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 IV
"There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall."
- Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise
o-o
Distraction
Ding dong.
Light, rapid footfalls dissolved through the material of the wooden door before it slid open to reveal the smiling face of his mother.
"Shuichi, dear!" she was saying, gathering him in her arms before he could cross the threshold.
He awkwardly put his free hand on the small of her back, giving a tight-lipped smile to Hatanaka and Shuuichi who were watching from the hallway.
"Hello, mother," he said, patting her gently.
Shiori leaned away but didn't let go of him. "I missed you, Shuichi!"
"I missed you, too," he said, offering her a genuine smile. He would have liked to deny it to himself internally, but he couldn't.
His mother escorted him inside their home, taking his jacket for him even as he declined the offer. It wasn't like he'd never been to this house yet they still treated him like he were a guest when he was supposed to be family.
Sometimes it made Kurama think they knew.
Hatanaka clapped him on the back, leading him to the dining room where Shuuichi had disappeared to.
The table was set and he took his familiar place next to Shuuichi who was already prattling away about his newly-bought game console that he wanted to try with his older brother. Kurama consented without much ado, thinking it wouldn't hurt to stay an hour more than he'd originally planned to.
This might be the last time he'd play the game with Shuuichi, after all. Surely the Professor wouldn't hold it against him. If she decided he was being inconsiderate, he would argue that he was still following her instruction, as he was technically staying for dinner.
He'd taken extra measures, too, having installed more plants in the laboratory for the professor to stay safe while inside. He had even left the number to his keitai for her to reach him immediately should the need arise.
"How have you been, dear?" his mother said as soon as they had said their graces. "I was so worried when your father told me you were out on a mission again."
She didn't seem to mind opening the topic even when they had only started with the meal. Kurama had never come to terms with this display of almost complete trust and confidence despite her not knowing the true nature of these missions, and even if he was relieved to see this change in her as it made everything else easier, he couldn't shake the guilt of having to let her deal with it passively, without contention.
She used to cry whenever he had to go, but his being invincible—proved upon returning to them, of course—seemed to have grown on her. Or she was being just as he remembered her years ago—aware of the unspoken authority that her strange son had on her, leaving her with no choice but to let him be, even when it killed her.
After twenty-seven years of being her son, Kurama had known better than to belittle a woman's instincts. He was sure she knew that he was far more than he let them see, even if she wasn't sure of the exact picture.
She knew he wasn't an average human.
Sometimes he thought it was her way of loving him and it was something he was almost thankful for, if not for the gnawing guilt it left him with. He had resolved to keep it a secret unless she finally decided to divulge the truth by confronting him.
Shiori didn't seem to mind the game, and he kept up with the masquerade. It was less acrimonious that way.
"Mother, I've told you not think too much about it. I can look after myself. The operations are running smoothly and I'm hoping to resolve the case soon."
"You can't take it away from me, Shuichi. We don't know what these missions are about, and I respect that, but at least allow me to feel what I should rightfully feel. Can I have that, son?" she said, giving him a tight-lipped smile as she took his hand.
"Yes, mother," he said, smiling back at her. "Anyway, enough about it, what have you been up to?"
"Your mother just joined the local choir," said Hatanaka, jumping at the first sign of steering the evening to a more placid direction. "She's a contralto, apparently."
"Is that right, mother?" said Kurama, smiling amicably. "I haven't heard you singing since that other time we've decided to celebrate your birthday by having karaoke."
"Where she never scored above ninety," Shuuichi chirped in, sniggering as he swallowed the gyoza. "Beats me how she managed to get in."
Kurama joined him in the teasing. "It sure is a mystery. How did you do that, mother?"
"I am so offended," she said, cradling her face in her hands. "Have some confidence in me, gentlemen. Chorale songs are different from popular ones."
"But you should at least fare well in popular songs to be considered a singer, mom," Shuuichi pointed out.
