Yu Yu Hakusho and its characters belong to Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Studio Pierrot, Fuji TV and Jump Comics. Takamura-san (and also Mai and Yuriko) belongs to me, but he can be borrowed.
Shounen Ai, Lemon.
~*~
Chapter Two
The Fall
Okay, okay, the sight of the Styx River was quite impressive. And that castle/temple/fortress/whatever built on the top of that amazing cliff was a thousand times more majestic than the Toshogu Temple in Nikko. And if any poet managed to see those skies while still alive, that purplish-orange tone would certainly kill him on the spot with a fulminating heart attack. But apart from the divine landscape, death was unbearably boring.
"Come on, angel," Takamura-san tried again. "Let's get out of here, shall we? If you don't like Kyoto, we can go someplace else. Venice, perhaps. Or Athens. Jamaica? You choose, angel."
Guiding the grumbling man through the long hallways, Botan shook her head. "Behave yourself, Takamura-san. I have a job to do."
"You're too serious, angel," he scolded. "You know the proverb, all work and no play..."
Botan sighed noisily. Too serious? Me? Now there's something no one ever called me before. Maybe she should ask him to write a letter to Koenma-sama complaining about her extreme seriousness on the job; that might ease things around her. Doesn't matter now, she shrugged though. It's not my neck lying on the guillotine this time.
"What about a stroll in those gardens outside, hem?" he tried again.
"We're working on BIEFOWS mode here now," she muttered, more to herself than for her restless companion. "Again. It's becoming a habit."
"BIEFO what?" he frowned.
"BIEFOWS mode," she repeated. "Never mind."
"But..."
"I said never mind," she insisted. "Don't go talking around about this."
"This what?"
"Never mind." She opened a heavy double door and gestured for him to enter. "Anyway, no time for fun now. You don't want the Fuji-yama to explode in lava and ashes, do you?"
He was about to ask her about the obsession with mountains - something terrible seemed to have happened in Mount Hiei, and now Mount Fuji was about to explode? - and suggest a trip to the Alps or the Andes, if she cared so much about them. But then he opened his eyes to the room she had led him to, and forgot what he was going to say.
Apart from the large pilasters sustaining the tall roof, there was not much to be noticed in the architecture this time. The wide chamber had plain broad walls painted in a light tone of lavender, and the dark wood floor was old and a little splintered in some corners. Nothing adorned the place, despite a few small flower vases on some of the countless desks spread tidily in the huge space. On the desk were computers, piles of papers, stamps, pens and printers, arranged more or less orderly, depending on the temper of each desk's occupant, and not a single one of them was empty. Takamura-san used to work in a place like that. From those times, his most cherished memory was from the day he retired.
So it was a bit of a shock to find that kind of ambience in the Land of the Dead. Supposedly death was the final opportunity to 'rest in peace', right? So what was that image of non-rest and non-peace doing in the picture?
But that was just a bit of a shock. The one thing he had never imagined about death was that the service department was commanded by ogres. Big ogres. Green, blue, brown, gray, violet ogres, with horns and fangs and, conversely, amazingly civilized expressions on their faces.
And now Takamura-san felt more bored than ever. If death would be different from everything he had imagined - if Takamura-san had ever stopped to think about it - that was understandable, almost mandatory. But it was also mandatory that death would be different! Not the same old dull thing as life! Sure, they have ogres here, but so what? Most fellows I worked with in the office were ogres too...
"Botan!" cried a loud strident voice at his left. A short girl with red hair wearing a white blouse and crimson pants ran in their direction, nervousness and relief concocting a wild mix on her features. "Botan! I'm so glad you arrived! You're very late!"
The blue-haired ferrygirl indicated the old man with a tilt of her head. "Had a hard time to convince him to come. Takamura-san, this is my friend Hinageshi," she introduced them.
"Yoroshiku," he bowed politely. Pretty, but too young.
"Hajimemashite," Hinageshi replied gracefully. "Okaeri nasai."
"Did Koenma-sama asked about me?" Botan asked worriedly.
"He traveled to Makai a couple of hours ago," the younger girl told her.
"What?!"
"I don't know much," Hinageshi explained regretfully. "He talked to Mai in his office for one hour, then gave a bunch of orders to everyone around and left."
"Alone?" Botan panicked. Makai was still under Enki's ruling, which maintained a policy of no interference with the human world, but that didn't mean the Prince of Reikai would be safe.
"Well, no," the younger girl pursed her lips. "He took a security team with him."
Botan moaned. That translated as five to ten onis trained as bodyguards. They would be capable of shake off any ordinary youkai gangs targeting a rich ransom or revenge for past resentments. But against an S-class demon, they could do little more than watch Koenma fight for himself and cheer. "Couldn't he take the Tokubetsu Boueitai?"
"You're kidding?" Hinageshi paled. "You know they answer directly to King Enma's command. And we're in..."
"BIEFOWS mode, yeah, yeah," Botan muttered, cursing her own stupidity once again.
"It's not that bad," her friend encouraged her. "Koenma-sama didn't even take a security team the last time he went to Makai, and nothing happened."
Botan considered it. No, when Koenma traveled to see the Makai Tournament, his only escort had been George and Botan herself. But then they had traveled incognito, using disguises the whole time they were there. "He went in on an official mission?"
"Sort of." Hinageshi's reply was hesitant. "The most official he could get under a BIEFOWS mode. He sent a warning about his visit through King Enki."
Which meant not incognito at all. Botan let her shoulders drop in discourage.
Takamura-san watched that conversation with curiosity at first. Then, with fascination. Now he was bored again. "I'm sorry, sweethearts, but are you planning to do something with me or not? Like attaching some wings on my back, throwing me in a lava pool, turning me into an ogre or making me reincarnate as a rooster?"
Hinageshi blinked. "A rooster? Why?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "But if I'm allowed to choose, I'd rather be a rooster. Not a chicken. Between a chicken and the lava pool, I'm fine with the lava."
"Don't you prefer a raccoon?" Hinageshi suggested.
Botan frowned. "Why would he want to be a raccoon?"
"They're so cute! Fluffier than rabbits!"
"They're not," Botan contested.
"Are too."
Takamura-san cleaned his throat noisily, trying to get their attention. "Sweethearts, we were talking about me, remember? If you're not going to make me pass through the Gates of Judgement now, maybe I should go back home and have lunch."
Botan breathed deeply. Sure, she had a job to do. "Who's in charge, Hinageshi?"
"George. But he can't do much for you."
"Why?"
"Koenma-sama ordered us to hold up the paperwork while he's gone." She gestured to the busy onis in the room. "All they're doing is bringing the files in delay to date."
"What about the new souls?"
"We're handing them to Mai."
Botan gasped. "Mai?" Of all people?
"Come on, Botan. It wasn't her fault." Hinageshi chided politely. "Koenma-sama didn't blame her, and put her in charge of the new souls so she wouldn't feel incriminated. She's really depressed about the whole thing."
The blue-haired girl capitulated to the scolding. Yes, I'm being childish. Whatever happens to Hiei now, Mai was just doing her job and tried to make the best of it. "Where is she?"
Hinageshi pointed to the back of the room.
"Takamura-san, please wait here with Hinageshi," Botan asked him. "I'll be back in a minute." Then she stepped away from them, just as Hinageshi resumed the previous conversation with the old man, insisting on the unrivaled fluffiness of the raccoons.
