#she can ask koenma about it

[thuganomxcs]

Granted THIS STILL FELT SURREAL. Looking down because he’s just a bit higher than her..well more than usual. Though feeling her hand upon his chest, he figured she was trying to get a feel for him a feel of his core pulsing within him, then came her question.  ❝   𝐈 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲.   ❞  Taking the time to actually feel the sensations..yes, he does feel great, a bit more energized and the power coursing through him..Yusuke hasn’t even felt a sample of this since…Oh, that got him to pause for a moment..Botan’s question of whether he activated his transformation during his sleep warranted the search.

Quickly he removed his pajama top to hurriedly inspect his body, aside from the slightly larger physique everything remained the same, that same bullet scar on his chest, the tattoo on his back but NO MAZUKO MARK in sight. It got him to sigh in relief. “Nope I’m still me..me. But ya know, I haven’t felt this strong since that day the old man possessed me. I mean..I’m not EVEN THERE yet, not by a long shot but I’d never forget the feeling of that rush.” This seemed rather serious but whatever tension had arisen had quickly dispersed by his chuckle. Taller, but the same old Yusuke in there. Just giddy over getting a little stronger.

“This is GREAT. If you’re sayin’ this isn’t a spell..then what the hell did I have another growth spurt or somethin’?” He kept a hand at his side turning to her with questions in his mind. “Is this..NORMAL FOR YOKAI?” He asked, the real answer would be ‘no’ however, he himself was still partially human, whilst he could only suspect Kurama was a yokai wearing a human meat suit..so there’s no way he could ask him about this. “OH well, no skin off our bones, are ya hungry?”

BOTAN STANDS STILL FOR A MINUTE, trying to figure things out. No, she definitely didn't do this. Right? No-- definitely not, her clothes still fit. And she can't feel any weird spell effects on either of them. Her confusion was not helped by the fact that Yusuke was thinking less than usual, kissing her and thanking her.

She snaps out of her thoughts, reaches up and puts her hands on his cheeks -- reaches up??? She angles him to look into her eyes, trying to somehow instill that she was serious.

"Yusuke... I love you, I'm glad you're happy but I did not do this. Why would I shrink-- don't answer that, I don't want to know," she says slowly. "Hold on," Botan puts her hand to his chest, over his core and narrows her vision in on his aura. His core has always reminded her of the sun, bright and burning, intensely warm. And it's still there, surging inside of him, but there's something different, like the pool of his energy has become deeper. It's less frenzied, still strong but more stable. And most of all, there's no traces of magic anywhere inside of him.

Furrowing her brow, she lets go, tongue between her teeth. "I don't know... Do you feel any different, otherwise? I don't see any spell traces... Did you maybe activate your Mazoku transformation in your sleep?"

[yyh4ever]

BOING BOING 🖐️

A funny scene from the 1994 "Yu Yu Hakusho Gaiden" game for mega drive, an original story that takes place two days before the Dark Tournament.

Demons are popping up all over town, so Koenma sends the guys off to investigate and get to the root of the problem. Reminded me of Maji Battle a little bit.

My favorite part of the game intro is when Botan is looking for the guys to inform that Koenma wants to have a word with them. Hiei's line, "who's disturbing my nap", is the best 😂

The first part of the game is divided into 4 chapters: Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei and Kurama. Each one takes to the streets to investigate, and eliminate demons.

Yusuke's Chapter

Yusuke is so upset about Toguro being so much stronger than him that he forgets about the mission. He asks this seemingly strong old guy, who saved Keiko from a gang, to teach him his technique. But ... he's trouble.

Gladly, Master Genkai comes to his aid.

Kuwabara's Chapter

All delinquents in town are acting strange. They have suddenly become just and been refusing to fight (isn't that a good thing? lol).

Apparently, they are all attending this strange place called the "Touzai Seminar". Kuwabara sneaks in to investigate, and fights a pumpkin-demon.

The power of love is invincible XD

Guess everything went back to normal.

Hiei's Chapter

Hiei comes across this little girl, but he doesn't have time to play with kids. It's cute that she calls Hiei "onii-chan". Hiei also mentions he's not good dealing with children XD.

Later, she goes missing.

He senses a nostalgic youki in town, and suspects the mastermind behind it is Kuroneko (dark cat), a cat demon who was Hiei's partner during his bandit days.

Kurama's Chapter

It's basically a story about Kurama's mother being kidnapped. Kurama fights some demons and rescues his mother in the museum.

I like this illustration included in the game manual. Kurama is in the museum fighting the dinosaur fossil youkai.

That blue-haired girl is also interesting, looks like Botan a little. She's looking for her dog, Pochi, but Kurama didn't see it. Then, she re-appears as a youma, and Kurama defeats it.

My Red Rose Prince ♡

After investigating and eliminating random demons, they gather at Yusuke's place. They found out that the source of the problem is in a place called Gokumon Island. It's time to go to the Demon World.

After you clear the first part, the familiar eye-catch from the anime shows up.

The second part of the game is on Gokumon Island - Makai.

The imaginary illustration of the island is beautiful (taken from the manual). I think it was inspired by the Maze Castle in Demon City.

Well, Gokumon Chapter is kinda boring. They basically walk around the island, fight demons, help human souls, and defeat the final boss in his tower, a youkai called Choujou (超嬲).

The manual illustration of the final boss castle with Kurama and Yusuke is more exciting.

Btw, even though she's not the real Keiko, it's a cute scene ❤

After defeating the final boss, Gokumon Island disappears. Mission complete! Now, it's time to go to the Dark Tournament.

But, before that, Yusuke meets the real Keiko boss XD. The game ends with the classic boob scene. Yusuke wants to check her reaction, because he was deceived by a fake Keiko last time.

IT'S THE REAL KEIKO!!!!

In the end, the guys lose the shuffle boat to Hanging Neck Island (Dark Tournament) 😂

Poor Hiei and Kurama...

The credits show monochrome images of the Dark Tournament. I like that Atsuko Urameshi appears with the girls instead of Jorge Saotome. Just like the manga!

Sorry for the lame summary, I just shared my fav parts 😅

You can find full walkthroughs of this game on YouTube.

Lastly, some love for my boy Kuwabara ♥ (illustration from the game manual)

[maiji]

fight / flight: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 (you are here) | Part 5 (to come!)

Alt text, full transcript and commentary continue below the cut.

A YYH North Bound story. This is “fight / flight" part 4 of 5 parts. This takes place after I Heard A Cicada Cry and Survive.

Content warning: People with blood on their faces.

