Part Two
Chapter Fifteen
If this really is an elaborate prank, Kusuke is a dead man. And if it's not?
Yare, yare. The last thing I want to do is meet God in person; hasn't he screwed with my life enough?
Speaking of which, will I go to Hell if I punch God in the face? Considering how much he hates me, I'm probably going there anyway, so I might as well earn it.
And enjoy it.
Father of Gods
"Otou-sama, Okaa-sama, tadaima kaerimashita!" Kuwabara—probably can't call her Kuwabara now; things will get confusing—skipped out of her school shoes and onto the engawa lining the mid-sized tearoom with open shoji screens where Kuwabara Kazuma and his wife Kuwabara Yukina sat enjoying the mid-summer sun.
Yukina smiled as she set a plate of yaki manju in front of her husband, who had a newspaper open in front of his face. Both wore simple yukata, likely in deference to the heat, and Yukina had her thick hair pulled up in a simple bun at the nape of her neck tied by a red ribbon.
"Natsuko-chan, Nadeshiko-chan, okaeri nasai. Eh?" She blinked at the boys, most of whom shuffled nervously and looked away with faint blushes. "Oh! You must be the boys Kazuma said would come." She bowed. "Welcome. Please, make yourselves at home."
"I was wondering how long it would take before Natsu and Nadi got you here." Kuwabara folded his newspaper and set it aside. Kusuo stared.
The Father of Gods is a yankee.
He had the same, curly hair done up in a pompadour style that Kuboyasu had sported before he went straight, minus the mullet. It was also the same bright orange as his daughter's and matched his neatly trimmed goatee. Surprisingly, while not ugly, he was nowhere near as pretty as Kusuo had expected for being the so-called "god of gods." He was actually extremely normal looking, if not taller than average for a Japanese man. His wife, on the other hand, was very pretty—Teruhashi pretty—with mint-green hair and the same ruby eyes as her daughter. She was also extremely small and delicate looking, which must be where Natsuko got it from.
Kuwabara snorted and shot an amused glance at his daughter and niece. "Nadi told you, eh? She likes doing that; says it's fun to see the looks of surprise on peoples' faces when they see me and realize how ugly I am."
Yamato shouted in protest. "I never said you were ugly, Kazu-ji!"
"Kazuma." Yukina sent her husband a sharp glare. "What have I said?"
Kuwabara grinned and rubbed his nose with one finger as he blushed. "Heh, heh, sorry, Baby. I was just repeating, not believing."
"You better not believe any such thing. You shouldn't even repeat it!" Yukina stepped around the table and knelt by her husband's side so she could take his face in both of her small hands. "You're the handsomest man in the world, and anyone who says otherwise is a fool."
"Oh, Yukina." Kuwabara's expression softened even further as he cradled her face with his left palm. "Whatever I did to deserve you will forever be my greatest achievement."
Yukina blushed sweetly, but Yamato gagged before Yukina could return the sentiment.
"Can you please do the lovey-dovey shit behind closed doors? Gah, you're as bad as my parents!"
Yukina's blush deepened, and she pulled back with a nervous giggle. "Sorry, Nadeshiko-chan. We'll be more mindful in the future."
Kuwabara grumbled but complied. He turned his attention back to the five boys, who looked on in varying degrees of uncomfortable ranging from Nendou—who looked blissfully oblivious—to Shun—who was blushing like first year junior high girl.
Yare, yare.
"You might as well come up and eat something; Yukina will be disappointed if you don't."
Kuboyasu and Shun scrambled forward, obviously horrified by the idea of disappointing this beautiful lady who didn't look old enough to be Nadeshiko's big sister, never mind her mother. Kusuo moved with equal speed, though his concern was more for the sweets than hurting anyone's feelings. He knelt on the cushion nearest to the open wall, his socked feet baking lightly beneath the fall of mid-afternoon sunlight not blocked by the ceiling, and waited with forced patience for Yukina to serve him a plate.
The sweet buns had a flaky, brittle crust that pared well with the lightly sweetened red bean paste filling as it fell apart on his tongue. Ah, bliss…
"Wow." Yamato's haughty tone cut through Kusuo's savoring of the treat. He shot her a glare, but Yamato was unaffected as she sat at the table with her chin in her palm, grinning. "No wonder Teruhashi's nuts about you. You're pretty cute when you're all 'hanyan' about sweets."