She found Mai seated on a bench, elbows on her knees, hands disheveling her ebony hair. Botan could not see her face with her head bent forward like that, but her whole posture indicated the anguish and despair consuming her spirit. "Mai? You're okay?"
Mai jumped at the call. "What? Ah. Hi, Botan. I'm glad you're back."
Sitting beside her, Botan rested a comforting hand in her arm. "You look tired."
"No, I'm fine. Koenma-sama was very kind to me. I mean, under the circumstances."
Botan nodded. "Don't worry. Everything's gonna turn out all right."
"You think so?" Mai turned hopeful eyes towards her.
No, I don't, Botan mused. Specially after my stupid slip before Kuwabara-kun this morning. "I'm sure. After all, we've been through worse before."
Mai sighed, the words soothing part of her fears. "This is so messy. Koenma-sama demanded that all souls must wait here until he returns. He doesn't want to risk having another similar case..."
Maybe that will teach him to take his job more seriously... "I brought one more for you," Botan informed her. "Where are you keeping them?"
"In the Green Wing."
"Is there enough space there?"
"Until now, yes," Mai sighed. "But if Koenma-sama doesn't come back soon..."
Botan didn't want to hear the rest of that sentence. "Want me to take him there? You really should rest a little."
"No, no, I'm fine, really." Mai stood up rearranging her hair and red kimono. "I have to check if his file is in order first. What's the name?"
"Keiji Takamura, sixty-three years old, blood type B+. He's over there, with Hinageshi."
~*~
"And you said this place was good," groaned the woman in tailleur, moving to the door.
"Oh c'mom, hon," her companion chided, dressing his blazer hastily, trying to catch up with her. "The satsumajiru was okay."
"It was cold," she snapped back. "And they made us wait an eternity. And that waiter!!!"
"Quite a character, ne?" the man commented with a smile.
"A scamp!" she sentenced. "What manners! Who does he think he is?"
Probably a train. Or a comet. At least that's what the 'scamp' seemed to be when he burst in through the restaurant's door, knocking the woman flat on the floor. Again Yusuke mumbled some unheartfelt apology, and left to a frantic Keiko who rushed after him the task of helping the incensed lady to her feet and saving the shop's reputation, while he ran straight to his friends' table.
"Guys, let's go!"
Kuwabara and Kurama looked up at him, the first quizzically, the latter apathetically. "Where?" Kazuma frowned.
"Save Hiei," Urameshi growled, annoyed for having to state the obvious. "Hurry up, we have no time to lose."
"How do you suggest we do that?" Kurama inquired. "We don't know where he is, either his body or soul."
"So let's find him," Yusuke insisted, undressing the apron he wore and tossing it over the counter.
"Botan must know where the body is," Kuwabara assumed. "And she could give us a clue to how his soul got lost..."
"You think she'll tell us anything?" Kurama snorted. "Weren't you telling me just now how she flew away in a hurry when you questioned her?"
Kuwabara sighed. "We have to convince her to tell us the truth."
"Suppose she does," Kurama propounded. "And suppose we manage to find Hiei's body and also his soul. What do we do then?"
"We take them to Koenma," Yusuke shrugged. "He puts Hiei back together. End of story. Now let's go."
Keiko reached the three boys in time to hear Yusuke's last statement. "Can he do that?"
"He did it for that kid Amanuma, right?" said Yusuke impatiently.
Kurama shook his head discouragingly. "Yes, using a considerable amount of the energy he stored in the Mafuukan for centuries, and just before he spent all its energy trying to capture Sensui. Koenma-sama only started to recharge it two years ago, when he went back to use his pacifier."
"The shrimp is so short," Kuwabara offered hopefully. "Koenma won't need much energy to put him back in one piece, ne?"
Keiko bit her lipat their wishful thinking, cringing at their obvious despair.
Cruelly ignoring that despair, Kurama went on, "Koenma said the Mafuukan is reserved for interworld major crisis only. I seriously doubt that he'll consider Hiei's death to be the case."
Yusuke glared hard at him, a surge of rage threatening to choke him. "Obviously you don't consider it a crisis, right?" He punched the table, enraged. "What the fuck is going on with you, Kurama? It's Hiei we're talking about here! Your best friend, man! And you don't give a damn?! If I had a friend talking like you in my funeral, I would have never wanted to resurrect." And if Koenma decided to put Hiei through the same kind of trial Yusuke had faced, he was beginning to doubt the little Fire Demon would ever succeed.
"Yusuke, calm down," Keiko pleaded, guiding him to sit back on the booth beside Kuwabara, and sitting across from him herself.
Kurama gazed down at his hands, the knuckles uncommonly white, clasped on the table. Yusuke's words rang distant echoes in his mind. A childlike face smiling up at him from a crumpled pillow, as a small rough hand caressed the Youko's face. "Only you to care about the death of a Forbidden Child, Fox," the sultry voice whispered in one of its rare laughs. "Most people wouldn't even bother to dig a hole to bury me."
That comment, from so long ago, had driven Kurama to envelop Hiei's diminutive body in a tight, passionate, almost angry embrace. Now, he felt nothing but a vague sense of contempt about the whole mess. I cared about him, the Youko mused, remembering the brutish dread that took his heart when he saw the Jaganshi being devoured by his own Black Dragon in the Ankoku Bujutsukai, or the shock of witnessing the same Kokuryu being ripped apart like crating paper by Mukuro in the Makai Tournament. I did care. And fifteen minutes ago I still cared, even if not as much as before.
But as soon as Kuwabara blurted out the news, Kurama started picturing the memories of his young friend and former lover as if belonging to an old movie he had seen ages ago, and that he suddenly realized not to be as good as he had thought before.
"Damn you, Kurama," Yusuke choked, trying hard to stall the tears from returning. "I thought that ruthless reputation of Youko Kurama was just a myth."
Kuwabara held his elbow warningly. "Urameshi," he murmured, and waited until the boy's chestnut eyes were focused on him to shake his head.
Kurama was surprised and a bit thankful for Kazuma's support. He wondered if he was worthy of it though. What's with me, Inari?
"We gotta do something," Yusuke moaned. "We don't have time." He loathed feeling so helpless. Breathing slowly and deeply, he tried to ease his nerves, or else he would end up blowing a fuse. And blowing Kurama as well.
"Sumimasen," Keiko put in. "You know I don't understand much of this stuff, but I was thinking: if you're saying that a body can't survive a whole day without the soul, what happened to Genkai-shihan? I mean, she was dead for three or four days, ne? And Yusuke was dead for even longer..." She faltered. No matter how much time passed, she still couldn't acknowledge those things as natural.
"Koenma healed and kept my body alive while I faced his judgement for resurrection," Yusuke explained. "And I guess he did something of the sort with Baasan too; at least I know he and Botan took her to Reikai soon after..." He trailed off, hit by a sudden inspiration.
Kuwabara got it too. "What if Koenma is taking care of Hiei's body too?"
"Yes!" Yusuke exclaimed, his face brightening with hope. "Then it doesn't matter when it happened, he will be safe until we find out where he is!"
"Why would Koenma-sama do such a thing?" Kurama inquired tiredly. "He had plans for Yusuke, and Genkai was an old friend. But Hiei..."
"He was a Tantei," Kuwabara asserted. "We're a team, and we all worked long for Reikai. Surely Koenma wouldn't let him just die like that."