[page 26] *Otake and Tomoe Gozen are still facing off with their respective weapons at the ready when a flash of light appears in the air just over Otake* Tomoe: ?? Otake: !

[page 27] *A beautiful woman descends. She is bathed in moonlight, her long hair tied up with gilded ornaments, a beauty mark on her lower face near her lips, and with a halo of robes fluttering behind her.* ?: Otake, stand down.

[page 28] *The woman notices Otake's bloodied state and responds with comedic expressions of disgust* ?: Eeuuugh!! Yuck!!! Gross!!! Otake: *looking annoyed* Go away. ?: Didn’t you hear me?? I said stand down!! Otake: I don’t have time for your games, tennyo. Tennyo: Games? This is a command from the great Enma Daioh Himself. Otake: …Enma Daioh has canceled my quest?

(Footnote: Tennyo = "sky maiden", heavenly beings in Buddhist mythology)

[page 29] *The tennyo folds her arms self-importantly while Otake continues to look irritated. Tomoe Gozen observes their exchange alertly* Tennyo: Not specifically. He’s calling everyone back. It’s important. And not that you asked me, but I think you should quit wasting your time on this silly pet project of yours. Otake: *walking away from her* You’re right. I didn’t ask you. Tomoe: ... Tennyo: Well, the great Enma Daioh hardly needs to rely on a dirty toy mirror to achieve his goals. Anyways, even if you don’t care about promotions, Yoshinaka’s days are numbered. It’s going to be a bloodbath even worse than the mess you made of that body. *Tomoe is silent but clearly alarmed by this mention of Yoshinaka's name and the scenario the tennyo is suggesting.* Tennyo: Don’t get yourself caught up in petty human affairs.

[page 31] Otake: Hmph. *He sheathes his sword, then walks towards the tennyo as she tosses a cloth over him. They both disappear, leaving Tomoe staring up at the empty sky over the forest.*

[page 32] *Tomoe continues looking up at the sky for several moments, then turns to Hokushin behind her* Tomoe: What did you do to get emissaries from the Underworld after— —you— —!! *She breaks off as she realizes Hokushin appears to be lying fully unconscious on the ground. The view changes to the moon high above the forest and mountains* Tomoe: Come on…!! A demon like you can hardly die that easily...!!

---

Obviously, Hokushin’s not dead. He’s just in need of a very very long nap. 

“Tennyo��� (Sky, or Celestial, or Heavenly Maiden) is a new character I needed to create for some important reasons. One is to be a pain in her coworker Otake’s side, and the second (maybe more important reason) is to do some of the plot work I need done that Otake won’t be able to do. Tennyo is not her name; it’s just a descriptor. Otake referring to her as “tennyo” is like when Tomoe calls Hokushin “rokurokubi” - similar to saying, “look, woman,” or “hey, kid,” or “listen, squirt”, etc. She will have a name, to be revealed in time!

Tennyo are based on apsaras of Hindu and Buddhist mythology, and are sometimes described as the Buddhist version of angels. They are obviously not the same by far but is mostly sufficient as a general comparison. There’s actually a tennyo in the first Yu Yu Hakusho movie, Kotennyo, who had a relationship with Koenma. The movies are not main series canon and the first one was more silly than anything.

In North Bound, tennyo are the predecessors to Reikai’s ferry girls like Botan, Ayame, Hinageshi - just a different appearance/presentation for the time period they are in. I have planned some stuff around this oooh ahh. Here, instead of floating on oars, the tennyo’s robe allows her to fly (per the hagoromo tradition). Hence, the cloth she uses to teleport Otake back to the Spirit World is an Easter egg - a reference to the cloth that Shishiwakamaru uses to teleport Kuwabara around during the Dark Tournament, hahaha. That cloth in Japanese is not-so coincidentally 死出の羽衣  or Shide no Hagoromo (roughly, "feathered cloak/robe of death"), so very obviously connected to the tennin (sky/celestial/heavenly people) tradition. (My headcanon is that's all Suzuki's doing - as the leader and source of all of Team Uraotogi's tools, that he's the one who "designed" the team, coming up with the names including all their items and special moves. He clearly seems to have a thing for thematic drama.)

The tennyo’s comment on Otake messing up “that body” is also a reference to the fact that Spirit World folks are not beings with physical bodies. Had Hokushin managed to “kill” Otake in this battle, he wouldn’t be dead; only his physical vessel would be destroyed. We see this in the actual series, where Botan uses a temporary physical body to interact with people in the Human World. The most obvious instance of this is during the fight against Sensui, when she jettisons the vessel to return to the Spirit World to deliver an urgent message, shocking Yanagisawa. 

Whoohoo, only one more part to go to finish fight/flight!! And then… we can move back to the core time period of North Bound with Raizen…!!

Update: Here's the behind the scenes, this time with character design sketches!

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Maze Chapter Two: Renegade Pt. 1

It had been a major fight to drag Koenma from his solitude in the rented home, something about a dating sim with birds in it and working on some partridge doctor. Kuwabara couldn’t give a real flying fuck about the game considering Yusuke’s body was kidnapped, Keiko was having a mental breakdown, and the strong possibility Kurama was responsible for it as he loaded Koenma into the family car with his sons. Koenma had seen better days, his adult form having started growing a scraggly beard and worn out tee shirts that have seen better days as Koenma adjusted his oversized sweatpants after being forced out into the public. It didn’t help Koenma very much having to sit between two teenage boys who both decided this road trip needed a game of punch buggy with Koenma. 

 “Kuwabara, get your children under control! I can’t feel my arm anymore!” Koenma complained as snickering could be heard from Jotaro and Josuke.

 “Josuke, Jotaro, stop picking on Mister Koenma over there. We’re getting close to Aunt Keiko’s and we expect you both to be on your best behavior.” Kuwabara scolded as he started to make the turn towards Keiko’s Restaurant.

 Jotaro and Josuke grumbled out an apology, upset that their little bit of fun was ruined because of Koenma whining about it. Kuwabara couldn’t help but shake his head a bit before making the pull up to the sidewalk. Keiko stood at the entrance of the restaurant as she looked up to see Kuwabara and his family arrive. Keiko looked relieved to see Kuwabara before looking shocked to see Koenma in the group, it’s been a long time since she last saw him out in public like that. Taking the keys out of the pocket, Keiko opened up the door to the restaurant, not having been opened yet since it was still the morning hours. 

 “So, where’s Tomoko? Does she know about what happened?” Kuwabara asked as he made sure Koenma was keeping up with everyone. “She does, Tomoko is driving over now from art college. I still don’t understand where Kurama is or why he hasn’t been answering at all..” Keiko sat down, the stress was becoming too much after a short span of time. “Keiko, Kazuma and I spoke to one another earlier after you told us the news. As much as I hate to believe this, I have to agree that given the recent behaviors and actions Kurama displayed last night, he might be responsible.” Yukina decided to be the one to break the news to Keiko about who was likely behind the kidnapping.