"Now, young lad, singing can be learned. Just look at the local idols. They're helmed to become performers," said Hatanaka, deciding to play the ever-loving husband. "Shiori will be able to learn in due time. She'd even show you what she's learned so far."
"Kazuya, don't volunteer me!" Shiori was protesting, lightly slapping her husband on the shoulder.
The four of them continued with the usual jeering that accompanied their dinner, which Kurama was thankful for if not for the inevitable, almost staple question his mother popped as they were having dessert:
"Son, have you found a girlfriend?"
He almost choked on his ice cream even when he'd braced himself for this. "Mother, please, not that again."
"Mom, you know how big brother isn't into that kind of stuff," said Shuuchi, winking at Kurama as he turned to look at him.
"Don't tell me…" Shiori let go of her spoon and gathered his hand in hers for the umpteenth time that night. "Son, I will not hold it against you if you don't feel that way about women, but I wish you'd find someone you can spend the rest of your life with."
Kurama's eyes widened at the implication of her statement. "Mother—!"
"I know it's difficult, but you're twenty-seven and you've never had a girlfriend before. Is it because you're—"
"Mother, that is not the reason," he said, halting further ruckus.
Truth be told, Kurama wasn't opposed to the idea of being with someone with the same sex as he; Hiei was a prospect for years, after all. But he had never been in the stage of wanting to settle down. His friend didn't seem to find starting a relationship with him was convenient either even when they were well-nigh inseparable and dependent on each other as allies. Kurama wasn't what humans would call, "straight", but he found women interesting as well.
He was probably bisexual.
But he'd never really given his sexual preference a single thought in years when he was more set on coming clean with being a human and a demon at the same time.
Camaraderie and friendship were significant to a human society, but romance wasn't. He'd never bothered with the latter since it didn't concern him.
His life was complicated as it was.
"I haven't been in a relationship because I'm not interested to be in one," he said before any of them could say anything else.
The table was silent for a long while, and Kurama was almost bent to start another topic even if the previous one ended awkwardly when his mother spoke.
"Son, you do know we won't be here forever," she said, holding up a hand as he moved to protest. "I can't force you to settle down when you're not ready but could you please promise me one thing?"
Kurama's lips parted, as if to say that he was well aware that they—no, he—would indeed not be here forever. Sooner or later someone was bound to go; it could be anyone. They, dying of old age or some other human reason; he, going away for there would be no one in this mundane world to need him anymore.
But when he looked at his stepfather and –brother, he conceded.
"If you finally find someone who makes you really happy, don't let go."
His mother's choice of words wasn't lost on him.
If. Not "when", but "if".
Kurama could deal with that.
"Yes, mother, I promise."
o-o
Another red-inked circle was drawn on the flood of words that her student had assumed was a legitimate essay. Chiaki sighed, exhausted from correcting the papers she'd required her students to submit as journal reviews. It was almost summer vacation, but improvements weren't evident.
Her eyes flicked to the clock next to the cabinet where the light microscopes were locked. It was almost nine in the evening. She wondered what Kurama was taking so long for.
He'd left a note containing his keitai number. She wasn't going to call him up. Whatever was stalling him, she believed he had a good reason to let it.
o-o
"Kurama!" said Yusuke from the monitor of the communicator. "Finally!"
Kurama had somehow managed to free himself from Shuuichi's incessant ranting when he'd managed to beat him a third time in the game. He was out of the house after a hurried set of goodbyes and much insistence from his mother that he brought with him the bento she'd wrapped.
Shiori didn't let go of him for a good three minutes.
"I'm sorry, Yusuke. I had a family dinner to attend to," he said to the monitor, walking along the dark street littered with a few pedestrians who paid him no mind. "I'm afraid I can't see you personally tonight."
Yusuke's face fell, putting on an effective look of disappointment. "Why can't you come over?"
"The professor asked me to see her," he said without revealing any more than he needed to. "She says it's urgent."