Hearing the fondness in that statement, so distant from the traditional scorn he used to talk about Hiei, Kurama felt a small portion of his heart melting. For Kuwabara, not for Hiei. "You believe Koenma will spare us from death for all eternity? He can't concede us immortality just because we're his friends. Even Genkai; if it wasn't for the Tournament Champion's Wish, Koenma would have had to let her go." He paused, crossing his arms over his chest. "And I'm not sure if Hiei could be counted in the selected circle of the Prince of Death's friends."
"Why?" Yusuke shivered. "He was part of the team. By Koenma's own decision."
"Not a very willing decision," Kurama snorted, remembering their trial - his, Hiei and Gouki's - so long ago. "Hiei was caught in a technicality of the Reikai laws. Koenma made no secret that if it was up to his wish alone, Hiei would still be in prison with Gouki."
Yusuke's eyes widened. "I never knew that."
"Wait a second," Kazuma scowled. "You mean that when you two showed up to help us against the Four Beasts, Koenma didn't trust him?"
"Just as far as he could throw him," the Youko confirmed.
"And yet he sent Hiei with you," Urameshi frowned.
"I convinced Koenma it would be a good idea, since Hiei had his own resentments against the Beasts. Don't ask me what the story was, Hiei never told me any details about it. I just knew there was some unfinished business in the matter."
"What if Hiei had turned his back on us to solve his unfinished business on his own?" Kuwabara protested.
Yusuke grinned sadly. There was no such risk then, he had known instantly, right when Hiei and Kurama landed right in front of him, the redhead offering help and the small testy demon growling and snarling at everybody.
"That's not Hiei's personality, Kuwabara-kun," Kurama smirked. "The only risk was if he decided to take his revenge for my betrayal. But even if he did, he would have waited until the end of the mission."
Yusuke gulped. He forgot the past hostilities between his two demonic friends so easily. Now, hearing the amazingly icy tone on the redhead's usually kind voice, he had the discomforting feeling of having missed an important part of the picture.
"Why did you take the chance?" Kuwabara was puzzled.
Kurama shrugged. "I was in debt to him. I owed him the chance to get even."
Urameshi sighed out gloomily. "And he never did." Hiei... please be alive somewhere...
Arching a thoughtful eyebrow, Kurama remained silent, brushing a fingertip against his lips. There were all kinds of revenge. And revenge by Hiei's style was quite perplexing. You step on his heels and he punches your stomach. You threaten his little sister and he slices you in a million pieces. You break his heart and he simply hides himself under a weighty cloak of ice and aloofness. All in all, the young Fire Demon never made much sense.
"But this is all past," Keiko claimed. "I thought Hiei was forgiven when he helped you to defeat Sensui."
"That was unwilling too," Kuwabara groaned, remembering the circumstances that allowed Hiei to go free of his parole.
"There's another point to consider," Kurama reminded them. "Kuwabara-kun told me Botan tried to deny having said anything about Hiei's soul going stray."
Kazuma nodded. "No kidding. She even began to neigh!"
"If Koenma has Hiei's body safe in Reikai, wouldn't he call us to help finding his soul? Why the secrecy?"
"Maybe Koenma-sama doesn't want you involved," Keiko suggested. "You guys sure make a huge mess when you're up to something. Maybe this is just a simple problem and he doesn't want to worry you unnecessarily."
"A simple problem?!" Yusuke repeated quizzically.
Keiko shrugged helplessly. She had no idea of what passed as 'simple problems' by the Urameshi scale these days...
"Or maybe there's simply nothing to be done anymore," Kurama added impassively.
Yusuke stared as his red-haired friend again. "You still think he's dead?"
"I think it's a great possibility, yes," the Youko nodded.
Urameshi studied him closely, more and more concerned at every minute. He wondered if that unexplainable indifference was in any way related to the worried inkling he had been feeling about Kurama since his own return from the Makai four months before.
Sustaining the heavy gaze for no more than a few seconds, the Youko flinched. But again, he flinched for Yusuke's scolding, not for Hiei.
"There's only one way to find out, ne?" Kazuma sighed. "We go to Reikai and ask Koenma."
Yusuke nodded. "And fast." He turned to Kurama, mutely asking for his assent.
Kurama breathed in deeply. Right now, what he wanted the most was to go home and challenge his stepbrother for a match of 3D Tetris and forget the whole thing. Tetris? he mused. I don't play that since the game with Amanuma...
It was inexplicable. Even if he was suddenly acting on an unconscious rancor about the little Jaganshi, the mystery should be inciting the Youko's curiosity. He had always loved puzzles and riddles, exercising his mind against mazes, tangles and problems. Didn't he have any interest at all in finding out what happened to Hiei?
He didn't. And perhaps that was the mystery he should investigate. "Sure," he told his friends, drawing his cell phone off his belt. "Let's see Koenma. Just let me make a few calls."
And he had thought the time for fabled lies to his mother had come to an end... Trust Hiei to ruin my plans. Even in death...
~*~
The Green Wing of that castle/temple/fortress/whatever had yellow walls and brown marble floor, and not a bit of green. Not even a plant adorning the hallways. Takamura-san thought about asking that new ferrygirl in the red kimono about it, but gave up the idea when he thought that she might actually answer him. He had had enough with that Hinageshi and her raccoons.
Of course, this one - that Mai the others had talked about, he suspected - wasn't nearly as talkative as the young red-haired child. In truth, she didn't say a word after that "Follow me, Takamura-san, I'll take you to the Green Wing." She guided him through the corridors, while flipping the pages of a file that had his name in the cover, not once looking back to see if he was still there accompanying her. He wasn't used to walk behind women; it was not how he was taught. One more thing he didn't like about death.
The idea of escaping crossed his mind, of course. But where would he go? And how? He didn't know where he was, didn't know the way back home, and didn't have a flying oar.
"Oh no!" Mai exclaimed, abruptly halting their walk. She stared at Takamura-san in dismay. "You're older than fifty-five!"
The old man pursed his lips. "You noticed?"
Mai huffed, tiredly massaging her temples. "They used different forms to register births then. Yours should have been updated to the new one... but it's not here!"
Takamura-san nodded, making his best to be sympathetic with the girl's anguish. He remembered his old job too well. Misplaced documents could easily mean unemployment in certain situations. "That's bad, isn't it? Specially while on BIEFOWS mode."
Mai paled. "What do you know about the BIEFOWS mode?" She was trembling horribly. "You won't denounce me, will you? Please, Takamura-san, everyone's job is at stake here."
He grinned. That weird talk of those Reikai people was beginning to amuse him. "Not to mention the Mount Fuji, ne?"
The girl seemed about to pass out. "Oh my... oh my... I have to update these forms at once. Takamura-san, have a sit," the girl offered, indicating a wide yellow couch at his left.
He was very annoyed. If they were going to make him wait anyway, couldn't he have a few more days to live then? "Thank you, Sayaka-san."
The girl blinked, watching the old man leaning comfortably on the couch. "Sayaka? No, my name is Mai," she corrected.
"Mai?" Takamura-san frowned. "You can't be Mai, you have such a pretty face!"
Mai frowned back. Was the man insane?
"That mean girl," he shook his head. "Can you believe that she had the courage to say you had a crooked nose?"
Mai's cheeks burned. "Who said that? Botan?"