 “Keiko, you have every right to never speak to Kurama ever again or even forgive him regardless if he’s responsible or not. We will find Urameshi and bring him back to you, I promise you Keiko.” Kuwabara tried his best to console while Koenma started to think very carefully about what could be done on his end.

 “If Kurama is behind it, I’m going to bet he’s taking Yusuke’s body to Genkai’s property. The entire estate is powerful in spirit energy if Kurama’s attempting to revive Yusuke. That’s the one location I can think of to try first.” Koenma finally spoke, Keiko and Kuwabara staring at him upon that statement.

 “Should we go?” Yukina asked as Kuwabara got the keys to the car ready without a second thought. “You can ride with Koenma and myself, Keiko, call your daughter and let her know what location we’re going to. Yukina, could you stay at the restaurant with our sons in case Tomoko doesn’t get the phone call?” Kuwabara looked over to Yukina, panicked over how his friend group had basically dissolved.

 As Kuwabara, Koenma, and Keiko loaded up in the family van, Kurama had made it to Genkai’s estate after blowing up the stairway with the cacti bombs to make it drivable. It was a bit of a tricky deal having to go to the woods behind the temple thanks to all the demons inhabiting it. Thankfully, the sunflower gun had done the job it was intended for, gunning down the hungry demons that were very much interested in the delicious flesh of Yusuke. Tiresome as it was, it was worth it as Kurama reached the wetlands where Yusuke had his match with the demon, Rando, parking the van and getting out. It was weird having to enter this area as Kurama went to work with the strong spirit energy for breaking into another dimension. It was understood from the grape vine that Rando was going to have a probation hearing due to good behavior in prison, something that had sent a chill up his spine. Sure, there was the chance that Rando had seen the light, but there was something else to it that Kurama couldn’t exactly place a finger on just yet. 

 “Kurama, what exactly are you thinking?!” Said a voice behind him, causing Kurama to whip out the sunflower gun before lowering it. “Goddamn it Hiei, how did you get here?” Kurama disengaged the sunflower gun as he frowned a bit at the intrusion of Hiei. “Simple, I followed. You were too busy with stealing the detective’s body over there to notice me. Age really has gotten to you.” Hiei said casually, motioning his head towards the parked van.

 “Let me guess, you’re here to take Yusuke back.” Kurama lowered his voice, having to make a mental choice of putting his own wellbeing on the line by fighting or not. “Depends on what you’re planning. I know you Kurama, you’re not the kind to do this unless you have something you know for sure is going to work. Now spill it.” Hiei narrowed his eyes, waiting to hear what exactly was going through the fox youkai’s mind. “I took up a commissioned job from someone who told me there’s a neighboring dimension that has someone that could regenerate Yusuke’s soul. If I can break the barrier, I can take Yusuke to this person to save him.” Kurama confessed, he knew better than to lie to Hiei of all people. “Okay, I’m in.” Hiei said, catching Kurama off guard by the statement. “What?” Kurama had to make sure he was hearing things correctly from Hiei. “You heard me, I’m in. Ever since the detective died, I’ve been blaming myself for not being fast enough to save Yusuke. I had Koenma next to me, I grabbed him the moment Yusuke picked that damn blue button and got ourselves out of there. It was simple damage control, Spirit World would’ve fallen apart at the seams if Koenma had died in it. No matter how many times I tell myself this, I still can’t get that image out of my head of Yusuke being incinerated before me. Therefore, I am in and there is no way of convincing me otherwise.” Hiei shook after unloading what had been pent up over two decades, the trauma of the event still very fresh in Hiei’s mind.

 “Hiei, I didn’t know…why didn’t you tell anyone?” Kurama asked as he felt terrible for Hiei given what he had to witness first hand. “Because it’s a sign of weakness! I cannot show that when I work, if I show it, it compromises everything!” Hiei couldn’t stop shaking, everything coming out suddenly had been a lot for the three eyed youkai.

 “It’s not, you’re being opened and that’s amazing..more than what I’ve been lately. Hiei, you don’t have to come, this is something I need to do.” Kurama said, a part of him knowing Hiei could decline to avoid getting caught should the barrier break fail.

“I’d still come regardless, you can’t fight, remember? You’re heading into an unknown territory with no fighting capabilities other than that flower gun and cacti bombs. I can, however, still fight and very much in my prime.” Hiei sat down on the wetland grounds, determined to come along for this ride.

 “Fine, but on one condition, you have to give Yusuke his sponge baths while over there, I’ll be dealing with the changing of his catheter.” Kurama conceded, realizing he would need some help afterall with keeping up to care for Yusuke’s body.

 “You placed him on plant based life support and mobility enhancements, but you couldn’t figure out a plant based catheter?” Hiei looked at Kurama, fully surprised that the catheter was still a thing. “Plants have their limits too, trust me, I’ve tried.” Kurama groaned from frustration as he went back to work on the barrier breaking.

 The spirit energy was superb as Kurama went to work, the planes jumper close by to help with figuring out on the dimension he needs to enter. Hiei sat on the roof of the van watching before growing annoyed at one particular detail he didn’t consider, Kurama having to take periodic breaks to change out Yusuke’s catheter. The incessant beeping it made when it needed to be changed annoyed Hiei’s ears, it rivaled that damn demon whistle that Botan blew so long ago. It didn’t take long for Hiei to fully take over the catheter ordeal so Kurama could fully focus on the barrier. Kurama felt relieved that Hiei took over, it would mean he could work faster in opening the barrier. The barrier was a fickle thing, knotted in ways Kurama couldn’t have foreseen. It was clear that whoever or whatever set up the barrier, clearly had no intentions of letting anything in or out of it. Sure, the demon world’s barrier was tough, but it was still breakable with the right tools. This one, this barrier proved to be far more challenging than the one demon world had. It only served to further Kurama’s resolve, not just for Yusuke’s sake, but for his own pride as well as a master of breaking and entering. 

