InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fire in Ice ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, etc., of Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit.
FIRE IN ICE

A/N: Holy fart, another chapter! =P Consider it a late Valentine’s Day present. Much love for all the reviews. They continually inspire. (Fate)

Chapter Five

“Come on, I’m hungry. Let’s go find something to eat.”

“What?” Botan stared as the Spirit Detective casually cupped her elbow and steered her down the narrow hall towards the kitchen. “Yusuke Urameshi! How can you think of your stomach at a time like this?”

“Easy,” he said, only letting go once they rounded the corner to the sitting room. “It’s loud and tends to complain a lot.”

“Really, Yusuke, I hardly think that…” Botan’s indignant plaint faded as the pair continued into the kitchen.

Chuckling, Kurama waited for Hiei to catch up before going and joining them. Yusuke’s front half was buried in the fridge as Botan continued to harangue him from the other side of the counter. A small, four-chaired table graced one end of the narrow room, which featured cracked linoleum, speckled Formica and vintage appliances in the ugly color known as “golden harvest.” Genkai wasn’t much of a cook, and didn’t waste money on updating what already worked.

Kurama went over to the kettle kept ready on the stove and turned on the burner. Genkai would appreciate the tea once she saw to the slayer, and he wouldn’t mind a cup himself. Crossing his arms, the fox leaned back against the counter to wait. Yusuke emerged from the fridge, arms loaded down with various supplies as he set about making lunch.

“Sandwich?” he asked Kurama, who only shook his head, and ignored Hiei, knowing the little bastard would eat anything put in front of him. He raised his eyebrows at Botan, who had seated herself at the table.

“Oh, all right.” She gave in grudgingly. “It’s been a long morning---Prince Koenma had us digging in the Archives for hours. I even forgot to eat breakfast, I was in such a rush to come tell you…”

“But you haven’t told us much of anything, have you, Botan?” Yusuke said, brown eyes shrewd as he flipped slices of bread like poker cards.

The ferry-girl fidgeted. “Really, Yusuke, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Look, Botan, we ain’t stupid.” He paused to scowl at Hiei’s expression, then grinned. “Much.”

The detective turned back to Botan. “But all that doomsday crap about revealing too much might warp the future sure gives Spirit World a convenient excuse not to tell us anything real.”

“I don’t see how---” Botan began primly, then flushed when Kurama looked at her.

“You’re lying,” Hiei said flatly.

“I am not,” she insisted. “There really is no way for Sango to return to her era---”

“Then what are you hiding?”

Botan flinched at the quiet voice. She turned pleading eyes on the fox. “Kurama, you must understand, Spirit World was completely unprepared for this…situation. It has thrown everyone for a loop, and Prince Koenma, he feels guilty enough as it is.”

“Guilty,” Yusuke scoffed, dipping a spoon into the mayonnaise.

“About what, exactly?” Kurama commanded softly.

“Kurama, please---” Botan said desperately. “Prince Koenma swore me to the strictest confidence. Nobody can know what this means for Spirit World. The consequences---”

“Consequences,” Hiei spat, hand going to his hilt. Kurama caught his eye, deliberately holding it until the fire demon released the blade.

Yusuke watched them with a raised brow until his spoon, slathered in mayo, dribbled on the floor. “Aw, damn it!”

Swiping a rag from the sink, he wiped up the mess as the tension in the room broke. Shaking his head, Yusuke chucked the dirty rag into the sink and stuck the spoon back inside the jar. Muttering under his breath, he unwrapped the lettuce and cucumber. Pulling a knife from the drawer, he pointed it at Botan. “Enough beating around the bush. I don’t want to drop this, too, and chop off my foot or something.”

“Hn.”

“Don’t get any bright ideas, three eyes,” Yusuke warned, even though his brown eyes gleamed at getting them all to relax.

