Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Balance ❯ What Had Become of Him ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I don't understand the problem with wearing sweatpants to school.

Balance

Chapter Three: What Had Become of Him

Pictures swirled around him from time to time, his only touch to the outside world, beyond this dream.  A powerful brunette blasting an overly muscular man and shattering his skin…  A sturdy carrot top passing lingering remnants of his ki to an unconscious boy…  A pained-looking redhead killing a frail young boy in the midst of a game…

The three men stood on the edge of a cliff, looking out over a city, and vowed to stay friends and in contact, though they would never see each other again.

The redhead spoke of another man, another friend, who came to visit him sometimes…

'I wish he had come back, just once.'

'I wish I could thank him for saving my ass so many times.'

'I wish we were all together one more time.'

I wish I knew what had become of him, he said.

They all ignored him.

He smiled.

You wish we were all together one more time, and we are.  But guess what…someone has come back who I didn't know still existed, and the dead do not suddenly revive themselves…

Something is foreboding…

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"So what've you guys been doing with yourselves all these years?" Yuusuke asked around a mouthful of tempura.  "Hey, Kurama, great food, by the way."

"O-arigatou, Yuusuke."

"I've been in high school," Kuwabara supplied.  "I'm on the wrestling team-it's a lot of fun.  I kick all those guys' asses."

Hiei snorted off to the side, and Kurama smiled at him.  Kuwabara raised a fist threateningly, but the youkai only scoffed.

"I've been in high school, as well," Kurama said.  "It's quite boring, but you can't really get far in Japan without a degree, can you?"  He glanced over at Yuusuke pointedly.

"Ch, I've been doing alright for myself," Yuusuke said derisively.  "Majoring in science, are you?"

"Biology."  Kurama nodded.  "And you, Yuusuke…you've spent the last three years in Makai.  It's difficult to expect you'd have gotten a full education there, isn't it?"

The Tantei laughed, waving around a shred of chicken in his chopsticks.  "Have you ever seen what passes for education there?  I'd be lucky to come out with all the smarts I have now!"

"That's not saying much," Hiei muttered.

"Oi…!"

Kuwabara laughed, and even Kurama joined in with a small chuckle.  Hiei smirked out of the corner of one eye, and Yuusuke paused for a moment before laughing, as well.

"Fool doesn't even know when he's being insulted," Hiei intoned with another smirk.  Yuusuke continued to laugh.

"Man," he panted through guffaws, "it's been forever since we got together like this…"

"Six years," Kurama replied sadly.  Kuwabara nodded.

"I can't believe it-I never really imagined us drifting apart like we did…"

"I never thought you'd come back," Yuusuke said, prodding Hiei's shoulder.  He grunted in response.

"I said I was your ally and your friend, didn't I?"  He preened himself for a moment, straightening a wrinkle in his cloak.  "I have obligations."

Yuusuke's and Kurama's eyes softened, Kurama smiling at Hiei and Yuusuke distracting himself from what he considered to be the awkwardness of such an emotional moment by turning his gaze to the floor.  Kuwabara also looked awkward, shuffling in place and shifting his eyes to the ceiling.

Hiei cleared his throat, breaking the moment.

"Kurama.  What is our next move?"

Startled, the kitsune blinked back the gentle expression his face had taken on and thought for a moment.  "Well, we should see Koenma soon.  We still need him to speak to Mukuro, excusing you for the duration of this mission, remember.  And, meaning no offence to her, I don't know how much I trust Botan to have given Koenma the message that we found two nests of Makai insects.  We could always try getting new orders directly from him, of course, which would be only another reason to visit."

Hiei inaudibly groaned at the prospect of seeing the demigod once again, and Yuusuke sighed tiredly.  Reporting directly to the horse's mouth was never any of their favorite activities.

"I'll call Botan…"

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"One: that was the most hellish ride of my life and I demand a new assistant.  Two: did said assistant tell you about the nests of insects we found?  Three: have you done anything about it?"

Koenma, quite unused to six-years-former Tantei dropping out of the sky and into his office, toppled out of his chair, his cap falling entirely over his head.  Hopping back into the chair, he straightened his cap and shook his head.

"One: you're no longer a Tantei, so she's no longer your assistant.  Two: no, she did not tell me about any nests or holes or whatever it was you said."  (Kurama nodded slightly to himself.)  "Three: if I didn't know about it, how could I have been expected to do anything?"

Shooting a glare to Botan, who shook her hands in a defensive motion before her, Yuusuke sighed.  "Okay then.  We found two nests of Makai insects in the city.  Do something about it, like, say, I don't know, getting your new Tantei on the case."

Koenma shook his head.  "I can't.  If this case blossoms into something involving Makai, my new Tantei would be no match for it.  She's barely even a high C-class, much less low S or even high A."

Kuwabara spit on the floor, ignoring Koenma's dry glare.  "Why's she so weak, and after all this time?  Hiei started off at C, and he's moved all the way up to high A or even low S."  The cited youkai looked as though he didn't know whether to glare daggers at Kuwabara or preen at his rapid advancement, finally settling on a dry glower.

"Mm, true, but youkai are still wary of Yuusuke and you all-yes, even though you haven't technically been Tantei for six years-and there haven't been any high profile cases for her yet."