Not to mention that it was too late into the evening and her thread of patience was probably growing short. Why she hadn't called him up evaded Kurama's realization, and the beginnings of worrying started to crawl up his chest.
His friend rolled his eyes. "Yeah, ditching me for a woman. Some friend you are."
"Yusuke—"
"I was being sarcastic. We're clear with not dating a client. Now, spill."
Kurama sighed, pausing just before he rounded the corner leading to the entrance to the train station. "We're convinced the half-demons were artificially-developed."
"How can that be?" Yusuke asked, eyes widening.
"Do you remember that they didn't have souls? We think it's because they didn't come from the natural process of being born."
"So... they're like clones or something?"
"Yes, it's an acceptable way of putting things in perspective. This makes the reason behind the attacks less difficult to understand, but it raises a few questions as well."
"Like what?"
"If someone or a group of people is already able to orchestrate the development of such creatures, then why would they need more scientists with them?"
Yusuke paused, scratching at the back of his head for good measure. "Probably because they've got bigger plans."
"Exactly. We're awfully behind them, then. While we're quizzing on how they're able to develop these creatures, they've begun developing, I assume, better ones."
"We're expecting a level-up from the ones we took down, eh?"
"Yes."
Yusuke flicked his wrist. "Easy-peasy. I'll tell the others."
Kurama shook his head and bid goodbye, shutting the communicator before he slipped into the train station.
It was almost eleven when Kurama finally set foot in front of the private laboratory and confirmed the source of the ghastly vocals and rock music he'd heard a block away. Strangely enough, it was all he needed to slow down from his running, relieved that nothing drastic had happened and that the professor was safe enough to be singing horrid tones. The singing wasn't particularly loud, but he was able to hear it just as clearly as now that he'd managed to step inside the laboratory.
Aoshi didn't even notice him as she slightly banged her head to the music while she shuffled through the laboratory, poring over the test tubes she had set on the workbench, tapping on the table while she jotted down on a notebook.
Kurama almost found this new side to her funny and would have stayed to watch her yell lyrics loaded with profanity for a few more minutes, but she turned around, effectively cutting her off mid-stanza, the music still playing through the background.
"Glad to see you've decided to join me," she said, not even batting an eyelash to the fact that he'd witnessed her rocker tendencies. She reached over a previously empty shelf and turned off the radio that was now sitting on it before she crossed her arms and regarded him.
"I'm sorry I made you wait. I would have gone earlier, but my mother insisted that I stayed a few more hours."
"Fair enough," she said, shrugging as she pushed herself from the table she had leaned on. "I hope you've had a good time."
He didn't know what else to say and when she turned around to inspect the tubes once again without the previous zest from the touch of music, he made an offer.
"Professor, why don't you take a break? My mother's made me a bento, would you like to share it with me?"
She paused and craned her neck to look over her shoulder at him. "Jeez, you spend hours in your mother's crib and you still want to eat?"
"Bento boxes are best eaten fresh."
"Well, we've got a lot to cover—"
A guttural noise echoed through the room and Kurama's lips broke to a smile. "Have you eaten, Professor?"
She was red in the face and was trying not to break her calm. "I forget."
Kurama wouldn't have it. "I'm going to fix the meal and you will join me."
Aoshi didn't say anything and turned back to her work.
Kurama had to drag her by the sleeve not five minutes later.
o-o
Chiaki had never felt less motivated to get up on a Monday morning. Not to mention the person who was currently smirking at her from his office chair made everything worse.
"Well, then," he said, leaning back in a manner only fitting of someone his gravity. "Why don't the two of you sit down?"
Kurama was quick to take the offer and Chiaki reluctantly copied him, deliberately staring at her lap.
"I figured you'll need a supervisor, but since we're short-handed, we can't afford to have two people babysitting two experienced scientists."
Chiaki pressed her lips together as a growl almost escaped her.
"And since that is the case, I'm going to be your supervisor for one week."
