Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ In the Dark of the Night ❯ Chpter 8 ( Chapter 9 )

 

In the Dark of the Night

 

Chapter 8

 

 

"Botan, say that one more time. I think I misunderstood you. Did you just say that Genkai is Kuwabara's grandmother?" Of all things that Koenma thought Botan would report, this would never be among them. Hiei going on a mass murder? That is always a possibility. Kurama sneaking back and forth between two worlds? Nothing new there. Yusuke finally stoped having cold feet and announced a date for a wedding for Keiko and him? Now that would be news. But to hear that Kuwabara Kazuma is related to Genkai. That is unexpected.

 

"Hai, Koenma-sama, as I reported, the energies that---detained--- me and the spell focus both radiated Genkai's energies. And a nurse said that it was Kuwabara Shoda's mother that drew the focus." Botan sighed in sympathy as Koenma buried his hands in his hands. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she looked at her companions. Botan noticed that they were all in some state of agitation. Hiei was glaring at noting in particular. Kurama had that far away glaze when he wonders over a troubling puzzle. While Yusuke hadn't stopped mumbling since they left the hospital. "Well, Koenma-sama we are almost back at Genkai's. I'll report back in after we talk to Genkai."

 

"I still can't believe that we've been reading those damn books for two days now and it turns out that Genkai is related to them! Why didn't she tell us? Why keep it a secret?" Yusuke was upset but he showed some self-control by not throwing a hissy-fit. No, Urameshi Yusuke stopped himself from running in there and screaming some accusations at his first sensei. "Ya know, Kurama, you can stop it with the side glances of amazement now. No, I am not going to act like a spoiled brat. I plan on asking why she never told us."

 

Kurama stumbled as Yusuke's dead-pan voice caught him attempting to guess what Yusuke would do next. "Really? You suspect as well that she had an ulterior motive to keep us in the dark?"

 

"Past experience has shown that Genkai has reasons for the things she does. I was just remembering how we first met Kaito and the others. I thought they were some upstart punks, then it turned out that they were working for Genkai. At first glance it seemed as Genkai betrayed our trust. I never imagined that Genkai would pull such a ruse just to teach us a lesson." Pausing in the middle of the massive stairway, Yusuke took some time to reflect on past memories of a cranky old woman that has somehow wormed into his heart. Although he is still reluctant to admit it. "I bet there she has her reasons for not telling us. I keep on remembering her saying that it was the events in those journals that hardened her. I won't promise that I'll like the reasons or accept them but I owe it to her to listen first."

 

Botan stopped dead in her track to turn to whisper to Kurama, "Kurama, did I hear him right?

 

Kurama smiled as he looked at the retreating back of their mutual friend. "You heard him correctly, Botan."

 

"I do believe that he is finally growing up." Koenma's voice preceded his sudden appearance by milliseconds. "I decided that I don't want to wait for Botan's report to find about connection between Genkai and the Kuwabara's. So I decided to sit in this meeting as well."

 

"Hey, what's the hold up?" Yusuke's voice rang out from the top of the stairs, sending the others to hurry their steps to catch up.

 

As the walked in the main room, they noticed that Genkai was already sitting there. There were cushions for everyone, even an extra one for Koenma. Teacups were ready and there were all three journals laying in front of her. But what caught their eyes were the few photos that were also scattered about. "Well I suppose you want to know the truth now that you've been to see Shoda."

 

"Yeah, old hag, I would like the truth. I promise to shut up and listen if you will tell us." The mild insult wasn't meant to harm, it was Yusuke's oldest nickname for her and over time, it had become some sort of endearment , on equal terms with 'Grandma'. When he first called her that, it was an outface insult to her age but as they got to know each other, it was as if she was a foster grandmother. He almost called her that now but he felt guilty of wanting to cry out 'Grandma!' when her real grandson and granddaughter are missing and they are reading how her other grandchildren were tortured and most likely killed by undead spirits.

 

For a few seconds warmth flared in Genkai's eyes, but soon the haunted and cold glaze returned. "Lets sit down and I'll start. As you already know that in the Dark Tournament there are five to a team. And you already know the identity of two of my teammates from fifty years ago, the Toguro brothers. But I've not named the other two. One was Togashi, who died in the final rounds. And the last was Kuwabara Akira."

 

"What you mean that the old guy in the diaries that screamed like a girl was a teammate of yours? Why didn't he do anything more against those things? Koenma you knew her partners, why did you realize this?" Shock caused Yusuke Yusuke to momentarily forget about the promise he just gave. A glare from his mentor reminded him of it as he sat himself back down. "Sorry."

 

"Listen Dimwit, you obviously forgot how common the name Akira is, same with the family name Kuwabara. Both are popular. You can probably find three men with that name in one city alone, if not five men. I hear that it's similar to the western name of John Smith. A dime a dozen. So That's why Koenma didn't raise an eyebrow at the name."