"That sucks…"

"Hm, you're telling me," Koenma sighed, sinking into his seat.  "I keep waiting for a case to roll around that she just won't be prepared for."

Hiei scoffed, and Kurama winced.  "That's inspiring," Yuusuke muttered.

"Yes, well."  Clearing his throat, Koenma shuffled some papers around.  "About the nests-I'll need exact coordinates if I'm to be expected to do anything about them, and we're on the lookout for new developments, but as I've told you, progress is slow."

"Actually, I don't think that was you-"

"Well," he intoned loudly.  "I'll let you know if something comes up, it's been nice to see you, best of luck, sayonara!"

Leaping up onto his desk, Koenma summoned a portal behind them and pushed them into it.

"O, domo a-"  Yuusuke's sarcastic voice trailed off as the window between worlds closed.

Koenma huffed, flopping back in his chair.

'It's going to be a long week…'

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The sky, darkened with the abundance of insects that had only grown since their absence, loomed ominously over them all, and the humans running around obliviously were unnerving.  Kurama snatched a handful of the insects out of the air and killed them all.  Hiei was doing the same rather constantly, wiping out miniature herds each second.  His katana flashes brightly against the gloomy background of its victims.

Kuwabara, too, had killed his share of bugs, and Yuusuke was doing much the same thing.  They didn't stop to think how ridiculous they must have looked to bystanders, but only followed Kurama's kitsune nose as it tracked the bugs to their nest.

He pointed occasionally, at which point Yuusuke or Kuwabara darted forward, pinpointed the nest, and destroyed it.  Kurama and Hiei kept themselves busy with extermination.

"So, Hiei," Kurama said on one such occasion.  "Where have you been these last few years?"

"Working for Mukuro, kitsune, you know that," he replied, wiping out another hoard in one clean sweep.

"I only thought-you might keep the promise you made to me, that's all."

Hiei brought his katana in a wide arc, using the combination of metal and shockwave to destroy a large fraction of the flock.  "What promise?"

"To visit me," Kurama answered, his voice betraying a slight hint of hurt.  "Remember?"

Hiei remained silent in his work, thinking as he did so.  '"Kitsune, don't worry.  I'll come back one day, to visit you.  I promise."  Oh, yes…that's right, I did say that…'

"I said 'one day,'" Hiei reminded him.  "I didn't say when."

"Hiei, you know ningen life spans are much shorter that youkai ones," Kurama insisted.  "Six years is a long time to such creatures as they.  I just hoped you might take that into consideration.  But apparently," his voice slipped up a moment before he recovered himself, "it doesn't matter.  You didn't remember, anyway."

Hiei snorted.  "You've become too soft, kitsune."

"No, Hiei, I believe it is you who has become too hard.  You wouldn't have cared, would you?"

"I cared enough to locate your new house, didn't I?"

Kurama shook his head.  "In maybe a fraction of a minute, thanks to your Jagan."  Wiping out another sheet of bugs, he slumped against the wall and shook his head.  "You don't understand, do you, Hiei?  Your friendship meant a lot to me.  I couldn't let my family know who I really was, and it was too dangerous to take a ningen mate.  I could barely even make ningen friends, for fear they'd notice something…off about me and get too curious."

"You had Yuusuke and Kuwabara," Hiei interrupted between slashes.

"No, I didn't.  Yuusuke was away for three years-three years, Hiei, that's a long time, too; I'd moved on by the time he came back, and so had he-and Kuwabara devoted himself to his studies.  And to Yukina, by the way, being the brother to her who she never knew."

A pained expression crossed his face as Hiei continued killing insects, now doubling his power to substitute for Kurama.

'I did, I abandoned them all, didn't I?  Without so much as a "thank you," even, for all they'd all done for me…and I bet they don't even know…  I left them all, and they don't even know how much they all mean to me, and my sister-how could I do such a thing to her?'

"You can't just abandon us all for six years and then come back and assume it'll all be the same as it was, Hiei."

Yuusuke and Kuwabara leapt out from behind a nearby building's cover, jumping in before the conversation could progress.  Kurama had the sneaking suspicion that they had been listening.  There was no way it could have taken so long to stop up a simple nest.

"Let's move on!" Yuusuke shouted, a little over-jubilant.  Kuwabara nodded vigorously.

"Very well."

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Oi: hey

Makai: Demon World, Hell

Youkai: demon

Sayonara: goodbye

Domo: thanks

Kitsune: fox

Ningen: human

Note: I'm aware that I repeat myself in giving definitions of words used in each chapter.  I give a new definition each time a word is used.  That way, if someone skips a chapter (I know I do that occasionally) or forgets, it's easily attained.  Plus, it's easier for me not to have to keep track of which words I've used already.

Note: the remnants of memories from the dream are as follows: Yuusuke killing Toguro (circa Ankoku Bujutsukai saga), Kuwabara saving Yuusuke (circa Shiseiju saga), Kurama killing Amanuma (circa The Door to Makai: the Territory 2 arc).  There is no memory of Hiei because "as far as he knew, or was concerned, Hiei had disappeared a long time ago."  You'll see why later (if you haven't gotten it from this fragment already).