[infintasmal]

@thuganomxcs asked: Name: Urameshi Yusuke Age: 19 Do you like to cuddle?: Eh, I can survive a session of it. Can we make-out?: This is what ya like huh? H'alright I'll say yes. A night in or dinner out?: Please, a night-in. I can whip you up something better than what any crappy restaurant could. Whip cream or chocolate syrup?: I'm a cream guy. Chocolates and roses?: Though this imma go with chocolate. What makes you a good Valentine?: You've been my boss for what three years? Who knows you better than I do? Less yer thinkin' of shackin' up with Pacifier. Would you cook for me?: Breakfast, lunch, dinner you name it. I'm a master at all three. Would you let me cook for you?: Hmmm I'm not as eternal as you are so no. Where would you take me on a date?: I'd take it cage matches aren't yer thing. How about dancing? That..kind of a martial art. Who’s paying?: Has t' be me. Doubt you even have a single yen. What did you get me for Valentine’s Day?: What'd ya mean what I got ya? We don't hand out gifts until March. for botan.

She's just kind of... staring. What does one even do in these situations? She's not sure if she should smile at him or smack him. but that's a usual reaction.

"You know, some of these might be appealing if I weren't sure you were teasing me," she purses her lips, ears turning pink. "First of all, I am not 'shacking up with Koenma' and I resent the accusation! I'll have you know, I'm a perfectly... fine cook. And what do you mean, I don't have a single yen? Why would I need human currency in Spirit World? Besides, you always cook for me when I come over, so there's really no need," she puffs before shaking her head haughtily. "I suppose I'll consider your application. But if you want me to get you a gift, you had better be nice to me."

[adversitybloomed]

🌸  ┊ letter received from  @thuganomxcs       Urameshi Yusuke : "I'm gonna need ya t' look after the house for.. only for awhile. Koenma actually told me I have t' help SANTA CLAUS in the north pole because the jolly FAT ASS got himself mixed up in demon stuff.. somethin' about a Cramp." (Krampus)

          despite the fact that mulan did not celebrate christmas, she could not help but look at him in disbelief as he made his request. her mind spun slightly as she asked herself if he was serious  ━━ and if he was, why he would think that she would remain home if Santa Clause was truly in danger. did he really think that she would remain behind and watch over the house ? did he really think that she would not put it all on the line to not save the jolly man who brought joy to children's lives ?

        ❝  就好像我會待在家裡一樣 ( Jiù hǎoxiàng wǒ huì dài zài jiālǐ yīyàng - As if I would stay home ) !  ❞    she half muttered to herself as she shook her head in disbelief. turning away from him and she quickly made her way to the bedroom, so that she could prepare herself for their departure. opening the closet, she pulled out a duffle bag that she would place her things in, including a spare battle hanfu just incase the first that she wore would be damaged. she packed a few essentials before coming out of the room and glowering in his direction while heading in the direction of the bathroom. grabbing hold of her bathroom products, she came back out with her arms full before heading back to the bedroom and placing it neatly in the bag.

          finally she returned out to the living room, and went to grab hold of her blade which she had put on display for easy reach. holding it out before her, she puled out her blade to inspect if it needed cleaning, but found that she was pleased that it still looked perfect.       ❝  ask one of your friends to stay here if you as so concerned. but i will not leave the rescue of the hero who helps bring light to children's life to you. especially since you speak so disrespectful about him.  ❞    mulan paused before twisting her blade in her hand eyes glancing back over at him,       ❝  or you can stay home, and watch the house. either way, i will be going up north to take care of this... demon problem.  ❞

[the-masked-ram]

A Game of Chance- Chapter Five

A/N: After this chap is when Kouki begins to have more autonomy, thank you for sticking it through with me <3 CW: Slavery, light master/slave relationship, gambling, PTSD, hybrids, mating, marking, biting, blood, pain, torture, violence, original fem character, oc x Hiei, slow burn

---

Chapter Five: Making Headway

Hiei ran, relishing in his feet pounding the ground, in the branches bending as he jumped off of them. He ran while the others used one of those damned mechanic contraptions, a car. He would never be caught in one of those. They were death. Small, slow, confined, anyone could kill you in them.

The chip in his pocket vibrated, Kouki reaching out to feed off his excitement, her energy nearly singing. Hiei didn’t brush her off like usual. Too focused on moving, on feeling alive after being stuck inside the city too long.

They were moving out toward the old woman’s temple, Genkai. She had agreed to help with their current problem. Kouki… his mind wandered for a moment, and she reacted to it. Her youki turned questioning and he snarled, pushing her away. She recoiled as if burned and Hiei focused on pushing himself faster.

Yusuke had made it sound like Genkai had agreed grudgingly. Yet there had to be a reason if that were true. What wasn’t Koenma telling them?

Hiei hated being kept in the dark, being made to run errands, it made him irritated that he had been relegated to a babysitter. Getting out of the city, into the sprawling, spirit filled woods surrounding the temple was the next best thing to being in the Makai. He would never admit it aloud, but he was excited to reach their destination.

It’s probably why he’d allowed himself to get so far ahead of the others. He hadn’t waited at all. Usually he’d pace himself more, scout and keep a watch over them. His skin was itching though and when he finally saw the mountainous staircase in front of him, he bared his teeth in a feral smile. The chip shivered in his pocket, and he halted, it was growing warmer and vibrating and when he pulled it out of his pocket to look at it a burning hellfire of light burst forth. Standing in front of him was Kouki in her demonic form.

She stood with her nose pointing at the stairs before she looked at him. He nodded.

“We are going there,” he said. “Come, you can keep up, can’t you?”

Her quills rattled along her back, and she huffed before leaping onto the steps. She only paused long enough to look over her shoulder at him. Waiting for him. He scoffed; he wouldn’t wait for her.

He took off at top speed, expecting to leave her behind instantly. She fell back some, but she kept an easy loping pace that only had her dipping in and out of his sight on occasion. She continued to surprise him. He smirked before turning forward again.

Genkai was waiting for them at the foot of the temple stairs. Her eyes narrowed as Hiei stopped in front of her, but she wasn’t looking at him. Instead, her gaze was focused on Kouki silently coming to stand beside him. The demon pulled back her lips from her massive fangs as she let out a warning growl, her quills rattling.

“Kouki,” Hiei snapped, and the beast huffed before sitting heavily.

“This thing is what I’m supposed to help with?” Genkai asked critically.

The old woman was shrewd and likely knew as much as they knew about the situation but being faced with the reality of only one of Kouki’s sides, it likely made them look like fools. Hiei knew that look. She often gave it when the detective was around.

“She is…,” Hiei searched for the words to satisfy himself and the psychic. “An anomaly. Kouki is not always like this. But when she is I cannot communicate with her much at all. Beyond I suppose what you just saw.”

“Controlling her?” Genkai was roving her eyes over the great beast beside him.

“Hn,” he nodded. “Though she only listens because of the contract.”