"What?" she said, glaring up at him. "I requested for someone else!"
"Which is so like you, Chiaki. But I requested to be put as your supervisor."
"You're working in another unit. Doesn't that make it a hassle to rear two babies assigned to another?"
"No," Urawa was saying, leaning toward her over his table. "Nothing's a hassle when it comes to you, Chiaki."
She swallowed a sudden lump that made its way to her throat. Sweet shit.
"Besides, I am in authority here since Ozu's getting his brains blown out."
Chiaki stood up from her chair. "I can't deal with this."
Urawa leaned back on his. "Aren't you being unprofessional?"
"Excuse me? You requested to be my supervisor, videlicet, to torment me for a week. Which is a very underhanded attempt at robbing me off my employment, of course."
He hollowly laughed. "And why would I want to take you out of the working force?"
Chiaki's tongue got stuck at the roof of her mouth. "I… Because I'm your greatest rival!"
Urawa began to laugh more loudly. "Chiaki, Yamamoto's no longer here to seek approval from. But I am here and I am the boss. I'm supposed to be the one to please, and even if it's against my better judgment, I'll let this initial display of complete lack of decorum pass."
The mere mention of Yamamoto's death made Chiaki weak in the knees. A new form of anger took shape in her gut, and even as she tried to regain mastery of herself, Urawa and his smirking face made her want to break something. Like his face.
She managed to clear her thoughts.
"I don't need anyone's approval, Urawa, and I hope you know Yamamoto's rolling in his grave right now that you've made it so much clearer how you're nothing but a second-rate copycat to his scientist."
Urawa scoffed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Aren't you only bothered by the setup because I might get in the way between you and your partner?"
Kurama didn't flinch and Chiaki glared even harder at Urawa. How dare he steer this to a whole new direction! "You're insufferable."
"Ran out of words to throw my way, Chiaki?"
The demon spoke for a first time since the bullshit started. "Professors, please, let's deal with this calmly."
He turned to Chiaki.
"Professor, I request you to accept the current conditions. It's only for a week."
"Yeah, and if you pass, you can have all the time to stare doe-eyed at each other while doing 'lab-lab' work."
"Urawa—!"
"Professor Urawa, please give it a rest. Whatever Professor Aoshi has told you, none of it was true. We're not in any relationship. I'm certain she only said so to get you off her back."
Chiaki was sure he'd said something wrong. "Matsuda—"
"Wow, she tells you everything, huh?"
"—what the hell are you doing?"
"Are you sure you're not a mere confidant?"
"Don't listen to him!"
"Professors, please stop!" Kurama was saying, holding up both hands in surrender, his head of brown curls hanging in defeat. "I am unaware of your whole history, but I need this job and I implore you to do as the situation requires of you."
Chiaki was convinced this was excellent acting on Kurama's part. She should give it to him to find the right words to manipulate the odds in their favor. Like a true detective.
She bowed down with all the reluctance to submit to the male populace.
"Fine. Take care of us, Professor Urawa."
"Wow, Chiaki, I didn't know you still have it in you."
She straightened up, crossing her arms. "I'm not exactly as proud as you are."
"Professor Aoshi…"
Kurama's face was the picture of a saint, but Chiaki could take a warning. "Yeah, pretend I didn't say that. Let's get this over with."
o-o
"Chiaki! Matsuda!"
The micropipette almost slipped from Kurama's grip as a hand descended on his shoulder just as another pushed—pulled—Aoshi away from him.
Finally.
A muffled, venomous voice echoed next to his right ear, and the warmth of someone he wasn't accustomed to made more stifling the already-charged air about them, followed by Aoshi's slapping away the gloved hand on her elbow.
"Didn't your lousy teachers tell you not to share a biosafety cabinet—much less gossip while working next to it?" said Urawa, face mask bobbing up and down slightly as he spoke.
Aoshi rolled her eyes, tapping her foot impatiently. "Urawa, we weren't gossiping. I was only taking the plates to place them in the chamber and was about to go and work on the task you've given. Could you please quit being an ass-hat?"