Takamura-san nodded. "I thought it was rather mean to say something like that. But now that I see that cutie little nose... oh that's cruel!"
Her eyes crossed in a concerned study of her nose. "Crooked? How could Botan say something like that?"
"Oh, I bet it's envy," he winked conspiratorially. "I mean, did you notice that big pointy chin of hers? Reminded me of a picture of an old bad witch of a book I read when I was a kid..."
Mai's lip twitched. "You noticed, ne? I can't believe Botan had the nerve of saying anything of my nose with a chin like that." She shook her head in indignation. "Please wait here while I check that form, Takamura-san. I'll be back in a minute."
He watched her stride away, suppressing a chuckle. At least she looked a lot better now, with the color back on her cheeks. He didn't like that pretty face of hers paling like a ghost. And come on, he deserved some fun, didn't he?
Smiling tightly to himself, Takamura-san looked at the other end of the hallway and spotted a blonde ferrygirl stepping in, carrying a thin archive folder. "Oi Sayaka-san," he called, waving his hand. "I'm so thirsty! Can I have a glass of water?" Do souls drink or eat? he belatedly asked himself.
Thankfully the girl didn't attend to the detail. "You're talking to me? You're mistaken, I am Yuriko."
The old man grimaced, measuring her from head to toes. "Oh, dear, are you pulling my leg? Mai-san told me Yuriko was the fattest ferrygirl around. Now look at that slim silhouette. You can't be Yuriko."
The blonde glared venomously. "Mai said I'm fat?"
"I think it's so mean to go on talking like that at other people's back," he sighed. "But in this case, when there's not even a little tiny bit of truth... What a cruelty!"
"You're sure it was Mai?" she asked suspiciously.
"The girl with dark slick hair, gray eyes, in a red kimono," he described. "Which by the way was so vulgar... I mean, she obviously has no taste at all."
Yuriko smiled evilly. "She hasn't, ne? You should have seen the monstrosity she was wearing yesterday, a striped orange blouse with a checked purple skirt. Really, mixing checks and stripes is bad already, but orange and purple?"
Looked great in the sky out there, Takamura-san remembered. "My mother always said elegance is an inborn talent. By the way," he bowed, "that blouse you're wearing suits you wonderfully."
"Oh? This old thing?" Yuriko blushed. "Thank you, you're very kind. Wait a second, I'd be back with a glass of water in just a second. Or maybe you prefer an orange juice?"
"Thank you, my dear. You're just as kind as you're beautiful."
Yuriko trod away, her face in flames. Takamura-san knew well that to make a girl blush, the two easiest ways were flattery and anger. And nothing worked better than mixing both in a single dose.
Well, Mai wasn't back yet, and he felt terribly restless. It was so unfair, suddenly feeling so strong and agile and lively, and to be dead. More than ever he wanted to run, row his boat and fish, swim, bowl, flirt, even dance! And now he had to sit on a couch and wait for the bureaucrats decide which stamps they should use... Oh no, no way!
I got to find the one in charge here, he mused, and convince him to let me go back. I'm still healthy, I can easily live for three or four decades more! For what he had grasped of the girls' chitchat, the boss was away in a trip, and the business were being conducted by a certain George. I better find this guy at once.
Takamura-san went back to the corridor's entrance, hoping not to bump into Mai. If I go back to that crazy room, maybe I can overhear some of those ogres talking and find out where and who this George is, he decided. I just hope they speak a language I can understand...
"Where are you going, sir?"
He jumped. The soft female voice came from right behind him. "Who, me?" He tried to gain time.
"Are you one of the new souls?" asked that other ferrygirl. Actually, Takamura-san felt a little clumsily calling her a 'girl'. The tall woman had black hair tied back elegantly on her nape, wore black clothes and her gorgeous face owned distinct traces of maturity, but not age. There was something ethereal about her, oneiric. Now that is how I imagined the Emissary of Death!
"Sir?"
"Ahn? Ah!" The old man gulped. "Yes, yes, I'm new here. I'm looking for Mai-san, she told me to meet her in that large room with all the desks and ogres, but I'm afraid I got lost."
She frowned. "Why would she ask you something like that?"
"Oh, I don't know," he sweated. "She said something about a form that should have been updated. My birth form, she said." He smiled proudly. "You might not believe me, but I'm older than fifty-five."
"I believe you," the woman replied, making Takamura-san grind his teeth. "Why don't you sit on that couch while I call Mai for you?"
All of a sudden, she didn't look quite as gorgeous as she had seemed before. "Oh, I don't want to bother you, Sayaka-san."
The woman smiled, definitely amused. "Sayaka? Oh dear, no. I'm Ayame."
"Ayame? That is not possible."
"And why not?"
"Well, that other ferrygirl, Yuriko-san. You know, the blonde? She said that I should ask Ayame-san for help. She said I'd recognize her easily by her wrinkles and crow's feet."
Ayame arched an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"
"Oh, this is revolting!" he exclaimed. "Look at you! Look at that peach-velvety skin! A delicate flower that just blossomed! How could anyone have such a wicked spirit to speak those atrocities about you! It's loathsome, it's unacceptable!"
"It's all right, sir," Ayame whispered, although her fists were clenched tight. "Some people have no respect for their elders."
Now you know, sweetheart, the old man grinned to himself. "I still think it's revolting. I mean, who does she think she is? Someone with a hair that looks just like dry corn husk shouldn't have the right to say pernicious things about anyone!"
At that, Ayame offered him a half-smile. "The room you're looking for is the fourth at your left, after you turn right in the end of this corridor."
"Thank you so much, Ayame-san," he bowed. "I hope you're not too angry. Be sure that you're far above this sort of wickedness."
But the pinkish tint on the woman's face was enough evidence of her feelings. "Call me if you need anything." There was some edginess in her moves when she turned to walk away.
Takamura-san brightened, running to the direction she had pointed. It always worked. With luck, he would be able to keep the pace and the practice until he found George.
Turning right at the end of the hall, he stepped into another corridor made of a series of pompous archways, each one marking the entrance of different room. He could already hear the thundering of voices and printers at work.
But a little girl was standing right under the doorway of the fourth room to his left, absorbedly comparing notes between a set of files and a little notebook with hardcover. She was even younger than Hinageshi, and dressed what looked suspiciously as a bluish cotton nightgown.
Breathing deeply, Takamura-san approached her with his most irresistible smile. "Excuse me, Sayaka-san," he bowed. "May I come in?"
The girl beamed up at him. "How do you know my name?"
Takamura-san cursed under his breath. Okay, so it doesn't work all the time...
~*~
Enma-daiou's palace in Reikai should be an astounding view to any creature with minimal aesthetic sense. The classic pagoda roofs, the giant walls sparsely ornate with small balconies and windowpanes, were protected by huge imposing gates that seemed too high even to someone as tall as the King of the Spirit World. But Kurama stood before it completely unimpressed.
Unlike the troubling cloak of coldness tied tight around his heart since the words 'Hiei is dead' sank in, this feeling wasn't new. The Youko never cared much about that style of architecture, and cared even less about Reikai. Last time he had been there was during the Sensui crisis, when he pressed Koenma to stop hiding information from the Tantei team. To the Youko's taste, it was too soon to be back. He had spent a huge effort to be out of there when that miserable hunter shot his kitsune form twenty years before. And he knew quite well, as Hiei should know by now, how deceiving the impenetrable appearance of those gates was. In fact it was far too easy to enter the Realms of the Dead.