Kouki’s energy touched his and he saw her head turn to look at him. Her feral eyes blinked slowly at him, softening. Trust… there was more to their bond now. Whatever he had done to gain it, she trusted him of her own volition now.

“I think there’s a little more than the contract keeping her line,” Genkai said with a smirk.

Hiei whipped his head around, narrowing his eyes. Could the psychic read Kouki’s mind like this? When he had not been able to? Something in him boiled, it wasn’t anger, but he couldn’t place what the emotion was. He knew he didn’t want her to be able to do what he hadn’t been able to. He wanted to be the one to break down Kouki’s walls first.

But why? Why did it matter who did it?

“How do you know that?” Hiei asked harshly, unconvinced.

“She looks at you like a dog with its master,” Genkai shrugged like it was obvious. “Can you get her to change into her other form? It would be much easier to converse with her like that.”

Hiei studied the large form of the demon next to him. Kouki tilted her head, one of her massive, pointed ears flicking curiously.

“I have only seen her transform once. She usually comes out of the chip in one form or another. Transforming seems to cause her a great deal of pain,” Hiei said, reaching into his pocket to hold out the golden poker chip.

Kouki shifted, turning her head toward the road and her ears pressed forward. Hiei blinked and reached out mentally, the others had arrived.

“We will work on it,” Genkai said. “The others will be here soon; I suppose we should tell Yukina to get dinner started.”

Hiei swallowed against the desire to ask how she was. Kouki whined beside him, and he knew she could sense a change in him. The change that always happened whenever Yukina was mentioned. He shook his head.

“We’re going inside,” he said.

He looked back down at the chip. He’d been trying to offer her more choices. But he never quite said them out loud. She didn’t need words to understand his meaning anyways. Her vertical pupils flicked up to the temple before with a surge of energy she disappeared, and the chip vibrated in his hand. He frowned at the little piece of plastic. He felt oddly… disappointed.

Brushing off the irritating emotion with a scoff he shoved the chip back into his pocket.

---

It wasn’t until after dinner and everyone was in the tearoom, lounging on the tatami mats, that the chip remade an appearance. Hiei was staring at it as it sat on the low tea table in front of him. Though he wished he could drag his eyes from it, he wasn’t able to, being in the temple and surrounded by so many people made him feel antsy with it out in the open.

“Can you call Kouki from the chip, Hiei?” Kurama asked.

His garnet eyes drifted to meet green and merely frowned down at the object that had fallen under his charge. He knew this would tax her, these next few days or weeks would exhaust her as they treated her like a lab rat. There was part of him, the part that felt unworthy of her trust, that pitied her. It was the part that had felt what had happened to her and had felt sympathy.

Still, this was his mission, this was how he got out of here and got back to the Makai. He threw out his energy, baiting her human side, the warm orange energy. Immediately she rose to meet him, not hesitating for a second. She came to her master’s call naturally. That’s all this was, a contract, as he reminded himself.

A bright burst of light and she was in front of them, once again not a stitch covered her, and she collapsed onto all fours. Her breath rushed out of her, and she was gasping slightly. She was tired. Hiei immediately stood and walked the few short steps to cover her with his cloak.

Her eyes snapped up, honey brown that only lost their panicked fear when she saw it was him. “Master,” she said.

“Oh, new word!” Yusuke clapped.

Hiei groaned, it wasn’t any better than her saying ‘yours’ every time she saw him. He rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m not even going to correct you,” he grunted.

Kurama chuckled across the room. Hiei had the distinct desire to throw a cup at his head or better yet punch him, take a sword to his throat. Genkai stood when she saw the woman and walked over to immediately reach out remove the cloak, obviously having seen the scars. Before anyone could stop her however, Kouki snapped at her outstretched hand and nearly connected with her flesh.

“Feral creature, aren’t you?” she raised a brow.

“She doesn’t like people touching her,” Kuwabara said.

“Except, Shorty,” Yusuke nodded.

“Not yours,” Kouki said slowly and lifted her lips in a snarl.

“Her scars?” Genkai motioned.

Hiei shook his head, “Nothing special. Well, they at least make sense.”

Kurama butted in, “What Hiei means is that they are apparently left over from her quills in demon form.”

Genkai frowned, “She doesn’t heal completely from them.”

“No,” Hiei narrowed his eyes.

He walked away to lean against the wall, realizing they’d be there for a while.

“I’m not sure I can help you if she won’t let me,” Genkai said, sucking on the end of her pipe. “I don’t want to damage her mind.”

“I don’t think you can damage it much more than it is,” he murmured.

---

All Kouki felt was an invasion. The energy wasn’t that of her Master. It was strong, steady, and human. It swirled through her weak defenses with annoyance. It batted away her aggravated attacks.

This felt like the older woman who had approached her. The one who had met them outside the building. Her Master had told her to behave then. Should she let this happen now? Was that his wish?

This mind seemed too strong for her, but it wasn’t aggressive. The sensation of her Master’s thoughts joining them, but resting on the edge, soothed Kouki, his thrumming black and purple energy calmed her agitation. Still could she trust him not to let injury happen to her? She knew he’d treated her better than most of her previous masters, but she didn’t know him well.

She didn’t outright attack, but her defenses pulled tighter, fighting against the woman digging through her skull. The beast inside her redirected the person’s searching. Moving them away from her memories, the soft insides she tried to protect even from herself. She didn’t want those dragged forth. She wanted to forget.

Stop fighting, her Master’s voice commanded.

She snarled, frustrated, angry, but forced her body to relax, forced her mind to accept the intrusion. The old woman’s energy, bright pink and near blinding swirled about, rifling through things that weren’t hers to touch. Yet Kouki accepted it, even as her nails scraped against the tatami beneath her.

Then she yanked it forth, everything that had been buried for so long and Kouki couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think as colors and images flashed to the forefront of her mind.

She had been human, nothing more. A human with a strangely malleable spirit energy that she could never tap into. She volunteered at a shrine, she worked in an office, how long ago was that? Years? Decades? Longer?

She remembered being abducted and the infusion paired with a cruel wide smile. “No!” she screamed, first in head and then deafening into the room as the ghost of the agony from her past rippled through her muscles and bones right to her very soul.

She fell thrashing to the floor. The chip vibrated behind her. She couldn’t breathe, she literally couldn’t inhale. Her throat closed as panic gripped her tight. Malevolence was in that memory, she remembered that creature forcing more and more energy into her until she thought she might explode. Until her energy rocketed from her body and she found solace by being bound to the chip.

The chip. The one thing that could save her now. The one thing, her eyes flew open, and she clawed at her throat with nails sharper than a human should possess as she stared around wildly. Where was her home, why couldn’t she get to it?