"Excuse me?" Urawa was suddenly laughing and wagging a finger in front of the sole woman in the room. "Chiaki, I know we're not in good terms and you get nervous around me that you can't stop coming up with insults to bring yourself to my attention—"
"What?"
Kurama inwardly sighed. In relief. They're at it again.
He surreptitiously rose from the stool after he'd re-arranged and re-stacked the used instruments for decontamination.
Kurama figured this was bound to happen at an hourly rate, and even without Aoshi knowing, she was helping the plan he'd laid out with the team to come underway.
"—but you don't have the right to speak ill to a senior. I am a senior in this facility and you should know to address me in a more fitting manner."
Urawa was too much of a distraction. To Aoshi, but not to Kurama. This was the perfect timing.
"I'm sorry but last I heard, respect begets respect."
His eyes scanned the area, spotting the surveillance camera at one corner of the room.
"I hold authority over you in this place, Chiaki, and that should automatically warrant a display of respect."
He'd initially rallied against Yusuke's insisting that they execute these actions too early into the infiltration, but a series of counterarguments from the rest of the team had him backed to a figurative corner with no other choice but to do as they had wanted.
"You think? Then act like you are worthy of it."
"But would it be wise? Would my energy not be detectable?" so he said as he tried pleading with them.
"I act as is required of me, so you should your perform as well, Chiaki."
"These people are as suspicious as we are. We can't do this in broad daylight without anyone noticing."
His eyes continued scanning the whole room before landing on the sign hanging by the door. He zeroed in on the direction of the lavatory.
"Yeah, but we're not here for nothing!" Kuwabara had said, upturning the chair he was sitting on in the process.
"Professors," he said, momentarily breaking the two of them from their incessant bickering. "May I go out? I need to use the toilet."
"Next time, you don't have to ask," said Urawa, turning back to a now seething and reddened Aoshi who didn't look like she was going to rest her case just yet.
He fought the urge to shake his head at the mature scientists' behavior and made his way to the opposite end of the hallway, locking himself in the cubicle farthest from the door after making sure it was vacated.
His hand slipped into the side slit of his laboratory coat and found its way into his pants' pocket, fishing out the blue compact communicator that he silently opened.
o-o
In one of the bushes in the field across from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, Urameshi, Kuwabara, and Hiei were huddled in a tight knot in an attempt to remain inconspicuous. While Urameshi and the shrimp didn't have much of a trouble staying hidden, what with their obvious lack in stature and vibrant hair color, Kuwabara's legs have long gone dead from the squatting and extra bending that he had to endure for the past two hours.
Not to mention the summer heat had become less bearable these days. He was confident his armpits could soak rolls and rolls of tissue by now.
Kurama had promised to have the plan hatched by ten, but Urameshi insisted that they arrived as early as the fox did for his first day in the lab. It was almost admirable that the suggestion was coming from the lazy bum that was the detective, but since they had perched in their hiding place, Kuwabara surmised it ticked another tally on the list he'd updated for about the ten-millionth time: Urameshi's Stupidity.
"Man, my legs are dead," he said for the umpteenth time.
Hiei didn't even tut this time.
"Stop whining like a three-year-old, Kuwabara. Mine have crossed back and forth to the Reikai too many times I lost count," said Urameshi, rolling his eyes at him in impatience.
Kuwabara slammed a fist on the back of his head—not too hard to send him catapulting out of their hiding spot but hard enough to get the rise out of him and satisfy his retaliatory hunger for putting his legs in such a crisis.
"Yeah, and you were the one who suggested that we hide in the bushes. Who had a better suggestion yesterday? I did, didn't I?" Kuwabara hissed before he could yell, remembering that they were supposed to stay hidden and unheard of.
Luckily, Urameshi thought it wise not to scream his lungs out either, rubbing at the sore spot. "Did you really have to do that?"