“Yusuke, really,” Botan protested faintly, though she, too, was relieved the unspoken tension was gone. She hated their censure, Kurama’s especially. She was just trying to do her job. She didn’t always have to like it, but she owed Prince Koenma not only her loyalty, but her support. He was the Chief Administrator of Spirit World after all, and their boss.

“You ain’t off the hook, you know,” Yusuke causally said, wielding his knife like a Ginsu master as he sliced lettuce, cucumbers and boiled eggs, neatly stacking them on top of thin ham and crumbly cheese.

“I know,” Botan replied irritably, shoulders slumping. “Just…don’t be mad at me, okay? And promise you won’t say anything to Prince Koenma. Or---Sango.”

Kurama just looked at her.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this. Koenma would kill me if…” Sighing, Botan twisted one long, blue curl around her finger, tugging lightly as she bit her lip. When she raised her pink eyes, they were unusually solemn. “Right, then. What you’ve already heard, what I’ve already told you, it’s all true. Sango really is a demon slayer from the Warring States Era, and her family really was killed by a demon named Naraku. And that girl, Kagome? She really does exist, and she really did go back in time. Will go back in time, rather.“

She smiled tremulously, but no one returned it. Her smile faded. “What you don’t understand, and need to, is just how significant Sango is in all this. You see, just before the taijiya met Kagome and the others---a half-demon named Inuyasha, the cursed monk, Miroku, and a fox-kit named Shippou---well, Kagome…she kind of broke an artifact known as the Jewel of Four Souls, unleashing a terrible darkness across the whole land.”

“The Jewel of Four Souls,” Kurama murmured thoughtfully, and Botan nodded.

“It’s quite powerful. A single shard of the Jewel can grant near immortality, bring the dead back to life, and give both demons and humans immense strength and power. When whole, it even grants wishes, though there’s always a catch. In the wrong hands, its power can be used for great evil.” Botan grimaced. “Which explains why this Naraku was hunting it, and destroyed Sango’s entire village just to get his hands on five of the shards.”

Leaning against the counter, Yusuke whistled. “Pretty intense. But you already said that this Kagome-chick killed the bastard. And that was, what, five hundred years ago? So what’s with all the secrecy? Are you afraid someone will go after the Jewel here and now?”

Botan flushed. “Well, that’s one reason, but not the only one. You see, Spirit World wouldn’t have found out about any of this except for Sango. Our office wasn’t as efficient as it is now. Prince Koenma wasn’t as mature, and…”

“You mean Old Diaper Pants really was just a diaper-pants back then?”

“Yusuke!” Botan protested. “That’s your boss you’re talking about!”

Rolling his eyes, the Spirit Detective slapped the lid on the mayo, carting the various condiments back to the fridge and shoving them inside.

“Botan, what significance does Sango have on Spirit World’s efficiency?” Kurama asked, and the blue-haired girl bit her lip.

“As to that, well…” She showed acute discomfort. “The Warring States Era wasn’t called that for nothing. That was a terrible time for the mortal realm. Demons rove the land at will, and most humans were too weak to stop them. They died by the hundreds.”

“Hn.”

Glaring at the fire demon, Botan insisted, “It was a dark time for humanity. Besides demons, there were bandits and plagues and constant war and upheaval. The average life-span for a person during that time was less than fifty years, and most children died before their fifth year. It was an awful time for Spirit World. We were so busy processing souls, we scarcely had time for anything else, let alone the ability to do anything about it!

“Spirit World isn’t like it is today. Prince Koenma, he had to build from the ground up. Back then, with so many souls being processed and him still new to the job, there were many souls who were missed, fell through the cracks. The system isn’t perfect, you know. We can make mistakes, like anyone else.”

“Are you telling us Sango was one of those ‘mistakes?’” Yusuke stopped pulling plates out of the cupboard to demand.

Botan flushed, and wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“I knew it!” Yusuke punched the air. “I knew there was some tricky shit going on. Prince Koenma isn’t concerned about messing up the future and all that crap. He just doesn’t want his Big Bad Dad to find out he made a mistake, and take it out on his shiny hiney.”