Then it stopped, the memories stopped flooding forth, and a gentle tingle settled over her terrified mind as purple and black grew so strong it became an overwhelming haze.

“Breathe,” her Master demanded, his hot hands touched her wrists, pulling them away from her shredded skin. “Idiot woman.”

The oxygen that flowed into her lungs was like sweet life, perfumed with his scent of pine sap and fresh ash. She inhaled, focusing on that scent, focusing on the heat of his skin, and the way he protected her from everything that had been let free.

“C-can’t get back,” she finally said, voice trembling.

He frowned and looked at the chip, “To the chip?”

She nodded. He sighed and narrowed his eyes.

“Try now,” he growled.

She did and she felt him retreat from her head, at first, she felt a rise of anxiety but when the memories didn’t rush back, she breathed out a sigh of relief. Then she focused back on the small plastic circle, the innocuous thing that had become all she knew, all she trusted. The connection was still there, but thinner, and so she urged her body to shift into it and her energy poured inside with little help.

Familiar darkness closed around her and all she cared about was sleeping. She was so tired. So even when her Master tried to call to her later, she didn’t respond, too far deep in her slumber to feel the demand of his energy.

[tackyink]

new fic test drive under the cut

In the forest that surrounded the village of Toguchi, the sound of crunching twigs was the only company of the human walking along the old trail with a bunch of morning glories in hand.

To call it a trail was generous, perhaps, but it was the most tread upon path among the mass of trees. If you paid attention, you could guess where it was, because it was the only way into the forest uninterrupted by shrubs, ancient trees and massive roots.

Wakaba didn’t need to guess, because she remembered. For many years when she was a child, she spent her summers with her great uncle and aunt in the family house adjacent to the forest, and the woods had become an extension of her backyard.

Never leave the trail, great uncle Hiroaki used to say. Wakaba thought about doing it many times. Even ventured into the great green sea, on occasion, but always returned to the path quickly. Though forest was dense, it wasn’t the fear of getting lost or hurt where nobody could see her what frightened her. The forest, quite simply, had bad vibes, so strong that even childish curiosity couldn’t overcome them for long. The trail was safe. Outside of it, there were no guarantees.

The area was always shrouded in a solemn, palpable silence. Like water pressure pushing down and muffling every sound, but what weighed on Wakaba could be no more than the breath of the trees and their looming shadows, following her every move. Wakaba thought of it as entering someone else’s house, unannounced but not quite unwelcome: she just had to be on her best behavior.

From a logical standpoint, this was no more than superstition and paranoia. As far as Wakaba knew, nothing shady had transpired in the forest. There was no legend saying it was cursed, or haunted by ghosts or demons, there weren’t dangerous animals, and the worst that had ever happened to her in there was slipping from a low, mossy branch and knocking loose a baby tooth. Instead of burying it right there, she had left it as an offering at the hokora, the little shrine she was headed to, reasoning that maybe the teeth had fallen there of all places because the local kami wanted it.

Soon, she arrived at the end of the trail, and with it, her destination.

A miniature shrine made of weathered wood stood on top of a rock that reached just up to Wakaba’s hips. Nobody knew who or what was enshrined there, and nobody seemed to be willing to check what lay behind the tiny doors. Wakaba found the mystery fun. Most of all, she liked that it was exactly as she remembered it, despite not having been to Toguchi in a decade. The shrine, the forest even, was like a quirky old friend. She liked to think that they had an understanding.

Seeking to seal her decision for good, she placed the flowers in front of the shrine and said to her intriguing backyard neighbor, “It’s been a long time, but I’ll be back soon. Let’s get along.”

*

Yusuke leaned against the counter of his stall, his head propped up on one hand while the other drummed an impatient pattern against the wood. Koenma looked at him over a steaming bowl of noodles that he wasn’t going to pay, and if that wasn’t enough to annoy Yusuke, he was also trying to rope him into some new bullshit.

“And how is that my problem?” Yusuke asked, because it truly wasn’t anymore. Koenma had people to do his work for him, and it had been like that for many years. Yusuke had his own job now, serving ramen and selling autographs.

“How is it not? It’s already spreading, and there’s no signs it going to stop anytime soon. We’ve managed to keep the situation under wraps for now, but if people start dropping unconscious in every big city, there’s no way we can avoid a general panic.”

“Still not my problem.”

“How can you be so—”

Kurama, sitting to the left of Koenma, interrupted them before a fight would start, and it was a shame, because Yusuke was itching for one. “Do we have any solid leads?”

Yusuke turned around to pretend he was checking on the broth, though he kept an ear on the conversation.

“The first cases seem to have happened in Shimane prefecture,” Koenma replied, paying no more mind to Yusuke. “It took us a while to figure out that something was going on because not that many people live there, though I suppose it’s also a blessing in disguise. We may be able to stop it before the situation gets truly serious.”

“So now it’s not that serious, is it?” Yusuke quipped. He heard Kurama sigh. Koenma didn’t dignify him with a response.

“Shimane is still pretty big, though,” came another voice from Koenma’s left. “How are we supposed to know where to look?”

Yusuke turned to look at Kuwabara at the speed of light. “Don’t tell me you want to waste your summer vacation on this?”

“It doesn’t matter what I want, it’s the right thing to do, isn’t it? I can’t look another way now that I know I could be helping.”

“Ugh, get off that high horse. You’re paying what you’re eating today.”

“I always pay you, ass! What if Keiko or your mom get sick? What’ll you do then?”

That was low blow and Kuwabara knew it. “Why would they? It’s happening all the way in the boonies, they don’t have anything to do with—”

“Koenma,” Kurama tried again. “Kuwabara asked a good question.”

“Yes, he did,” he said, still ignoring Yusuke. “The first people affected were four university students, all of them friends, so they spent plenty of time together.”

“So it’s difficult to pinpoint what they had in common that prompted it.”

“But something stands out. Just two days before they were all brought to different hospitals, they had taken a trip to a village called Toguchi. I think it’s worth investigating.”

“So we have a place?” Kuwabara asked, full of energy. Yusuke would bet he was willing to run all the way over there. Kuwabara turned to him, and Yusuke grimaced in return. “C’mon, Urameshi, we have to go. No one’s going to miss this dump for a few days.”

“This dump is feeding you, bastard.”

“It’ll be like old times!” Kuwabara insisted. Yusuke wondered if despite all the books he found himself surrounded with nowadays he missed his time as a Spirit Detective lite. “Besides, Koenma wouldn’t have come to us for something that didn’t matter.”

“That’s true,” said Koenma.

“Is it, though?” Yusuke retorted.