Hiei spoke. "The oaf was bored."
Urameshi whirled around to look at him. "Well I'm guessing you're bored, too, since you finally decided to open that lousy mouth of yours."
Hiei glared at him.
For no apparent reason, the person sitting between Kuwabara and Hiei slightly jumped from his crouch, fumbling for his pocket. Kuwabara had to pull hum back down before he could spring upward.
"What is it?"
"My communicator. Seems like fox boy finally decided to ring us up."
Sure enough, afro Kurama's face was in the communicator as soon as it opened.
"You can send Hiei in."
"About time, what took you so long?"
Kurama didn't even flinch at Urameshi's try at reprimand. "It took some time to distract our supervisor and request for a toilet break."
Shrugging, Urameshi turned to Hiei. "How much time do you need?"
Hiei was smirking. "Three minutes."
Kuwabara snorted. "Don't get way over your head, shrimp. That building is huge."
"I'm perfectly aware of my limitations, oaf."
Before he could think of a response, Urameshi raised his free hand. "Okay, three minutes then. Go now, Hiei."
In a slight ruffle of leaves and branches, Hiei disappeared as a blur under the summer sun. Kuwabara zipped up the top of his blue overalls and placed the white helmet on top of his head, turning to Kurama who was still on the communicator.
"The professor?"
"In the laboratory. She proved to be quite the distraction for our supervisor."
"She knows the guy?"
"Intimately, I should say, and just about everyone else in here."
"She's that much of a big shot, eh?" said Urameshi, turning his mustache less askew.
"In the scientific community, of course."
Kurama's face suddenly disappeared from the screen, replaced by a dimness similar to one from a room with windows but not artificial lighting. Kuwabara could barely make out Kurama's curled silhouette in the screen. It seemed the shrimp had gotten his job done right.
"That's our signal," said Urameshi. "Let's get going."
The two of them rose from their positions in a series of curses from the pins and needles in their legs. Urameshi had said goodbye to Kurama and stashed the communicator back to his pocket and the two of them trudged up the grassy field towards the expensive-looking facility. It sure seemed quite something, except that now he saw the building as what they supposed it was—a stronghold for a brewing disaster.
Urameshi and Kuwabara entered through the basement parking, saluting the guard as they flashed their falsified worker IDs. They took the emergency stairs and started their ascent to the electrical control room where Hiei was waiting for cover up.
A slight, suppressed spike of energy made the two of them pause from taking the third flight of stairs, and without even acknowledging it, they knew it was Kurama's ki.
o-o
A few more seconds… a little more to let the farthest tendrils attach to the substrates. Hopefully Aoshi and Urawa had not noticed how long he was taking to come back with the power interrupted. He could hear several sets of footsteps—some harried and some calm—outside the hallway.
The plant had already taken root in the soil below, but he needed a few more seconds to have the vine envelope the entire building. He could go faster, but this was the most that he could do while trying to keep his energy at a level discreet enough for only the most sensitive of beings to take notice.
A drop of sweat stung his eye, and he wiped at it with his free hand.
o-o
"What on earth is happening?" Urawa was yelling as he strode about the main room as every single machine buzz was reduced to a deafening nothing.
Chiaki followed him to the room where everyone else from their department had gathered after the lights went out. The room was steadily growing warmer from the lack of a functional air conditioning and the sheer mass of warm-blooded people swarming in from the laboratories.
Her eyes searched for the curly-haired Kurama who had gone away while she was trying to draw the line between her and Urawa. The irksome man seemed to enjoy torturing her to no end and she wasn't sure how she was going to see through the conclusion of this mission in one piece with a second-rate dragon breathing down on her neck.
Not to mention her ally was currently missing in action and seemed to have abandoned her for good measure.
"There seems to be a power interruption, Professor Urawa," said a junior research assistant.
Urawa paused and threw up his hands in the air. "I know that, what do you take me for?"