 

"Yes, that is a poplar name. Why I had four male spirits named Kuwabara Akira be processed just this week alone." When several eyebrows were raised, Koenma went on. "With the Kuwabara siblings' disappearance, I had an alert put on the name Kuwabara so if anyone with the name was processed, the case would be looked over. I did that in the rarest of chances of finding clues of their where abouts. If one of them did die, I would be notified immediately."

 

Genkai spoke up quickly, mainly to stop anyone from yelling at Koenma's precaution. "Many of my techniques affect demons, and barely affect ghosts. Over the years since this nightmare started I've learned a few spells that can affect ghosts and spirits. But they are small in number against the spells I can use for demons. While my Reikai style is wonderful in kicking demon ass, the spirit energy alone can't deal with ghosts. Spells are needed to focus the energy properly. And to work those spells, reikan is needed. Let me start from the beginning. Normally, I hate talking about my personal life to others. So I am not going to tell you brats if I shared a rowboat with Ototo Toguro under the pale moonlight as we talked about mortality and morality. I will say that we four became close during our tournament, just like your own tournament brought you all closer."

 

"Even that psycho older brother?" Yusuke had trouble picturing anyone being friends with Aniki Toguro, except another psycho, like Sensui.

 

Although annoyed by his outburst, Keiko merely put a hand on his shoulder in comfort. "Yusuke, let her finish. We don't know how he acted before he became a youkai. He could have been completely opposite for all we know."

 

"That's bullshit," Yusuke huffed in annoyance. "He couldn't have done a 180 turnaround simply because he changed into a youkai. He had to be a psycho to begin with. I mean, look at me! My personality didn't change when I became a youkai."

 

"Bad example." Botan whispered to an amused Koenma.

 

With a sad sigh, Keiko faced her fiancé. "First off, you did change some Yusuke. The boy I grew up with would always tell me the instant he got even a hint that he was going out of town for any length of time, even it was just for two days. But after your demon blood awoke, you waited two weeks to tell me that you were going to leave me all alone for three long years."

 

"I..." Yusuke wanted to brush off that comment but he could see the unshed tears in her eyes. "I came back, " he murmured to her. "Keiko, I told you I would and I did."

 

"I know you did and I still love you." Kieko confided as she kissed him. After a heartfelt hug, Keiko spoke up again. "Secondly, I remember talking to Shizuru and Botan once before about ghosts and demons. Shizuru told me that sometimes a ningen goes insane after changing into a demon is the same reason some people go insane when the become ghosts. The difference in the natures, whether it's human and demon or living and dead, it can cause madness. Botan told me that is why the Spirit World has the system now that a ferry girl arrives seconds before a scheduled death or a few seconds after an unscheduled one. They hope that a quick intervention helps the spirit from going mad. The way you became a demon was different from the Toguro brothers. You had demon blood in you, it was just dormant until your second re-birth. The Toguros did not have a demon ancestor and they were changed by outside forces. That could have affected their personalities."

 

Keiko stooped for a breath, looking around to see that they were indeed thinking on what she had said. Daring a glance at Genkai, Keiko was happy to see not annoyance from the elderly rei master but approval that at least one of the youths are capable of deep thoughts. "Ironically, it's the topic of changing

personalities brings us to the fact that odd friendships do exist, Yusuke. Just look at you and Hiei. Don't tell me 'there's no comparison.' I remember a three-eyed demon kidnapping me after he cut me down with a cursed sword that was going to me change into a demon. If that transformation would have succeeded, my personality would have changed, since I would have become a mindless slave! But three years later, you and Hiei are friends,"

 

Three males stared at Keiko in shock as Botan patted her on the back. "You remember..." was Yusuke's weak reply.

 

"Yes, I remembered it in a dream, no, a nightmare during the Dark Tournament. That's my point in this tirade Yusuke, that it is possible for someone to be friendly with someone who's insane or homicidal. After all, Hiei has never shown any remorse for attacking me but you are still chums."

 

"Why haven't you acted against me if you remembered?" The fact is that Keiko remembered but never said anything before did not escape Hiei's notice.

 

Keiko shrugged. "I figured that you attacked me to get at Yusuke. Botan told me later that is was a strategy to hurt him since you two were on opposing sides. That's no longer true. You lost and are on the same side as Yusuke now."

 

After Keiko fell silent, everyone turned their attention back to Genkai. "It figures that the diversions would run out."She mumbled loudly with a sigh. With a sip of her tea, Genkai prepared to go on with her story. "Right after we won that tournament fifty years ago, we were happy for the most part. Happy that four of us survived. The odds were against us and we originally thought that if we did make it to the finals, then at least two, if not three, would die then. We mourned Togashi's death and had him cremated on the island. It was at the the closing ceremonies that the wishes were granted. It was then that the brothers made their wishes to become demons. It was the last time I saw them until the time I went with you to another damned tournament."

I secluded myself once I returned. It took Akira to bring me out of the useless moping. About three months after the tournament Akira was attacked by a fire demon and Akira noticed he couldn't call on the same amount of reikai as he used to. It took me awhile to find out the cause. Back during the tournament, he was hit with a curse that slowly sapped him of his reikai. By the time I found a way to break curse, Akira's energy was too low for him to for him to use in a fight. I was able to stop the curse before it could drain him of his life-force but the drop in Reikai was permanent. We never found a way to return his reikai to it's former level."

