Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Hypocrite Hunter ❯ The Beginning of World War III? ( Chapter 5 )
Anime/Manga: Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 12.30.2002 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.5K | Visits: 179 | Status: Completed
Co-written by Rose Thorne and Yamino Tora
Chapter Five
Kurama sat back on the couch, his eyes half-closed as he enjoyed the laziness of the day. In one hand was a book that he'd been trying--and failing--to read. The other hand was running a hand through Hiei's hair. The fire demon was sprawled out on the couch beside him, his head in the fox's lap, dozing quietly. It had been a lazy Sunday--the Sunday before Christmas--and they had spent all of it relaxing. Kurama set down the book and was just about to shift to lay next to Hiei when the doorbell rang.
Hiei stirred, one eye opening lazily. "Who's that?"
"I don't know, koi." He ran his fingers through Hiei's head, gently laying him down as he got off the couch. "I'll go check." The redhead smiled as Hiei's eye closed again. He hurried to the door as the bell rang again, looking through the peephole to see a rather odd version Yuusuke and Kuwabara. "Hi! Hiei! We have guests!" Kurama held in a chuckle at the barely audible string of choice curses that came from the being on the couch. "Come on in."
Yuusuke grinned. "We haven't seen you two in a few days, so we figured we'd visit you."
Kuwabara snorted. "In other words, Yuusuke's video games suck. Besides which, his TV is broken."
Kurama's eyes crinkled in amusement as Yuusuke thwapped Kuwabara. The teen grinned innocently at the redhead. "Well, anyways, we got bored and decided to come over."
"And we were kinda hoping that we could play video games." Yuusuke whapped Kuwabara again, and the ningen glared at him. "What?!"
"You're not supposed to say that!" Yuusuke spoke around gritted teeth.
Kurama chuckled. "It's fine, Yuusuke. Really, it is." The fox turned toward the couch. "Hiei, did you want to play." There was no response. "I guess he's asleep."
Kuwabara grinned. "That's fine with me! Maybe I can beat Urameshi at Super Smash Brothers, then. It'll be easier without Hiei cheating." There was no response from the fire demon and Kuwabara frowned, pouting slightly.
The redhead rolled his eyes. "You two know how to set it up. Go ahead, but keep the volume down." He smirked and shook his head as the boys ran around the couch and plopped onto the floor in front of the TV, Kuwabara turning the device on while Yuusuke hooked up the Gamecube. Kurama frowned as he watched the station, which had a CNN news brief running. "Hold on; what's that?"
Yuusuke stopped fiddling with the cords and looked up. "Dunno." He turned the volume up as Kurama sat on the couch and resumed the position he'd been in before the two teens had shown up. "Looks like something's going on in America."
Kuwabara's eyes widened at the protest on the screen. "What do those signs say?"
Kurama blinked in shock. "'What's next? Concentration camps?' and 'What happened to liberty and justice?' [1]."
Hiei sat up. "What are they talking about?" His question went unanswered as the other three kept their attention on the television. He took the hint and listened.
"Hundreds of Middle Eastern citizens are being jailed in southern California in the United States, having come forward to register to comply with new laws. Officials claim that they are being jailed for legitimate reasons such as living with an expired visa, yet only people from the Middle East are being targeted. The exact number of people arrested is unknown, as the INS has refused to release numbers. Estimates run anywhere from five hundred arrests to one thousand, and it is said that prisons are so overcrowded that some prisoners may be sent to out-of-state prisons to wait for weeks or months, away from their families, for trials that could lead to deportation.
"Experts are equating this to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the American Civil Liberties Union is outraged at the apparent repeat of history. More that five hundred thousand Iranian exiles reside in southern California, and these developments have many of them concerned about their fate. In-"
Kurama switched off the TV, his face stony. "If this isn't a sign that World War III is about to begin, I don't know what is."
Yuusuke's eyes were wide. "No wonder they're protesting . . . They're being treated like criminals!"
