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Standard disclaimers as seen in part one of this fic, apply here also. As do
the Warnings: Up-and-
coming scenes of lemon, yaoi violence.
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YOMATSU HARA-SAKAI, THE BOUNDS OF NIGHT: PART 2
It wasn't long before everyone was notified, gathering quickly at Keiko's
ramen shop in the restaurant district. Early morning business was always
good, but not too crowded to where you couldn't hold a decent conversation.
Hiei sat hidden in the corner of the booth the gang had chosen, sneering from
being in public. Kuwabara and
Yukina were off in their own little world, Koenma was looking over last-
minute files, and Yusuke and Keiko were at each others throats, as usual.
"You're not going, and that's FINAL!" Yusuke sneered up to Keiko.
"It's too dangerous! And I know how you get around these Makai demons."
He sat back in the booth, closing his eyes and crossing his hands over his chest.
"And that's that!"
*BASH!*
All eyes in the restaurant turned to the large booth where Keiko had
nabbed a wok and smashed it over her fiance's head. "What are you trying to
say, Yusuke? That I'm too WEAK for the job? Is that it?"
*BASH*
Kuwabara looked up from flirting with Yukina ... Hiei looked up from
glaring at Kuwabara ... Kurama looked up from staring at Hiei ...
*BASH*
Yusuke leapt to his feet, three separate welts beginning to form on the top of his
head. "WILL YA QUIT!!!!"
Koenma reached over and grabbed Yusuke by the shirt, reeling him back
down to the table. "You're attracting attention, Urameshi."
"She started it!" he protested, pointing an accusing finger at her.
"OH!" Keiko yelled. "So now we're back in grade school! ... and don't point that thing at me!!"
"Why you.... " Yusuke threatened, trying to rise from his feet.
All hands at the table moved to wrestle Yusuke back into his seat.
"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Koenma asked, trying to keep
his cool.
Off at another booth, a group of girls giggled quietly, Koenma
threw them a suave smile and they giggled louder.
Kurama sipped his tea casually, glancing around the table. "So, exactly
what's the plan here, Yusuke?"
He grasped his aching head, glaring back to the kitchen area, mumbling
something under his breath. "Well ... it's obvious that humans can't deal with
this ... so it looks like it's our problem now."
Keiko came back out of the kitchen with an armload of food, setting it
down before each of them on the table. She threw a cute smile down to
Yusuke who only groaned and glared at his food. "So, what's the deal? We all
off to America?" she chimed in.
" 'WE?' " Yusuke growled.
Keiko frowned and took up a stray plate, raised the plate to strike ... but
stopped short, staring out the window. She stood frozen, plate in hand and
raised to pummelling height, staring blankly out the window at the passing
cars.
Hiei, practically hidden in the corner of the booth, volleyed glances back
and forth between her and the window.
"What?" Kurama whispered
Kurama leaned over Hiei, staring out the window, his green eyes
surveying the environment beyond the restaurant.
Through the passing traffic,
every once and a while a tall, dark figure would blink through behind passing
vehicles. It was tall and thin, glaring back at the window as the others
stared back. He stood motionless, only appearing every so often.
Something glinted in the man's hand ... a long, razor-sharp katana,
almost reaching down to the sidewalk. It glimmered around between passing
vehicles, the man flashing an evil smile at the group.
Yusuke bound from the table in a heartbeat and was out the door before
anyone could react. Hiei was next, blinking from view as the group all began
to file out of the ramen shop and onto the sidewalk outside.
Across the road as Yusuke expertly hopped cars and dodged
motorcycles, Hiei appeared where the man should have been. He turned
around in circles, scanning the environment both mentally and physically for
any sign of the phantasmal man. But is was like he was never there ... there
was only a psychic residue, almost undetectable from the life around him,
floating in and out of his perception.
Behind him, Yusuke clambered to the sidewalk in a serenade of car
horns and yelling drivers, surveying the site as he steadied himself. "Where'd
he go?"
Hiei circled again, rubbing the bandanna on his forehead. " Good
question."
A glint caught Yusuke's eye from the bushes, immediately retreating into
the foliage and out of sight. He crossed behind Hiei through a mob of
pedestrians, shoving his way through to the neatly kept, waist-tall hedge. He
reached the bush and began sifting through it with his hands, folding
back the branches.
"What is it?" Kurama yelled, joining them on the sidewalk and pushing
through the pedestrians to Yusuke.
"There's something in these bushes, but it keeps moving. Here, you try."
he said, standing back.
Kurama casually shoved his hands in his pockets and concentrated,
watching as the bush writhed before them. It shifted and shuttered,
occasionally reveling a glint of metal, but it was soon somehow lost back into
the greenery. Kurama concentrated a bit harder... Through the foliage, a
small, six-pronged shuriken, a ninja throwing star, glimmered into view before
scurrying off to hide back in the living bush.
"That was odd," Yusuke said as Kurama reached into the bush. "Was it
just me, or did that thing move on its own?"
Kurama bent down into the bush, grasping around for a few moments as
the others all joined them, gently pulling on something. It seemed to be putting
up quite a fight, as Kurama was jerked in and out of the bush, everyone
watching on in anticipation.
Finally, Kurama's arm burst out of the bush, flinging him backwards into
Yusuke, his hand tightly clasped around the fist-sized shuriken. It writhed and
wriggled in his grip, desperately fighting to free itself from Kurama's grip.
"It's alive!" Keiko exclaimed from behind them, pushing forward to lean
over Yusuke's shoulder.
"Can you feel that?" Yusuke asked, reaching out to touch the wriggling
star. "It's a weird sort of energy ... not you-ki ... not rei-ki ... "
Kurama suddenly flinched, releasing the shuriken with a hiss. The small,
metal star clambered to the ground and rolled quickly off into the bush,
disappearing almost instantly.
Kurama held his hand tightly, a large gash running down the length of his
palm. "Damn it!" he whispered to himself as blood ran off his hand. He closed it tightly, calling
up his youko healing abilities to seal the wound.
"Great, now we're dealing with ninja's!" Kuwabara cursed.
"Not just any ninja ... there's a strong aura of power that came from that
star. And it wasn't you-ki."
"This case is getting weirder by the minute," Koenma said silently.
© April 1997 by Jiminy Cricket Presses
On to part 3