“That’s…not entirely it, Yusuke,” Botan quietly interrupted. “There’s a lot involved. Spirit World isn’t that incompetent. It took us some time to realize we had miscalculated, that two souls from the slayer’s village were missing from inventory, but it didn’t take us five hundred years. Only three.”

“Three years,” Kurama mused. “Didn’t you say that was how long it took this girl Kagome and her friends to finally kill Naraku?”

Botan nodded. “A little more than three, actually. You see, not long after we realized Sango was missing, we sent operatives to investigate what had happened. And we found out that…well, she wasn’t the only one.”

Her eyes became incredibly haunted. “There is one part of this story you must never reveal to Sango. See, she believes her little brother, Kohaku, died that day. The day he…attacked her, and killed their father and fellow warriors. But it wasn’t his fault. He was just a little boy! And he was controlled by a demon, a demon who was working for Naraku.

“But it didn’t end there. Somehow, some way, Naraku managed to revive Kohaku with a Jewel shard embedded in his back. He managed to drag Kohaku’s soul back from the Afterlife, and manipulated the boy into doing terrible things. I don’t know what it would do to Sango if she knew. It might destroy her.”

“That’s twisted!” Yusuke sucked in his breath.

“Naraku was twisted. He managed to do even worse than that before he was through. And we had no idea, no clue, that such evil existed in Living World. Oh, there were lots of demons back then, but none on a scale like that monster. Most of the more powerful apparitions had already retreated to the Demon World by then, leaving a petty narcissist like that Onigumo to go unchecked…”

Botan shook her head. “This is actually before my time. I’m only a hundred and fifty some-odd years old, you know. Most of it, I read in the Archives. The records were really quite…thorough. Thanks to Kagome, who spared no detail when she finally revealed to Prince Koenma what had been going on. You see, we---or Spirit World, rather---had known nothing until then of what occurred. The Jewel shards, the monsters it created, the incalculable blood spilled on its behalf.

“But once we realized, once we knew, we formed a task force, the later of which became the very SDF who police Living World to this day. We worked with Kagome and Inuyasha and those others Sango knew to finally destroy that monster known as Naraku, and to make certain the Jewel of Four Souls could never be used for such terrible evil again.”

“And Sango’s ‘death’ was the catalyst for all this,” Kurama said, and Botan nodded, her eyes stricken.    

“Yes, Kurama. Now do you see why it’s so important she never return to the Sengoku Jidai? If she were to, at any time before those three years pass, than it puts in jeopardy everything that happened after she was frozen by that ice serpent. And everything that came after. From the founding of the SDF, to the very fact that Prince Koenma would later create the office of Spirit Detective.”

She looked significantly at Yusuke, who raised thick brows. “What about it?”

“Yusuke Urameshi, even you must realize that if Koenma hadn’t created the position of Spirit Detective, then he wouldn’t have had a reason to give you a second chance to redeem yourself. You’d still be dead, with nothing to show for the things you’ve done.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, you would be dead, Hiei incarcerated, and that crazy Rando, Genkai’s apprentice. And Kurama…” She stopped, unable to finish the thought. Kurama, too, would most likely be dead, having traded his life to the Forlorn Hope in order to save his dying mother without Yusuke’s interference.

“Hn.” Hiei’s contempt was like a slap in her face. He doubtless belittled Spirit World’s ability to have caught him without Yusuke’s help.

“You forget, Hiei, that if it weren’t for Yusuke, Yukina might still be a prisoner of that horrible Tarukane,” Botan snapped.

Hiei’s glare grew hotter by several degrees as the blue-haired girl stared at him, but he was the first to look away. “Hn.”

“Point made,” Kurama capped quietly. They were all silent for a time, turning the information over. Yusuke nearly jumped out of his skin when the tea kettle shrieked, and did jump when Genkai suddenly appeared to pull it off the burner.