A fool, of course, Chiaki thought as she lagged behind the crowd and closer to the door to the hallway.
"Oh, the maintenance is going to hear from me," said the already red-faced Urawa to the room at large, rushing past her, his unbuttoned laboratory gown billowing in his trail.
Chiaki chuckled, amused at how he looked like he could strangle someone. She stalked from the scene, deciding she could use the break for a quick smoke in the fire exit stairs.
"Professor Aoshi," said the familiar voice, and she turned around to see Kurama following her. "Where are you going?"
Weird question… unless—
"That's not exactly the question I was expecting, but to humor you, I'm taking a smoke."
He paused in his footsteps and Chiaki looked over her shoulder, cocking her head in a gesture of invitation for the demon with a face of faux calm.
"It's going to take a while before they sort this out, I'm guessing. You can use the time to tell me what exactly happened," she said as soon as she started walking again.
Kurama caught up and ambled beside her silently. She wasn't very confident that he had something to do with this blackout but his quiet assent was rather telling.
Chiaki sat on the topmost step while he stood at the far corner, as if trying to put as much distance as he could between him and the lit end of her cigarette. Big whoop, second-hand smoke wasn't going to kill a demon, even a demon-human hybrid like him. He must be grossed out was all.
"Start shooting," she said after taking a long first drag, letting the smoke escape through her nostrils.
"While I was gone, I gave the others the signal to cause the power interruption so I could install the surveillance plants."
Chiaki almost choked, masking it as a cough. "And you didn't tell me?" she said, suddenly overcome by the sense of cutting her smoking session short just because she was left out of everything.
"You offered the necessary distraction for Professor Urawa for me to exit and I figured you wouldn't have to know about the plan to do what is required of you," said the man in a ponytail.
Her mouth hung agape and the cigarette fell to the floor. "That's a marvelous display of confidence in me, thanks."
She picked up the stick, only to put it out against the stone floor before wrapping the unconsumed half in a paper towel she'd stashed in her lab coat while cleaning a test tube earlier.
"I'm sorry that we didn't tell you, but the others voted for it."
"And I'm not allowed to say anything against what you guys want to do," she said with spite she didn't know she still had after already casting too much of it against Urawa. "Am I too bad an actress that you can't trust me enough to just tell me the short of it?"
Kurama was silent for a moment. "I would have you involved, Professor, believe me, but we thought it best not to let you know. Urawa is too suspicious as it is and with how he is around you, we can't afford him knowing."
"I'm not stupid to tell him anything."
"But he can be smart enough to provoke you to getting a desired reaction."
Her mouth had run dry. She couldn't think of anything to say against it. She always seemed to snap whenever Urawa strutted in the picture.
Damn these feelings.
"Professor, I implore you to stop being deterred from what we've set out to do. I understand that you harbor ill feelings toward him but we can't afford your losing your nerve whenever he's around. Everyone in this facility is a suspect, I hope you keep that in mind."
"I get it," she said through gritted teeth. God, she must be extremely tired from the energy she had to put into meeting Urawa head on that she could so easily take what this demon was saying without even trying. "I promise to keep a level head."
"That's very nice of you but I do have one request."
Her head whipped up to look at him, eyes narrowed. "What?"
Kurama straightened, pocketing his hands. "From here on, you will know of our next steps. In exchange, you must keep up with the appearance of a spiteful rival to Urawa."
"What?"
The warmth from the cigarette stick wasn't lost just yet in the wad of paper towel, and Chiaki felt the slight sting as she squeezed too hard on it.
"There's a big possibility that Urawa knows more than he would let on, and I would need you to keep him distracted when I inspect his office. He is currently the head of this facility, as Ozu is out, which adds to the possibility that he is involved in this elaborate plan."
Chiaki's mouth opened and closed, unable to comprehend the logic behind such a risky endeavor and the part that she was supposed to play. Being hostile towards Urawa wasn't difficult to do, as it was the only way she could be with him, but to knowingly distract him? It was impossible and Kurama knew that.