"Nadeshiko-chan," Yukina scolded as she passed out more plates. "Don't tease. It isn't ladylike."
"Yes, Yuki-ba."
"Here you are, Saiki-san. Kazuma suggested I prepare this as well." A small dish of coffee jelly appeared to replace Kusuo's empty plate, and he nearly cried for happiness. No wonder she's married to a god; only a god would deserve her!
He clapped his hands in thanks and dug in with relish. A warm, earthy tang infused with just a hint of chocolate sweetness. Bliss. Bliss, bliss, bliss.
Yukina giggled and continued passing out additional treats ranging from sugar-coated, strawberry mochi for a blushing Shun to steaming ramen for a starry-eyed Nendou. All the treats were gleefully and gratefully received.
"So, you probably got a lot of questions; kami know I did when I was in your place. Except I was a few years younger and a whole lot stupider than you punks are now."
"Kazuma." There was a frown in the lady deity's voice, but Kusuo was too enthralled by his coffee jelly to look up.
Kuwabara chuckled. "Was, Yukina-love, was. Even you have to admit I didn't always make the best impression."
Yukina sniffed dismissively as she took a seat at the table in front of her own sweet treat. "I have to do no such thing."
"Ah! My sweet love! I don't—!"
"Kazu-ji? Sometime today would be great."
"Right, right. Almost forgot."
I'd usually say 'yare, yare' right here, but I really don't mind if this goes on all day as long as there's more coffee jelly.
"Okay, so here's the gist. You five guys were different guys in another life who came back as you five guys because some god decided you deserved another chance at a better life. We don't know who you were, we haven't figured that out yet, but the powers you have are supposed to be similar to the powers you had in your past life or something. I'm not really sure."
Kuboyasu was obviously fighting the annoyance trying to manifest on his face as half his expression was a bright, 'goody-goody' smile while the other half was scrunched and shadowed with a twitching brow. "You don't seem to know very much for a god."
Kuwabara snorted. "I'm not a god, kid." He held up his thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart. "I'm just a small piece of one. There's a lot of pieces of Him scattered around time and space, and most of the pieces don't even know they are pieces. The only reason I know as much as I do about who I am is because I have two pieces." He paused a moment, his hand going to his goatee. "And because they were ripped out of me a few years ago, but that's unrelated to right now."
Kusuo frowned. Ripped out?
"Two pieces?" Hairo paused with a bite of hamburger steak hanging just in front of his mouth. "How did you get two pieces? I'd think if a god was going to break himself into little bits, he wouldn't want those bits to cross."
Kuwabara shrugged, his eyes on his wife, who sat quietly but was looking progressively more distressed. He laid his hand over hers, startling her, and when she looked up, there were tears in her eyes. Kuwabara smiled at her, patting her small, pale hands twice. Yukina relaxed at that, even managed a small smile, but she didn't pull her hands away. Instead, she turned one over and laced their fingers together.
"Best Koenma can figure it, I have two pieces of Him because I originally had two souls." Kuwabara looked at the boys and put his spare hand over his heart. "The first one was the original me, the new soul created for the body of Kuwabara Kazuma. The second one is my Reborn self. Just like you guys, I have an old soul from another world—like a reincarnation, I guess. Usually, they only go into bodies that don't yet have a soul, but because that soul also had a piece of Him, the two souls resonated and the two pieces combined, turning my two souls into one soul. Get it?"
"No," Kuboyasu said, point blank. "Not at all."
Yamato sighed. "It's like your castella, idiot. When you start out, the flour, sugar, eggs, and stuff are separate, but once you put them together and bake it, the ingredients become a cake, and no matter what you do to it, the cake will always be cake; it can never go back to being an egg or water or sugar or whatever. Kazu-ji's souls got baked together and now they can't come apart. Get it now?"
Kuboyasu looked down at his fluffy cake and poked it with his fork, creating crumbs. Understanding filtered over his face, and he nodded.
"Right, so," Kuwabara said with a grateful nod at his niece. "For about fifty years or so, a lot of the Reborn have gone missing. It started slow with the least powerful ones, mostly normal humans with natural psychic abilities, but after what happened in Mushiori City twenty years ago, things got way worse."
Kusuo perked up, so surprised by that name, he nearly dropped his spoonful of jelly. "Mushiori City?"
Kuwabara nodded, and Kusuo's brow furrowed. "What happened?"