Kuwabara stepped to his side, patting his back amicably. "Don't worry, Kurama. We'll save him."
The redhead blinked, once again startled with Kuwabara's gentle support. He glanced at Yusuke, who had given him the silence treatment for the whole trip to Reikai, now furiously punching the doorbell.
Noticing the target of Kurama's concerned look, Kazuma offered a tentative grin. "Don't mind him. Urameshi is upset. He doesn't understand."
Kurama frowned. Kuwabara's empathic perspicacity would show up in the most unpredictable moments. "And you do?"
Again the almost smile, the soothing pat on the back.
The Youko snorted. "Then maybe you'd like to explain it to me."
"Who's there?" asked at last a male voice, through the tiny speaker beside the bell.
"The Urameshi Team," Yusuke replied, more than a bit grandiloquently. "Open up!"
After a considerable pause, the voice answered. "The Urameshi Team was deactivated three years ago, and Urameshi has no connection to Reikai whatsoever anymore."
Yusuke glowered dangerously at the speaker. "No connection, you say? SHOTGUUUN!!!!"
A blue lightening blinded Kurama's eyes momentarily, as the multiple strikes connected with the gate, pulverizing its hinges, and Kurama smirked. Yusuke always had a knack to big entrances. "You didn't even give him a chance to reconsider."
"I'll give them a fair chance of reconsidering what they did to Hiei," Yusuke muttered. "And that's all I have to offer."
Not that Kurama cared about the gate; it would be up in its place before they left. One of the inscrutable mysteries of Reikai: their maintenance workers were as fast and organized as their bureaucrats were slow and confused. But the fervency Yusuke was revealing in the search for the short Fire Demon was quite a surprise.
Well, maybe not a surprise, the redhead mused. Of course I knew he's very fond of Hiei. Always was, since our mission to defeat the Fours Beasts. And I am not blind. The day Yusuke had come to his house to ask him to cut his Toushin's hair and found Hiei on Kurama's bed, sleeping away the effects of the Kokuryuuha... I would recognize that way of staring anywhere.
No, the mystery rested elsewhere. Hiei was my lover. Yusuke is the one knocking doors down to find him, and I wanna go home and play games with my stepbrother. In his defense, all Kurama could say was that knocking doors down wasn't his style. "What a brilliant defense, Kurama," he muttered sarcastically.
"You said something?" asked Kuwabara.
Kurama shook his head to deny it, and followed Yusuke in. This was not the time for questioning, but later he would ask Kuwabara about that alarming lack of sensibility. If he knows, he might even tell me how I got to the point of envying Yusuke's anguish.
Together, the three boys stepped into the first hallway, curious at how little attention they had attracted. Except for a few onis staring at them in shock, no one seemed to care much about the invasion.
"This feels weird," Kuwabara shivered.
"Maybe someone finally passed the word to Koenma that we're here," Yusuke suggested. "He must be waiting for us in his office."
"Or else everybody here is too busy to care about us," Kurama offered. But what could be more urgent than one of the Urameshi Team's violent entrances?
"If they are, they better make some time for us," Kazuma smirked, rolling up his sleeves.
They made through the labyrinthine corridors without incidents, and in short time they reached the double doors of the large bureau where the files of all sentient beings were processed. Like always, the loud noise from the room rumbled many meters beyond its thick doors, but this time Kurama thought that the pitch sounded different somehow. More agitated and enthusiastic. If the others noticed it too, they didn't say, keeping their silence while Yusuke pushed the door open.
The reason why no one cared about them breaking in was quite obvious now.
Reikai had many ferrygirls like Botan. The boys knew that, as they couldn't expect it to be any different, considering how many people died every day in the three worlds. However, they never imagined that there would be so many of them. And they never thought that one day they would get to see all ferrygirls gathered in a single room. And definitely, even in their wildest dreams, they never pictured the huge Live Mountain of Quarreling Ferrygirls.
Think of a little mountain inside a big room. Now imagine that mountain made of torn kimonos, bruised pretty faces, disheveled hairs of all colors, punching fists, kicking legs and mauling oars. That would be the best way to describe it.
"What did you say about my voice, you fat whale?"
"I'll show you who has a crooked nose!"
"This is my natural hair color, you old fossil!"
"You're so dumb that you check the recipes book to make ice cubes!"
"There's not one frog in all words that looks uglier than you!"
"Repeat that and I'll kill you!!!"
Alarmed sweatdrops ran down the boys' temples. "What the hell...?" Yusuke gasped.
Around the battlefield, all onis stared openmouthed at the spectacle, some still trying to protect what was left of their desks. Some were cheering for their favorites. Some were laying bets. "All my month wage on Ayame!" "Get them all, Yuriko!" "Look out, Akiko, behind you!" "Ganbatte, Hinageshi!"
"Hello!" called a high-pitched voice behind Yusuke. "It's been long since last time. How are you doing?"
Yusuke turned around and found no one, until he dropped his eyes to the really short figure - shorter than Genkai - waving up at him. "Sayaka? Hi! What's going on here?"
The little girl looked puzzled as well. "I don't know. It just happened. Mai met Botan and started to say some mean things about her chin, and Botan struck back accusing her of being lax on the job; then Yuriko showed up bragging that she's not fat and calling Mai vulgar. They were screaming so loud that Ayame came up. I thought she was going to part the fight, but then she started to quarrel with Yuriko too. Then came Akiko and Miyuki and Naoko, and all the others, and then..." She pointed to the Live Mountain. "Some of the onis tried to part them. They were swallowed by the turmoil."
"Botan is in that mess?" Kuwabara moaned.
"Yeah, right on the bottom, I think," Sayaka nodded. "You are Kazuma Kuwabara, Yusuke's rival in school, ne? Nice to meet you. I'm Sayaka. I saw you during Yusuke's trial for resurrection."
While Kazuma complimented the little girl, Kurama nudged Yusuke. "It's gonna be hard to get something out of Botan now, I'm afraid."
"No kidding," Urameshi muttered. "We gotta go straight to Koenma."
"He's not here," informed Sayaka.
"What?"
"I don't know where he is, but you can ask George," she suggested. "He's over there."
He sure was. The poor blue oni gazed paralyzed at the chaos, totally clueless of what to do and how he would explain that to Koenma-sama when he came back. In a second he was also surrounded by three ex-Tantei demanding explanations. "Ahn? What? Where? Who?"
"Cough it up, George!" Yusuke commanded. "Where's the brat?"
"Koenma-sama is in official mission," George stuttered. "I don't know when he expects to return." He glanced at the Live Mountain and winced. "Not so soon, I hope," he groaned to himself.
"Official mission?" Kuwabara repeated. "Where?"
"I can't tell you that!"
"Come on, George," Yusuke snarled. "Don't try my patience."
"I can't tell you!"
"You don't need to hide anything from us anymore," Kurama spoke in his usual tranquil tone. "We know everything about what happened to Hiei."
A major bluff. But by George's reaction, it got through. "What?!" he paled. "No, no, no, no! Please don't do anything harsh. Everything is a mess here already, and I can't lose this job!"
"You didn't think we would take it lightly, did you?" Urameshi challenged, hoping the bluff would work. Come on, man, let it slip!
"I-I-I-I understand your feelings," George sweated profusely. "And I assure you, Koenma-sama is doing his best to find a proper solution to the problem."