"I'm not following, Kurama. Why would you have to rummage his office? I thought you've taken care of your plants, so why the need to do something that dangerous?"
"I was a thief, Professor. You need not worry about me."
He was dodging the question. "But Urameshi caught you."
"No, I surrendered to him."
"I—I don't know. This is too risky."
"No, Professor, it's not. Trust me."
With the way Kurama was looking at her, not quite pleading but confident… Chiaki sighed, ridden of any other choice. She wasn't allowed to have a say, after all. Who was she anyway?
"When are you hatching this master plan?"
Kurama smiled. "I'll tell you when the time comes."
I sure hope we don't get caught this early.
o-o
It seemed Urawa was too upset of the power interruption that he didn't bother the two of them for the rest of the day and settled inside his office instead.
"No, it's because the blackout bamboozled everything he was working on in the other unit. Knowing that old fart, he's probably panicking by now. He can't mess up his experiments lest he wanted to lose that research grant," Aoshi said, correcting him.
She really knew him that well.
Kurama slipped out of his laboratory coat as she did, and they made their way out of the building before Urawa could make them do anything more than they had to.
When they reached the basement parking, the two of them went for separate directions. Aoshi didn't seem to notice that he had started for the backdoors until they were five feet away.
"Where are you going?" she asked, twisting around to look at him.
"The Eyevine should have borne fruit by now. I'm collecting it. I thought you'd want to see."
"You don't say."
Kurama smiled and she turned to walk next to him. They silently strode to the metal gates and nodded to the guard, bursting to the darkness outside. It had gotten late, and he wondered if she would want to see the recordings for herself at this time.
He led the way to the far corner of the building, crouching by the huge oak tree flanking the fence. The vines that had dangled from the branches, hidden securely between the wide trunk and the fence from any chance passers-by, slightly shone to life at his silent bidding.
He stretched his arm out to fit his hand into the small crook between the trunk and the stone fence, and plucked the transparent, golf-size fruit dangling from the roots of the oak.
He took his briefcase and placed the fruit inside, while Aoshi stared dumbfounded.
"What just happened? I didn't see anything."
Kurama stood up and dusted his pants. "Then that means no one else saw it but I. But don't worry, you'll see how it works later."
He started walking again and Aoshi ran past him.
"Go to hell, you sly bastard!"
Kurama chuckled as he jogged after her who was going back to the basement parking. "But Professor, are you not going to offer me a ride?"
"No!" she yelled without looking back at him.
He stopped. "See you at the diner, then?"
She whirled around to flip her pinkie at him. "Race you to it!"
Kurama shook his head in disbelief. She was being unfair, but he wasn't opposed to the idea of a good ten-mile run.
A/N: Hello, everyone! I'm really sorry it took quite a while to post an update. The term has been insane and I couldn't write anything for two weeks. I've been adding as much as I could to what I've written the previous week and I was only able to complete this chapter about two days ago. How do you find Kuwabara's POV? I've been meaning not to include anyone else's narrative except for Kurama's and Chiaki's, but I had to unless I'd rather leave everyone wondering about what happened.
* 'lab-lab' - Urawa deliberately used repetition since in Japanese there is no exact phonetic distinction between "l" and "r" sounds. So, if he were speaking in Japanese in this story, he would have said, "rabu-rabu", which is practically "love-love" in English, a Japanese slang meaning being "lovey-dovey".
* On the issue of Kurama's sexuality, I can only say that I never closed my eyes to the possibility that he and Hiei had indeed been somehow attracted to each other. This is not to mention that Kurama as the demon had hundreds of years to explore this aspect of his life. I'd like to think that Kurama is bisexual and had had romantic experiences with members of both sexes and I'm going to stand by it.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter and to those who faved and added this to their alerts! So, how was this chappie? Loved it? Hated it? Please do tell!
See you next chapter! :)