"A rogue Spirit Detective happened." Kuwabara clenched his fist, his dark eyes taking on a distant gleam. "He and his team opened a portal to demon world under the city, and the transient energy got into humans and turned them into psychics."
Kuwabara motioned toward his daughter and niece. "Natsu said you have some friends at your school with minor psychic abilities. It's probably because they were either born in Mushiori city or at least one of their parents lived there while the gate was being opened. Even now, the place has way more demon and spirit energies than other places. Older people don't just become psychics anymore, but a lot of new psychics are still being born."
Kusuo gaped, unable to hide it. Is that why he was so powerful? Because he was born in Mushiori City? And not just that, his mother had been born and raised in Mushiori City until she met his father on her school trip and moved to Tokyo. Add on Kusuo's status as a one of those Reborn souls, possibly a really strong one too, and it actually almost made sense why he had so much power. He may not be two souls in one, but he was like a sports car modified to run on rocket fuel.
"Actually, now that you mention it…" Kuboyasu looked around, as if searching for agreement. "Wasn't Mera's family originally from Mushiori? They moved here after her dad lost his job and ran off."
"Eh?" Hairo scratched his nose in thought. "Were they?"
Shun frowned. "I never heard anything about that. Did she tell you, Aren?"
"Ah…well, you know. We talk sometimes about food and work and stuff. It must have come up then."
Kuboyasu and Mera? Never saw that coming…Not that it was necessarily anything; except that light blush on Kuboyasu's cheeks was a bit damning.
"You mentioned that people like us," Shun waved between himself and his friends, "have been going missing over the years. Do you think it's the work of Dark Reunion?"
Kuwabara nodded. "Yeah, it's Dark Reunion, all right. They were part of the faction that killed me about eighteen years ago and kidnapped my soul."
Kusuo's spoon stopped half-way into his mouth. What?
"After Koenma got my body stitched back together—"
What?
"—the guys had to break into Hell and crack a few heads to get my soul back."
What?
Yukina whimpered as Kuwabara spoke, and he turned a compassionate frown on his wife. "Baby, why don't you go check on Yuki? He should be waking up soon."
Yukina nodded quickly and withdrew, leaving a clatter of tears in her wake.
Wait, clatter? Kusuo stared at the tatami mats where several shimmering gems rolled this way and that.
"Um, Kuwabara…sama?" Shun lifted his hand tentatively, looking a bit green from shock. "Did…did your wife just cry pearls?"
Kuwabara swept the gems into his hand and slipped them into his yukata's obi. "No."
"But—"
"No." Kuwabara turned a dark glare onto the five boys. "And if you ever bring it up again, I'll rip your spleens out through your noses. Got it?"
Blank, shocked faces. "A-aye, sir…"
Yare, yare. Again with the wrong anime…
After a dense, uncomfortable pause, Kuwabara cleared his throat and reached for his tea. "Anyway, the guys that got me were looking for clues to some big, important Reborn. They knew it wasn't me, but they thought my Kami Shards would point them in the right direction."
More silence. Hairo spoke up, "Did they?"
Kuwabara shrugged. "Couldn't. The kid wasn't born yet. If Dark Reunion had their way, they'd have kept my soul in stasis and brought it out once a year until they found the kid, but obviously, it didn't go their way."
"But…" Shun trailed off, looking around nervously as if waiting to be shot down. Natsuko smiled and passed him another strawberry mochi.
"Go ahead, Kaidoh-kun. You may not realize it, but you have a lot of insight into Dark Reunion. Even your strangest ideas have some basis in truth."
Considering some of the crazy things Shun had spouted over the years, Kusuo really, really hoped that wasn't true.
"Hey, old man." Nendou's voice made almost everyone jump; even Kusuo had forgotten he was there even though they were sitting right next to each other. Kuwabara leveled a curious expression on Nendou, his eyebrow raised.
"You got something to say, punk?"
"Yeah." Nendou stared Kuwabara down across the table, an unusually serious frown on his lips. "Who the heck are you anyway?"
Everyone fell over.
"Seriously, Nendou?!" Shun leaped to his feet, gesturing wildly with one pointing finger. "Weren't you paying attention at all?" He pointed at Kuwabara. "That's God, idiot! God!"
"I'm not God," Kuwabara corrected, but everyone ignored him.
"Huh…" Nendou folded his arms and tilted his head as he stared more intently at Kuwabara. "Weird. I thought he was me."