Hiei frowned. "I don't get it."
"Back in the 50's, there was a war that was pretty much between the United States and Japan," Kuwabara started. "The United States is different from Japan. It has a lot of citizens from foreign countries living in it."
Yuusuke took over. "That included people of Japanese descent. Many of them were assumed to be sympathetic to the Japanese military, and America was afraid that they'd cause trouble."
Kurama nodded. "So they set up internment camps for Japanese citizens, and forced quite a few people of Japanese descent into them. It was like the Nazi death camps, but there was no outright killing."
The fire demon's frown deepened. "But how did they know they were traitors?"
"They didn't." Kurama shook his head. "They assumed. It's called racial profiling, and the United States supposedly frowns on it, but then does it anyway and justifies it."
"That's why so many minorities are arrested for drug charges in America," Yuusuke added. "It's not because they use drugs more. It's because minorities are often assumed to be criminals, so the police check them more. It's really sad that most politicians seem to be racist [2]."
"So they imprisoned innocent people because some of them might have been traitors? No proof?" Hiei scowled as Kurama nodded. "That's ridiculous! What about after the war?"
Kurama shrugged. "They were let out of the camps and allowed to return home, if they had one. Of course, their jobs weren't necessarily held. The United States compensated them after they were forced to through lawsuit, but that was really about it."
Hiei snorted. "As if money makes up for the time lost and the degradation."
Yuusuke sighed. "It doesn't, but it's better than nothing. The United States still refuses to make slavery reparations, and that happened centuries ago. I'd say the statute of limitations has run out, but racism is still going on. Plus there was still segregation half a century ago. But it's never going to happen." The teen rolled his eyes. "And it's not like they care all that much. As long as they can get away with it without International repercussion--and sometimes even that doesn't stop them--they're going to do it."
"But it was wrong!" "So was what happened in Nazi Germany, but no one tried to stop it until it directly affected them." Yuusuke shook his head. "That's why there's that famous quote: 'In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me--and by that time there was nobody left to speak up' [3]." Yuusuke sighed. "If something doesn't affect someone, they're not going to speak up against it and risk persecution. They'd rather remain apathetic."
"But they still made this mistake before!" Hiei growled. "And now they're doing it again?! Don't any of them see that they're repeating history??"
Kuwabara snickered. "They have free schooling. Most American schoolchildren are taught propaganda. America is always the good guy, and anyone they're fighting is evil. They refuse to look at their nation, and I'd bet it's because they're afraid that they have just as many faults as everyone else, if not more."
Kurama nodded. "And the sad thing is, any American who voices a dissenting opinion these days is labeled un-American, even if they're only trying to bring something to light and point out that it's wrong [4]. What's even sadder is that Americans are losing the very thing they're fighting for--their freedoms--with some of the new laws that have been passed lately. The Patriot Act removes much of their privacy rights, and the Homeland Security Act is worse. And then there's the No Child Left Behind act for education, which contains a clause that forces all public schools to hand over the contact information of all students or risk losing funding. Most schools aren't telling students that they have the right to sign forms to keep their information from being handed over. Once the military has your contact information, they won't take no for an answer. According to what I've heard, families have to call a politician or die for them to stop trying to recruit [5]."
Hiei sighed. "That's really stupid. If someone doesn't want to be in the military, you shouldn't force them. They're more likely to desert if they're forced into it."
Yuusuke rolled his eyes. "Try telling them that. I actually kind of pity Americans. They're being stripped of their rights and most of them don't even realize it."
"Yeah, and even if they do, they can't do anything about it for another two years. That's when the next election is. And with the way things are going, I'd bet they'll keep the idiot in office [6]." Kuwabara scowled.
Hiei snorted. "Yeah, even you're smarter than him."
Kuwabara glared at him, and Kurama smoothly cut off any chance for further argument. "All we can do is hope that they do vote him out, and that World War III doesn't break out before the elections. Let's do something other than talk about politics."