"That's not good enough," Kazuma barked.
"That's all I can tell you," George sighed. "And that's already far more than I should have said during BIEFOWS mode."
The three boys arched their brows at once. "BIEFOWS mode?"
If it was possible, the oni looked even paler yet. "No... no... nothing, please forget what I said. Excuse me, I've got work to do!" He ran away to the other side of the room, in panic.
Yusuke moved forward, wanting to chase him till he talked, but Kurama held his arm. "Don't. He's too loyal to Koenma. He won't tell us anything."
"I don't wanna stay here praying that Koenma will save the day," Yusuke huffed. "I want to know what happened to Hiei. Right now."
"So what's your idea?" Kurama asked. "Beat George up until he tell us the truth? Or shoot your Reigan against the ferrygirls at war to see if they halt for a minute, just while we use whatever powers of persuasion we have to convince Botan to talk?"
Kuwabara glanced at the Live Mountain of Quarreling Ferrygirls and shuddered. Those girls sure looked nasty. And they were biting. "I vote for beating George..."
Oh man... Yusuke sighed aloud, impatient. "We don't need to ask anyone. All we need to do is find Hiei's file and read it."
Kuwabara turned his eyes from the Mountain to the countless onis around them, carrying enormous piles of papers. Not to mention the hundreds of files spread away on the floor by the girls' tumult. "Now that sounds a lot easier," he moaned sarcastically.
"Wait," Kurama raised a hand. "It might be easier. If Koenma didn't give up on Hiei yet."
"Then his file will still be in Koenma's office!" Yusuke exclaimed excitedly. "Let's check it out."
"You think George will let us barge into Koenma's private office and fumble among his papers?" Kurama dared him.
"Who says he needs to know?" smiled Kazuma.
Yusuke grinned back. "You with us, Kurama?"
The mischievous smirk on the redhead's face seemed as naughty and gleaming as in old times. "What's the plan?"
"You distract George while I sneak in," Yusuke replied simply. He was never fond of complicated strategies.
The Youko frowned. "Shouldn't be the other way around? I am the expert thief here."
Urameshi shook his head firmly. "You're also an expert distraction. You go there and tell George about your fine happy life in Ningenkai. He'll be snoring in half a second."
Kurama's eyes narrowed accusingly. "You said I wasn't tedious."
Yusuke winked. "I never said that either."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Kuwabara scowled.
Glaring at Yusuke, Kurama strutted. "I'll get you later." Turning away from them, he approached George, who still watched benumbed the ferrygirls' ultimate war. "Hey, George. You know my stepbrother found a girlfriend?"
As George turned incredulous eyes to Kurama, Yusuke pulled Kuwabara by the arm to a shadow behind a pilaster. "You sure this was clever?" Kazuma whispered. "Kurama is a lot better sneaking into places than us."
"I know," Yusuke agreed. "But right now I don't trust him to look for Hiei's file hard enough. He's acting too weird. Besides, I'm the only one sneaking in."
Kuwabara glowered furiously at him. "What?! You're not leaving me out of it!" It had been painful enough to see his friends leaving to Makai without him, and then returning with a hundred fantastic stories of which he made no part. He wasn't staying behind this time.
Yusuke waved his hands, quickly assuring him that that wasn't what he meant. "I want you to find out what that BIEFOWS thing is all about."
"And how am I supposed to do that?" Kazuma demanded harshly.
"I don't know, ask around!" Yusuke countered. "If it has something to do with Hiei, we must know."
"Okay, okay," Kuwabara conceded.
"It won't be easy, I'm afraid," said a vaguely familiar voice behind Kazuma. "These people here don't like to explain things."
Startled, Kazuma turned around hastily. "Who?... Oh, it's you, jiisan."
"You work here too?" Takamura-san asked curiously.
"Hun? Oh... No, not anymore," answered Kuwabara. "They fired us a few years back."
"You don't say... They can fire people?" The old man sniffed. "Death looks too much like a public service building for my taste..."
"Listen, jiisan, you don't happen to know what the BIEFOWS mode means, do you?" Kazuma crossed his fingers. If he could get rid of that problem fast, he could go with Yusuke...
Takamura-san snickered. "I know they all tremble when they say it, and that's all. At this point I'm about to run around the place yelling "BIEFOWS! BIEFOWS!" just to see if they give me any attention. This is no way of treating a man my age, a decent honest citizen like me. I paid my taxes for fifty years and even in death I still have to wait in line until this big hotshot of the Spiritual World returns from vacation and tell me where I should go. Unbelievable."
Kuwabara bit his lip not to laugh. Imagine when he finds out that the 'big hotshot' he's waiting for is about 0,48 meters tall and uses a pacifier... At his side, a prodding finger poking his arm called his attention. "What, Urameshi?"
Yusuke was staring at him with widened stupefied eyes. "Oi Kuwabara... who are you talking to?"
"Oh, this is the man Botan was chasing when I met her this morning," Kazuma explained, gesturing to the space at his right.
An empty space.
Yusuke blinked several times. "What man?"
Takamura-san waved right in front of the dark-haired boy. "Are you blind, kid? I'm here!"
"Ah!" Kuwabara exclaimed. "He can't see you, jiisan. Because he's alive, and you're not."
"Alive?" Takamura-san frowned. "Then what is he doing here?"
"You're talking to a dead person?" Yusuke shivered. Then he scolded himself for his stupidity. They were in Reikai, weren't they? And Kuwabara was able to sense him when he had died in that car accident - although at that time his friend didn't have enough power to actually see him outside the dream plane.
"Ahn, it's a long story, jiisan..." Kuwabara mumbled. Then, turning back to Yusuke, "You can see demons but you can't see disincarnated souls?"
Urameshi shrugged helplessly. "Ouch, don't ask me! I never figured that Reikai Tantei stuff right. And it got worse when I died the second time." Yusuke could not see, but Takamura-san was staring at him in bewilderment. "See if your friend knows anything about Hiei. I'm gone." Checking to see if Kurama was keeping George distracted, Yusuke ran noiselessly to the corridor that led to Koenma's office.
Kuwabara turned to the man again. "Can you help us?"
Takamura-san cringed. That Hiei issue again? "You're looking for the mountain?"
Arching an eyebrow, Kuwabara replied, "No, the shrimp."
The old man smiled broadly. "Sure! I know everything about it!"
"You do?" Kazuma gasped.
"Of course!" Takamura-san guaranteed. "Ask me whatever you want to know. Go on, ask me."
"Where is him?" The tall boy grabbed him by the shoulders. "Where can we find him?"
Takamura-san offered him a lopsided grin. "Now, now. You don't think I'm gonna tell you that, do you?"
"Why? You have to tell me!"
"That would be not fair, would it? An old man is entitled to his secrets, don't you think?"
"Not that kind of secret!" Kuwabara protested. "Come on! Tell me!"
"Well, I can't reveal you where, but what if I give you a few hints of how to find the proper place?" Takamura-san suggested.
Kazuma huffed. It wasn't good enough. "Okay," he groaned. "What hints?"
The old man breathed in deeply before starting, in a confidential tone. "Now, listen carefully. The first thing you should do is to wake up early, before the sunrise, and take your boat towards the warmer currents. Actually some species like cold waters too, but those are harder to find, I never did myself. For my personal experience, you should row far offshore, but that of course depends on the size of your boat..."