 

Botan spoke up from the far side. "So that's why there has been no mention or reikai, only of reikan. By the time Kuwa-kun was born, the loss of Akira-san's reikai would be old news and therefore there was no need to mention it in a diary nearly 30-35 years after the fact, right?"

 

"That still doesn't tell us how you ended up with Kuwabara's grampa or why you didn't tell Kuwa that you're his grandma." Yusuke griped.

 

"Yusuke," Kurama softly demanded his friend's attention. "Perhaps we should start calling our missing friend by his name, Kazuma. After all, Akira had the same family name, thereby he also was Kuwabara."

 

"Humph! Let's get this over with! Akira and I stayed in contact and two years later we became lovers. It was four years after the tournament that we had our first and only child. We named our son Shoda. As for why I never told Kazuma." Genkai was distracted by Yusuke's surprise at using the given name. That was something that Genkai forced herself to stop once she found out that the lanky kid at her tournament was her own grandson. "Hey dimwit, stop imitating a fish. I forced myself to call him by his family name. After all it would be odd to Kazuma if I, a strange old hag to him, called him by his given name when only Shizuru and Yukina do so. You know that everyone else, even you and those three long-time friends of his, called --- calls him by Kuwabara."

 

Yusuke sat there as he slumped his shoulders. "That's true." Everyone noticed Yusuke lost the desire to argue at Genkai's slip-up. 'I won't give up hope! We will find him. I swear it!' Squaring his shoulders with that thought, Yusuke glared at his former mentor. "Finnish your story so we can go back to those damn journals and find Kuwa --- Kazuma. While you're at it, tell us how much of these journals you do know. You've said that you knew some of what's going on them but not everything."

 

"The reason I didn't keep Kazuma and Shizuru is simple. I had too many enemies. Many of the most scruple-less of demons would resort to harming young children. Some demons even 'feed' on children. Remember Gouki?" Genkai stayed quiet as both Yusuke and Kurama were startled.

 

After recovering, Kurama spoke up. "I have to agree that it would be too dangerous to have two children around here with so many enemies."

 

"They stayed with me for a year before I was able to find someone to care for them unlit Shizuru was old enough herself. I had her promise not to tell Kazuma or anyone that they are related to me. Once he started to work with you, dimwit, he made enemies of his own. Think of how those numbers would have doubled, tripled even, if demons learned that he is related to me. After the crap with Sensui, I realized that Kazuma is stronger than I ever hoped he would be. As for how much I know, I only was aware that my son's family was being haunted by extremely malicious ghosts. And as you have already guessed, several of the family were killed by those forces. A few others in these journals died in unusual circumstances,. It's not clear to everyone what the cause of death was. Holmes, for instance, after the events we are reading about now dies in a not-so-clear accident. Official reports say he jumped out of a window of a sky-rise building. Several witnesses say it looked as if an invisible force pushed. Others said he stumbled, as if he had trouble walking. That's about all I knew about the events before Shoda went into a coma and the kids came to stay with me. That was when Kazuma was four. It took a year for me to find someone to care for and protect the kids. As I already said, at that time I didn't have much experience with ghosts. I limited how often I contacted them for fear of demons finding them, so I didn't hear from them until their caregiver, Mariko, was killed and Yoshiko went missing. Shizuru was fourteen by then and she went to live own her own taking care of eight year old Kazuma."

 

For some time, no one dared to speak after Genkai fell silent.

 

 

 

----TBC------

 

Ages=

Okay I think that I gave out the Kuwabara siblings ages before if not here it is again. These are the ages of the sisters when Kazuma was born=

Jun -------10

Shizuru -- 6

Yoshiko - 4 1/2

Misao ---- 2

 

There have been a few people pointing out that I'm using a few Japanese words in my story, I'll add definitions below. I'm sorry if it's caused any confusion. Any questions go ahead and ask in review. Some words are common here in the anime section but there are new people all the time. Also I've notice that many new people ( and a few others) get some words mixed up. That understandable, but we need to try to get the right words. If you know that I messed up some here, let me know. If I think you're right I'll fix it. If not, I'll defend it and ask a third party to judge.

 

One site I use for translations is at www.freedict.com. There are several lauguages to choose. I choose teh English -to-Japanese. Then I type in the Japanese word to translate into English, since some word can have several meanings.

 

Sensei = teacher, master. Most westerners don't like the term of master due the 'master & slave' image the single word brings up, that is the wrong idea. Master here indicates that person has mastered some sort of learning , example Master of Karate, or for YYH Genkai is a Master of Reikai

 

Aniki = this is NOT a name but a title. Translates to = one's senior, elder brother. So Aniki Toguro translates to Elder Toguro

 

Ototo = same as above NOT a name, This one is for younger brother. Ototo Toguro translates to Younger Toguro.

 

-sama =honorific term of the highest regards, On par with Lord.