Yuusuke grinned and plugged in the Gamecube. "I was just about to whip Kuwabara's ass at Super Smash Brothers!"
"No you weren't!" Kuwabara scowled. "I'm going to beat you, Urameshi!"
Hiei exchanged a slightly amused look with Kurama, then lay down, preparing to nap by Kurama. The redhead turned the television back on for the teens, muting it out of consideration for Hiei. He picked up his book and began reading, resuming his petting of Hiei as Yuusuke and Kuwabara began a game, being surprisingly quiet. The fire demon drifted off to sleep.
Hiei woke as Kurama poked him gently. "Hmmm?"
The fox smiled at him. "They just left a few minutes ago. You took a really long nap."
The fire demon yawned. "Mm." He sat up and stretched, yawning again as he did so. He stared at the black screen of the television for a moment, frowning. "Kurama, do you really think there will be a war?"
Kurama sighed. "There's a good possibility of it, Hiei. I hate to mince words, but there's no point in deluding myself."
Hiei scowled. "It's so stupid. And the people being arrested . . . Won't anything be done to stop that?"
"I don't know, Hiei." Kurama sat beside his partner. "I'm betting that there's nothing that can be done. Even if the UN says something, I doubt it'll be listened to. I hate to think of all those people who are going to end up being deported with no place to go . . ."
"We're never moving to America." Hiei sighed. "You know . . . The Ningenkai is starting to look more and more like the Makai."
"That's because they are very similar. Youkai have been visiting the Ningenkai for years." Kurama hugged Hiei from behind. "Youkai influenced ningen development and vice versa." The youko kissed the back of Hiei's neck, running caressing hands over his lover's chest.
The Jaganshi gasped as the redhead's hand brushed across a nipple, and grinned. "Are you trying to tell me something, Fox?"
Kurama pulled Hiei down to the couch. "Yeah. I don't want to discuss politics anymore."
The fire demon smirked. "And how are you going to stop me from discussing it with you?"
The youko laughed. "Oh, I have my ways."
They were pleasantly occupied for the rest of the evening.
[1] Part of an article that can be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20021218_609.html
[2] For amusement's sake: http://bsd.mojones.com/humor/fiore/2002/52/we_247_01.html
[3] Quotation by Martin Niemoller, 1945. [4] Believe it or not, we were actually asked if we had anti-American sentiment. Our response is no. We just keep our eyes open to the fact that this country, like all others, has serious issues. Vocalizing a dissenting opinion is not un-American at all, especially since we're granted Freedom of Speech through the Constitution. To not vocalize our opinion would be un-American. Also, please keep in mind that we're writing this from the point of view of the characters--who are not American and, in the show, have no American ties--not necessarily ourselves. Their opinion is therefore more critical because they're on the outside and have a fuller view of the problems. After all, many Americans vocalize anger/dissent about what happens in Arab nations, while most of the people in Arab nations don't seem to have much of a problem with it. Outside looking in is a much different perspective.
[5] The freaky part about that entire paragraph is that it's true. For the recruiting deal, check this link out: http://bsd.mojones.com/news/outfront/2002/45/ma_153_01.html
[6] Can you tell I'm in an interesting mood tonight? Check this out (it's a baby shirt): http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/tshirt.php?sku=a120
Call me a doomsayer, but something tells me that The Hypocrite Hunter isn't going to last much longer on FFN. If it is booted, it will still be continued on http://www.mediaminer.org (which is a better site anyway). So if worst comes to worst, check there for updates.
Authors' notes: The views and opinions expressed within this story are a reflection of the authors'. We are in no way saying that our personal opinions are right, but we are saying that everyone has a right to express their own opinions without fear of being censored. We do not agree with a number of the official and unofficial goings-on in the mentioned country, and we are using this as a means of making our disagreement with them known. And we do know that other countries aren't much better and respond with the following statement: That's no excuse. Also, we would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read this story and listen to our opinions.