"Jiisan," Kuwabara cut him, astounded. "What are you talking about?"
Takamura-san froze, pondering the probabilities of the situation. Dead in the morning and being chased by a blue-haired girl riding an oar. Being led to the most confusing place he had ever seen, which was crowded with bureaucratic ogres and beautiful girls who didn't give a damn about him. Then left to wait for indefinite time for the Prince of the Dead who had flew to gods-know-where, and now being desperately inquired about the secrets of shrimp fishing by this boy who referred to shrimp as 'him'. He sighed. "Kid, I have no idea."
~*~
"So he didn't kiss her yet," George laughed. He seemed happy with the distraction from the girls' issue.
"Quite obviously, ne?" Kurama agreed. "He's still a kid anyway. The first kiss... quite a big deal." The words fell into the icy hole in his heart he was beginning to recognize as familiar. The first time he kissed Hiei... "Anyway," he forced his mind away of the subject, "I don't know what to do. Shuuichi keeps asking me lots of questions, thinking that his big brother knows everything that there is to know..."
"Oh, I know how that is," George sighed.
Kurama frowned, earnestly. "You do? I didn't know you had a little brother."
"You kidding? I'm the oldest of seventeen sons!"
"Really?"
"Yes, and I remember when Jon fell in love for the first time," George told him, animated with the conversation. "He's the fourteenth son, twenty-six years younger than I am. Very good-looking, like me, but not as clever. His first girlfriend was from a different tribe, and my mother was furious when she found out. How many times that boy came to me in tears, asking for advice!"
"What a situation," Kurama commented. Apparently that 'distraction' play would be easier to pull than he had imagined. George needed little encouragement to set foot into a friendly chat.
"Oh, that was nothing compared to the trouble my eighth brother, Jadou, arranged when he mated with the cousin of the midwife. The family came this close to breaking apart in civil war. But let me tell you the story from the beginning. It all started when my ninth brother, Jungin, brought a dozen fruits from the market but forgot to pay..."
Kurama nodded politely, cringing inside. Seventeen sons? Yusuke better find that file quickly...
~*~
The very few people that weren't in the main bureau watching the Live Mountain of Quarreling Ferrygirls yet were running to get there in time to place their bets. Yusuke Urameshi was the only one going in the opposite direction, but luckily everyone seemed too excited to care much about him or his deeds there. Not even the onis that usually guarded the door of Koenma's office were at their posts anymore.
Yusuke sighed in relief. He feared to have made a huge mistake by not letting Kurama do the job. As Kuwabara implied, discretion wasn't one of his stronger skills. But luck was. He found Koenma's office unguarded, unlocked and empty.
But even his legendary luck had his blots sometimes. He looked in dismay around him, at the huge mountains of papers and folders crowding the office. He would take years to find Hiei's file among that mess.
Well, he couldn't give up before starting. If Koenma is really any concerned about it, the file must be still on his desk, he deduced. That reduced years of work to... a three-hour task? I should have let Kurama do it...
On the small desk there were two equally high heaps of papers, one at the right, another at the left, and a thick single folder right before the armchair. Crossing his fingers, Yusuke sat on the chair - not without a little effort; the chair was huge for toddler Koenma, but still too narrow for an adult - and opened the folder. With a bitter scowl, he closed it again. It was about some guy he never heard about.
With a galling sigh, he turned his attention to the left pile, where Koenma usually amassed the files he had already read and stamped. Breathing in deeply, he began to check the names on the covers, file by file.
~*~
"Excuse me, may I ask you a little question? What does BIEFOWS mean?"
The gray oni to whom the question was addressed widened his eyes in terror. "Oh my, don't say this aloud, don't you know the risks here?" Chewing his nails, he turned away from Kuwabara, muttering a pray for protection.
"How should I know the risks?" Kuwabara huffed. "No one wants to tell me!"
He had already questioned thirty-eight onis, getting more or less the same reaction from all of them: shivers, sweatdrops, dead paleness, senseless mumbles and fervent prayers. A handful of them mentioned the Mount Fuji in their stammering, but there wasn't a context to which Kuwabara could fit that piece of information. He tried that little girl, Sayaka, too. "Means trouble," was all she said.
And to make things worse, the old man had followed him around all the time, asking very difficult questions. "Are you dead too?"
"Me? No, no." Kazuma scratched his head. "Actually now it seems I'm the only one in the team who never died. You see, Kurama was a fox spirit when he died, but now he's human. And Urameshi died twice, now he's a demon and his heart stopped beating. And now..."
"How did they come back to life?"
Kuwabara shrugged. "I don't know, they're too stubborn, I guess." And so is the shrimp, so...
"Is that all it takes? To be stubborn?"
"Ahn... no, probably not," he conceded. "You need a tremendous charge of energy to reintegrate body and soul after the link between them is cut."
"And where does that energy come from?"
"When Urameshi died the first time, from Koenma."
"The big hotshot?"
Kuwabara smirked. "Yeah, the big hotshot. The second time he used the energy of his ancestors stored in dormant cells of his body... well, it's hard to explain."
"You think I could have those dormant cells?"
"What? No, jiisan, I doubt it. You see, Urameshi's ancestors were human-eater demons..."
Takamura-san pursued his lips. "How interesting... he seemed such a good lad..."
"And Kurama used his own energy to preserve his soul," Kuwabara continued, looking for another one he could question about the BIEFOWS mode. "But he didn't quite resurrected, he reincarnated in another body, but kept a remote link to his original one too... Look, this is really complicated to explain, and I'm in sort of a hurry right now. If we don't find Hiei soon..."
"Yes, yes, the Mount Fuji will explode," the old man groaned.
Kuwabara halted, a quizzical expression on his face. "Explode? Why?"
Takamura-san raised his arms defensively. "And you ask me? How should I know?"
Kazuma stepped away, rolling his eyes. That man must be senile or something...
Suddenly, his eyes caught something he didn't notice before. Crouching down against a pilaster, a very aged oni observed the fight among the ferrygirls with a tranquil smile. Not cheering and betting. Not shuddering in terror either. Just watching and smiling.
Very slowly, as a tiger hunting its prey, Kazuma approached the ogre, and crouched beside him. "Hi."
The old oni glanced at him, then continued to watch the fight. "Hi."
Okay, good start. "Ever seen something like that?" he gestured to the Live Mountain.
The oni laughed. "Once. Millennia ago. A handsome prince of Ningenkai had died, and all the ferrygirls fought for the chance of bringing him here..."
"No kidding..."
"They are just girls after all, you know."
"You must know everything about Reikai," Kuwabara attempted, very politely.
"Why? Just because I'm old?"
Kuwabara freaked out. "No, no, that's not what I meant! What I meant was... that... ahn... with your experience... well..."
"You are the ningen busybody who was asking everyone around about the BIEFOWS mode, right?"
Kazuma sighed out, feeling miserable. "Well... I..."
"You shouldn't," the oni stated firmly. "It's a very sensitive subject."
"I understand..."
"Those people can lose their jobs, or be responsible for terrible calamities if they tell you anything about it."
"I see," the carrot-haired boy nodded. "I didn't want to cause any problems..."
"You should have come straight to me in the first place."
Kuwabara blinked. Could it be? "You... will you tell me?"
The old ogre smiled. "If you still want to know."
"I do!"
The oni told him.