Kuwabara also ignored Yusuke, because that seemed to be the theme of the night. “What do you say, Kurama?”

Foxboy wasn’t easy to read, but Yusuke knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t very happy with the idea either. He also knew him well enough to know that what Kurama felt like doing had little bearing on what Kurama actually ended up doing.

“I have a couple of weeks off,” Kurama replied. “I can accompany you.”

“Goddammit, Kurama,” Yusuke said, despite having seen this coming from a mile away.

He sent Yusuke an apologetic smile that didn’t make matters any better.

“Fine!” Yusuke slammed a ladle on the counter to punctuate his begrudged agreement. Damn peer pressure. “I’ll go! But you,” he warned Koenma, making a scary face at him, “better make it worth my while. I don’t work for free anymore!”

“We’ll think of something,” he lied. Yusuke had to make an effort not to toss the ladle at his dumb pacifier face. “And I’ll arrange for transport immediately. You’ll hear from me tomorrow, so be ready to depart as soon as possible. We need to nip this at the bud before it gets worse.”

*

After her first trip to Toguchi in ages to make sure the family house wasn’t in disrepair, Wakaba returned to Osaka, packed up everything in her apartment, and canceled her lease. Only a week later, she was hauling boxes inside her new home, trying to figure out where everything was going to fit.

Her abrupt departure from the big city wasn’t spurred by some passion for nature, countryside life, or a sudden altruistic urge to take care of the family property. Wakaba was fleeing for her life. Some would call this line of thinking dramatic, but quite frankly, given the circumstances, Wakaba was very reluctant to trust anybody’s judgment but her own.

Barely into the second half of her twenties, she had accomplished what many dreamed of their whole lives. She had signed a contract with a magazine barely out of school, and somehow, her sci-fi-slash-fantasy series had gained a following that eventually snowballed into critical mass. There were talks about a TV series. Life was good. She was able to publish a few books that were received with critical acclaim, and then her publisher’s marketing department had decided to screw her over just to sell extra copies, as if they needed it.

Now, Wakaba was aware that the topic of her work didn’t so much dance around certain conspiracy theories so much as throw them into a tango competition and spin them into her own tale. But the boundary between imagination and the conviction that ancient aliens had landed on planet Earth ten thousand years ago and bestowed their infinite wisdom upon primitive civilizations had always been firmly drawn. She was a storyteller of whimsical tales for the young adult sector, who already had a lot to cope with in life as they entered the job market for the first time and sometimes needed to believe a little in magic to keep the machine from grinding them to dust.

And then, marketing decided to run ads inside every pseudoscience magazine in the country. With wording, to boot, that insinuated that Wakaba was privy to some secret information and convinced of every stupid little thing she was making up. Readers picked up on it. Talk shows picked up on it. Her entire circle of acquaintances picked up on it. Wakaba complained to her publisher as soon as she saw the ads, but she was powerless to change their marketing strategy, and soon after she was receiving dozens requests for interviews in midnight shows, dodgy magazines and online newsletters wanting to hear more about the last mothership of the Yayoi period and the end of the lost continent of Mu.

Things were bad, but she was willing to weather the storm for the sake of finishing the story and fulfilling her contract. And then, someone, somehow (she suspected it was once again marketing, trying for less traditional and more viral approach), had found out who she was, and a picture of her face had leaked to 2channel.

Wakaba killed her protagonist at the end of her newest book, sent the draft to her editor, and told her publishing house, who was selling her latest installment like hotcakes, that that was the end of it and that she only wanted to hear from them for further paychecks. She also dyed her hair a shade of rose brown that her hairdresser said was all the rage nowadays, got hair extensions, colored contact lenses, and began walking everywhere with a mask on. Finally, she made the decision to move to Toguchi, to the house that had been left empty with her great-uncle’s death a year prior, where hopefully the minuscule and heavily aged population of the village would keep her indifferently safe until the press forgot about her.

There was only one small mercy to the entire clusterfuck: she had always signed her works with a pen name. Everybody in Japan knew that Kei Yashiro was a nutjob who thought the plot of Stargate was real, but nobody knew who Wakaba Yato was, and she planned to keep it that way.

A little over two weeks had passed since her arrival to the village, and with the living spaces cleaned and most boxes opened, at last Wakaba felt like she had some spare time to sit down, enjoy the view, and roam around a little.

She cut the biggest sunflower from the patch in the garden and headed for the shrine in the forest. She was already settled, so it was only polite to go greet the backyard neighbor.

It never ceased to amaze her how fast everything went quiet the moment she crossed the limit proper between the village and the forest.

She spent her walk thinking about the things she still had to do. She needed to clear out every storage space and decide what to keep and what to get rid of. There seemed to be a small leak on the second floor right where she wanted to put her work desk, and she’d need to sand and varnish the fence, because in the weekend she’d been away between her first and second trip, a bunch of dicks had come to the village and vandalized it with extremely tasteless and graphic graffiti.

It became apparent as soon as the shrine came into view that it hadn’t been spared from them.

A gasp escaped Wakaba as she laid eyes on the shrine, and she ran the last few steps to it. The tiny doors were broken, and on the rock someone had spray painted FOR SALE with a phone number below.

“Oh, no,” she muttered, putting the sunflower aside and kneeling to pick up the smashed pieces of wood that had kept the shrine closed. She placed them on the stone and peered inside the miniature building to see if anything else was inside, but only emptiness stared back.

Perhaps there had been nothing to begin with. Perhaps it had been emptied way back in time. Perhaps not. She didn’t know what she had been expecting.

Whatever the case, a wave of sadness washed over Wakaba, because it felt like someone had taken a bit of her childhood and torn it to pieces.

“I’m so sorry,” she said to the empty space. “I’ll do what I can.”

With that, she placed the sunflower before the shrine and began to walk the perimeter to see if there was anything else out of place, straying further away from the path than was wise.

The feeling of being watched only grew stronger as she went on, but it was just her imagination, so she walked for a while until she found a spot where bamboo grew. Her investigation revealed nothing relevant: she had found torn plastic bags and cans that she picked up, a rotting wooden chair, what seemed to be the remains of a hatchet, and finally, a broken comb.

There was plenty of mud on it, courtesy of the rains no doubt, but when she wiped some of it away, she realized that it was a beautiful piece. It was made of wood, lacquered dark red, and in a style that Wakaba had never seen before, curved upwards instead of down. Two of the teeth were broken, but it didn’t detract from its beauty.

She picked it up with a mind to ask someone in the village about it and returned home to try to get her hands on paint stripper and try to set right some of that disaster.

