turning back to the leaf. "Does this mean I can use it, too?"
"Yes. One toggle leaf is available in every room in this apartment. I'll show you the others later. You must know that I can use one of my own Eyevines to access the view in this apartment."
Chiaki narrowed her eyes. "No peeking while I'm showering?"
"There are no vines in the bathroom."
She stared at him, raising an eyebrow.
He sighed. "I promise."
"That's more like it. I trust you, you know."
Kurama's eyes glinted for a moment, but she must have only imagined it as he took the leaf from her hand and let it slide back to its perch below one of the cupboards above the counter. They moved to the other rooms, inspecting the Eyevines that had apparently taken root all over her home, making her keel dangerously over. Even as she was amazed by how advanced Kurama's plants were, she couldn't shake the feeling that this was something she should really be afraid of.
He showed her where she could reach the toggles, and after installing more defensive plants that would attack any demon and human with an unfamiliar aura who dared sneaking into her home, Kurama ventured out, hands loaded with his briefcase and another bag of manuals she'd assigned him to read.
"I'll see you in the morning at Urameshi's," she said. "Goodnight, Kurama."
The smile he gave her was tight-lipped. "Be safe. Goodnight, Professor."
"Yeah, you too."
A/N:
* Sansevieria is a genus of plants commonly known as the bow string hemp, mother-in-law tongue, etc. They can also be called as just sansevieria.
* Biosafety cabinets are working cabinets in a laboratory. They are minimally similar to hoods you use in chemistry classes and are mostly used for tissue culture, microbiological experiments; in short, those requiring extremely sterile conditions to prevent contamination. HEPA filter means high-efficiency particulate air filter, and it is a staple in biosafety cabinets.
* Adaxial surface is the dorsal surface of a leaf, the one typically facing the sun and coated with cuticle.
* Supraesophageal (literally "above or on top of the esophagus") ganglions are aggregates of nerves homologous to brains but less developed. Typically they're found in higher forms of invertebrates, such as the crustaceans.
* Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the microbe responsible for the respiratory disease, tuberculosis.
So... there. It's finally up, the chapter I've entitled using the story's title. I've been terribly busy this week and I hope this chapter didn't give you a headache. It was sort of roundabout and dialogue-heavy, but trust me, there are clues scattered about.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks to everyone who added this story to their faves and alerts and to everyone who reviewed last chapter! You guys rock!
Tell me what you think about this chapter, please? Thank you!
See you! :)