~*~
Yusuke was about to shred all those files to pieces. He had got to the end of the two piles on the desk. No Hiei.
Which left all those other piles around him to check. The shortest of them was twice his height. I'll never find Hiei's file like this!
Grimacing, he glared at the lonely folder right on the center of the desk. Who the hell are you for Koenma to give you more attention than to Hiei? he groaned bitterly to himself, opening the file once more. It belonged to a half-breed demon called Imigo.
Yusuke blinked in shock. Below the name, in smaller letters, the form said, "also known as Hiei".
His heart throbbing in his ears, Yusuke brought the paper nearer his face, more or less expecting those kanji would blur and shift into others at a closer look.
They didn't.
Imigo? 'Hiei' is not his true name? Although surprised, Urameshi felt no reasons to blame the short youkai. Who would ever want to be called 'forbidden child'? His mother must have had a weird taste...
The line below offered a new surprise. K'so!!! He's younger than me?!
Listed as 'occupations' were "thief, killer for hire, Reikai Tantei, mercenary," and an X marked the option 'criminal antecedents'. The file described Hiei as a "half-breed: Fire Demon/"male koorime"(!), unnatural Jaganshi", and a big asterisk asked the reader to "See medical report, page 28." Yusuke flipped the pages and found a thick block of pages full of incomprehensible terms scrawled in multiple handwritings, all intermingled with asterisks, arrows, frantic underlining and large question marks. Annexed was a psychiatric summary, more or less in the same condition and with the same length.
Returning to the first pages, Yusuke read: "Left to die 14 hours after birth, according to Koorime customs. Found by thief gang, which raised him as a 'hound'."
What??? Yusuke tried to digest that information and felt his stomach revolting. Fourteen hours?! And what the hell do they mean with a 'hound'? Of course, he knew Hiei kept his past hidden under iron locks. He would never discuss stuff like the Jagan implant or the story of how he got parted from Yukina. Yusuke respected that.
Clenching his fists, Yusuke continued reading: "At age of 4 started training as pickpocket and robber. At 5, as killer. Independent at 9, when Jagan was implanted." A new asterisk indicated more detailing about the Evil Eye in the medical report, and the story went on, coldly, emotionlessly telling how a rejected baby became the youkai Yusuke knew as a teammate and friend. How could I not know about this stuff? Does Kurama know?
The file didn't offer many details though. Do they have a file like this to every creature of the three worlds? Yusuke gasped. He wondered how his own biography would be: "Died at 14, promptly resurrected, promoted to Reikai Tantei, died again months later and turned into a demon..." Should be funny...
But Hiei's file was no funny at all. Yusuke's heart broke a thousand times before he got to the final lines of the dry resume of Hiei's life: "Killed by severe blood loss after skirmish, in the warlord Mukuro's fortress, Makai. Emissary sent to the place failed in rescuing the subject's soul, claiming that stronger forces interfered with her task; see report signed by Emissary Mai, page 143."
Yusuke gritted his teeth, his eyes narrowing threateningly. "Mukuro..." he hissed. Was Kurama right after all? The old dog wasn't able to learn new tricks?
Closing the folder, he suppressed the violent urge of blowing that office with a huge Reigan. He felt like he had been cowardly betrayed. He had trusted Mukuro. Raizen told him he could trust her. He had even put Mukuro's flower on Raizen's grave, at her request. Now she killed one of his closest friends? How could she? How dared she?
I should never have left Hiei alone in Makai! The Fire Demon had seemed so happy there, with his new home, his new job, his new life. And his new boss. Yusuke banged his head against the table, causing the two paper piles to collapse on the floor. "K'so! He asked me to stay there with him!"
Well, he didn't quite ask. That was still Hiei, after all, happy or not. But he had given too many hints about the issue. And some were almost too obvious to be qualified as hints. "K'SO!!!" he shouted, not caring if the guards would hear him and return to check the office.
Grabbing the folder, he hid it carefully under his jacket and moved to the door with heavy steps. When he whammed the door behind him, the quivering of the walls and floor brought all the piles down in a paper storm.
~*~
"And then Jomi said, 'But George, those weren't my pants!'"
George chuckled aloud, and Kurama let out a short and polite laugh. "That was very funny, George."
"Wasn't it? That kid is really priceless. Wait, wait, I have hundreds of stories more. One day, when he woke up..."
Kurama gulped.
"Oi Kurama!" Yusuke ran towards them. "We gotta go. Where's Kuwabara?"
"I think I saw him over there," Kurama pointed. "Near that column."
"Let's go then."
"Please," George begged, a worried frown returning to his features. "Don't do anything harsh. I'm sure Koenma-sama will solve everything."
Yusuke patted him on the back. "Don't worry, George. I am not worried. Of course Koenma will fix things perfectly."
George relaxed noticeably.
"Let's go, Kurama!"
"Okay. Bye, George!"
"Come back soon," the oni pleaded. "I'll show you the family album."
"That will be great," Kurama smiled. "See ya!"
Impatient, Yusuke passed an arm around the Youko's shoulders and pulled him towards the exit. Kurama didn't resist. "Yusuke," he whispered when they were safely away from George.
"What?"
"As soon as we get home, I'm gonna tell you everything about my stepbrother," he promised. "How he eats, how he sleeps, the kind of clothes he wears, the way he brushes his teeth... everything. And you will listen and will not complain and will laugh of all my ridiculous jokes. You got it?"
"Don't I do that already?"
Before Kurama could reply, Kuwabara joined them. "Urameshi! Did you get it?"
"Yes," Yusuke nodded. "Let's get out of here."
The Live Mountain was finally eroding in a Valley of Exhausted and Very Bruised Ferrygirls, and the ogres were beginning to collect their bets, while Sayaka tried to help some of the girls to their feet. Still Botan was nowhere to be seen. The three boys ran to the doors, then to the outer gates.
"Do you know where Koenma went?" asked Kuwabara.
"No," Yusuke replied. "But I know where we are going." At a curve of the next corridor, he stopped, his friends halting beside him. "Anyway, did you find out what that BIEFOWS mode means?"
The carrot-haired boy flinched nervously. "Ahn... yeah..."
"And?"
"It's an abbreviation... sort of..."
Yusuke glared at him with impatience. "I could tell that. What does it mean?"
Kuwabara gave them a lopsided smile. "It's the short for "Beware! If Enma Finds Out We're Screwed"".
Yusuke blinked. Kurama moaned. "Inari, if I never hear another portion of Reikai sense of humor again, it will be too soon..."
"Does that have anything to do with Hiei?" was Urameshi's question.
"I don't know, but I'd bet it has. I didn't get much, everyone was scared to death when I asked them. But I've been told that the last time the BIEFOWS mode failed was a few years ago, and Koenma was punished with a hundred spanks," Kazuma informed them.
Yusuke blushed. "I remember that."
"Is that why they're all so frightened?" Kurama laughed. "To spare Koenma's little butt?" Hiei would find this hilarious... Something pinched deep inside of him. Very slightly. Almost unnoticeably. But definitely there.
"But the time before that," Kazuma continued, "was in 1707. Koenma had just assumed his post and made some major blunder, because of his inexperience. King Enma was so furious that he erupted the Fuji-yama."
Kurama winced, but Yusuke just snorted. This is nothing near what I'm gonna do when I get my hands on Mukuro...
~*~
August 6th, 2000