Natsuko giggled and set her hand over Nendou's, patting it. "He's only a little bit you. Or maybe you're a little bit him? I'm not entirely certain how it works. You were born after Otou-sama, yes, but He shattered His soul eons ago, and the shards were said to go immediately to their new hosts, so perhaps it depends on whose soul existed first?"
"Whoa, wait, hold on!" Kuboyasu held up his hands to signal a 'time-out.' "You're not saying what I think you're saying, right? Because if you're saying what I think you're saying then please, please don't say it."
"Say what?" Natsuko smiled, and it almost, almost, looked a little bit evil. "That Nendou-kun also has a piece of Izanagi-O's soul?"
All five boys stared. "Offu…"
"Huh." Kuwabara scratched the back of his head, eyeing Nendou contemplatively. "Does that make us brothers or something?"
"No!" Natsuko blushed under the sudden, intense focus of seven pairs of eyes. She coughed lightly. "No, Otou-sama; you are not brothers. You only share a small part of a very, very old soul."
Suspicion darkened Kuwabara's expression as he stared at his daughter, who'd taken on the uncomfortable guise of a guilty teen trying to look innocent. "Natsu, you don't like this guy?"
A faint blush dusted her cheeks, and Natsuko refused to look at him. Kuwabara growled, half standing, but Yamato waved him down.
"Easy, Kazu-ji! Remember what we're up against; you can kill him when we're done with him."
Kuwabara shot his niece a dark glare but sat back down anyway. "Tell us what you know, Natsuko, then go help your mother with Yukito."
Natsu winced just slightly—Probably his use of their full names; I'd react the same way if Mom ever called me 'Kusuo'—and nodded. "Hai, Otou-sama."
Straightening up, she settled both hands in her lap and focused solely on her father. "I noticed as soon as I saw him that Nendou-san had an unusually powerful aura, but I can't read his emotions, so I couldn't get a fix on the cause. I looked closer, pressed his mind. His mental shields are amazing, but they do not feel practiced. They felt natural; like yours, Otou-sama. And now that the two of you are in the same room, the similarity is undeniable. Nendou-san's aura is not as overwhelming as yours, Otou-sama, but it has the same look and presence."
Kuwabara nodded. "I see…"
Kusuo stared. Nendou had mental shields? All these years, Kusuo had thought he couldn't read the idiot's mind because he was an idiot. He never guessed that it was possible for someone to shield their thoughts from a telepath as strong as he had been, whether naturally or otherwise.
That's it; that's how Dark Reunion is hiding from me and why I've never heard of them before. Their members know how to shield their minds.
Kusuo shuddered at the thought that, all his life, there were people in the world—who knew how many—walking around being completely unpredictable. Who knew what they were doing or what they wanted? His only consolation was that he'd never met any of them. If he had, then they would have stood out to him as obviously as Nendou did.
"Does that mean Kusuo has a piece of Izanagi-O too?" Shun asked, his eyes wide with a mixture of jealousy and awe. "Aiura-san said his aura is huge."
Natsuko nodded, her sightless eyes turning to Kusuo. "It probably was. It is still quite impressive, with a steady core, but nothing beyond what one would expect from a minor psychic or untrained Reborn." She looked at Shun. "Honestly, I expected it to look more like yours. Sealed, your powers barely extend beyond your body—like what could be expected from a chipmunk or a squirrel—but there are small flares every now and then that show a great deal of suppressed potential." Natsuko looked back to Kusuo with a small frown. "Either way, we will need to remove the seals that have been placed upon you both as your powers will be vital to the coming fight."
Shun trembled at her words, but it was impossible to tell if he was terrified or ecstatic.
"But no." Natsuko shook her head, going back to the original question. "Izanagi-O's soul-shards have a very specific signature; one that Saiki-san's does not match. He is merely a very powerful Reborn Psychic." Her expression took on a shadow of pity. "Or was, as the case now stands."
Kusuo sipped his coffee to hide a scowl.
Kuwabara snorted. "It ain't gone. Power like that doesn't just vanish. Take it from someone who knows."
"It didn't vanish; my brother made a devise to seal it away."
"Which means it's still in there, and not even buried very far." Kuwabara nodded. "That's good."
Kuboyasu leaned forward with interest. "So, you can break the seal?"
"Sure." Kuwabara grinned, his dark eyes alight with amusement. "We'll just beat it out of him."