“Grandma? Where the hell did you come from?”

“This is my damn house. Where else would I be?” the old miko demanded sourly. She fixed the detective with a gimlet eye. “And you need to spend more time practicing your reiki-sensing, dimwit. I’ve been standing right there in the hall and you couldn’t even tell.”

“Uh…how long?”

“Long enough,” she snapped, giving them all a dour look.

“Er, Lady Genkai…” Botan began.

“I know how to keep my mouth shut, thank you very much. Better than you, it seems.”

Reddening, Botan fell silent.

“Well, are you just going to stand there drooling or are you going to pass out plates?” Genkai groused, plucking cups off the wash-rack. “The slayer should be along shortly; I suspect she’ll be hungry.” She glanced at Kurama, the kettle raised. “Tea?”

“Yes, thank you,” Kurama managed.

“Hmph.”


She finally did emerge, but only after Genkai went to fetch her. Kirara paraded into the kitchen first, meowing a greeting and eying the milk carton left out on the counter after Botan made herself a cup of tea in the British style.

“Oh, would you like some?”

It was hard for a cat to make puppy dog eyes, but Kirara tried her best. Bending down to pet her, Botan gushed, “Oh, you are just too cute for words!”

Yusuke made a gagging motion as Kirara somehow managed to look even cuter as the ferry-girl filled a saucer with cream, placing it down on the floor beside the two-tailed kitten.

“A rather ingenious tactic,” Kurama murmured.

“Hn.”

“Could you even pull that look, Hiei?” Yusuke teased.

His answering red-eyed glare of slow death and quick dismemberment made Yusuke smirk.“I take that’s a ‘No.’”

“Why, hello there, Sango,” Botan greeted, a little too brightly, even for her.

“Uh, hello.” The girl didn’t look too comfortable as she inched inside the room. In fact, she looked ready to bolt. Though she might fall flat on her face, the way her sweatpants fit. Well, technically they were his sweatpants and even baggy on him. Given roughly nine inches in height difference and about three stone in bodyweight, she looked like a disgruntled little waif.  

“Wow, you’re short.” Yusuke smirked. “Though my clothes never looked that good on me.”

“A sack over the head might help,” Genkai dryly observed as she poured the taijiya some tea.

“Chopping off that mouth might,” Botan agreed darkly. “Certainly’d help his manners.”

“That can be arranged.”

“Thanks a lot, short stack. Way to keep up the bro code.”

“I have no code with anyone, brother or otherwise.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Yusuke waved dismissively, and grinned up at Sango, who looked distinctly ill at ease. Cripes, she was an edgy one. Her hair, still damp, was tied low down her back. Her bangs, cut square across cheek and forehead, were already curling, the slight cowlick over her temple kind of cute. Reminded him of Keiko’s, in a way.

“Hey, you hungry?” he asked, pointing at the piled plate in the middle of the dining table. “We got sandwiches.”   

 “Hot tea will do you good,” Genkai said, pressing a cup into her hand. “I added some herbs. Helps calm the nerves. Go on, sit down. The sandwiches are good. The dimwit might suck at training, but he cooks better than I.”

“Wow, Grandma, I don’t know whether to be flattered or bowled over. You’re actually complimenting me for a change.”

“You’d get a lot more if and when you actually earn them,” the old priestess snapped back. “As it is, dimwit, you got five minutes to change into your workout clothes, or you can go running commando in your jeans and risk chafing your balls.”

Sango choked.

Leaning over, Botan asked, “Are you okay?”

“Uh, yes, thank you.” The slayer blushed as everyone looked over at her, concerned. “Sorry, I just…”

“Yes, I know. Takes some getting used to,” Botan whispered, warming to the quiet girl.

“She will,” Genkai said serenely as Yusuke thoughtfully scratched himself on the way out.

“Charming,” Hiei muttered.

“Agreed,” Kurama murmured.






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