*

“Here we are: the ass end of nowhere!” Yusuke declared.

“If you were going to be like this the whole trip, you should’ve stayed home.” Kuwabara grumbled.

Kurama agreed with both. He didn’t voice it, though. This was not how he had planned to spend his vacation days, and Yusuke’s complaints were starting to get to him.

“First things first, we should find a place to stay,” he suggested.

“With the size of this village, we might as well knock on a few doors and ask if they can shelter us for the night.”

“Yusuke.”

He hadn’t intended to sound so stern, but Yusuke put his hands up in a peace gesture and shut up.

Kurama appreciated his effort to still say nothing when a neighbor told them that, there weren’t, in fact, any hostels in the town. Instead, they were pointed to Mrs. Maekawa’s house near the food store, who rented rooms to visitors, and who had an empty one just until the next day.

Kurama listened to the old lady ramble about the awful group of youngsters who were there a few weeks ago and made a mess of the village with a sympathetic smile that threatened to slip the more she went on. There were only three rooms upstairs, one of them belonging to the owner, and it was impossible that she couldn’t find the right key inside the drawer because there were only two of them. She was stalling, and Kurama’s patience was wearing very thin.

The boys she was referring to likely were the first victims of the incident, and Kurama weighed the possibility, just for his own amusement, of telling her that they had tragically died under mysterious circumstances. It may have even left her without words.

Coincidentally, she found the key only when she’d had her fill of complaining about youth today, and she handed him the key to their room.

Then she said, catching her audience’s attention for real this time, “And to make matters worse, yesterday Wakaba-chan found out they had desecrated the forest shrine, too. I don’t like this one bit. The spirits are angry lately.”

“There’s a shrine?” Kuwabara asked. “Is it, uh, open to visitors?”

“It’s just a little roadside shrine, there isn’t much to see… I don’t think it’s damaged beyond repair, but you should ask Wakaba-chan. It’s deep inside the forest. Better if you don’t go without a good reason.”

Yusuke jumped at the lead. “We’re definitely interested in seeing it! Where can we talk to this Wakaba?”

Mrs. Maekawa seemed to be taken aback by the sudden interest, but that didn’t make her any less willing to talk. “Oh, well… She lives in the last house down the main street, you can’t miss it. But if I were you, I wouldn’t go. There’s a nice pond to the south, you could spend the day there.”

“Why? Is something wrong with the forest?”

She shook her head absentmindedly. “The spirits don’t like outsiders.”

“So only the village residents can go in it?”

“No, no, we’re all outsiders,” she explained. “But the Yatos have always been a little... I think they live too close to the forest. And that city girl…”

The three of them waited for the woman to continue, but when she didn’t, Kuwabara prompted her. “A little...?”

For once, the woman seemed reticent to speak, but the urge to gossip won over manners. “Kitsunetsuki,” she whispered.

They all made vague sounds of assent. That could mean anything, from spiritual powers, to good business sense, to epilepsy running in the family. But if it was the former, they may have someone in the know to talk to, so the conversation hadn’t been entirely useless.

“Before I forget!” she said all of a sudden, and she took three papers from a cabinet and handed them carefully to each of them. “Here you can learn a little about the area.”

It was a travel brochure with a picture of the pond. It mentioned the shrine as well.

“Dinner is at seven.” She bowed, finishing the conversation, and the boys were all too happy to say goodbye and shuffle out of the house.

Yusuke was the first to talk when they were out of earshot. “That was a lot of nothing.”

“But we have a lead,” Kurama replied. “The whole incident might have to do with the shrine.”

“Do you think those idiots got cursed and now it’s spreading? Is that a thing that happens?”

“Who knows. The problems we take care of are usually more tangible in nature.”

“Man, this sucks. There’s nothing we can punch to solve this.”

“You aren’t going to injure anything if you use your head for once, you know, Urameshi?”

“Kuwabara, has anybody told you that since you became a nerd you’re insufferable?”

“Say that to my face again!”

“Let’s try not to get kicked out of the village yet, please,” Kurama said blankly.

There main street wasn’t completely flat nor straight, but it was very distinguishable from the others because it was the only paved one. Each time they came across an intersection, the side streets were either paved with stones or nothing at all. Kurama suddenly realized this was the farthest away from civilization he had been in decades and was overcome by a bout of nostalgia. He was beginning to suspect that the office job was doing a number on him.

“Is it me, or is the atmosphere getting a little funky?” Yusuke asked, slowing his pace to look around.

Kurama could feel it too. The sensation wasn’t familiar, but he didn’t like it.

Kuwabara was of the same mind. “It’s not you. There’s something going on.”

“It seems to be getting stronger as we advance,” Kurama said, eyeing their surroundings and finding nothing threatening or out of place.

He counted a grand total of four streets by the time they reached the end of the road next to a two story wood house with a small garden. A wooden fence circled the property, which had been defaced with neon green and pink obscenities and doodles, like many other walls in the village. It looked like someone had tried to scrub them off without much success.

A young woman with brown pinkish hair tied in loose pigtails was pouring liquid from a can into a large plastic bottle with the help of a funnel. She was wearing a promotional t-shirt that was too big on her and overalls covered in white splotches. It looked like she had gone to war with a bottle of bleach and lost.

Next to the entrance was a plaque with the name Yato.

“I know the old woman called her –chan, but I was sure she’d be fifty at least,” Yusuke said with a grin.

“Let’s ask her then,” said Kuwabara, walking with determination towards the fence.

“Wait!” said Kurama, and he stopped in his tracks. “What’s our approach?”

“What approach?”

“What are we going to tell her? Do we just ask about the shrine? Who are we?”

“We can be tourists,” Yusuke suggested.

Kuwabara replied, “Nah, we should be something more official if we need to ask questions.”

“I don’t think we are appropriately dressed to—” Kurama began, but he was interrupted by a new voice.

“Hello? Are you lost?”

The woman had left the can on the ground and was approaching them from the other side of the fence. Her posture and face were cautious, and despite having come closer so she didn’t have to yell, the distance between her and them was comically large.

At first glance, there didn’t seem to be anything odd to her. Just someone doing yard work.

“Are you Wakaba Yato?” Yusuke asked.

For some reason, her shoulders stiffened, and she removed her glasses and shoved them in a pocket. “Why do you ask?”

The three guys shared a quick glance.

“Mrs. Maekawa told us that you were the one who found out the forest shrine had been vandalized,” Kurama said.

That seemed to work. She visibly relaxed as she appraised the three of them. “I did.” All of a sudden she frowned. “Don’t tell me they’re going to blame me for that.”

“Not at all! We’re looking into the damage that was done to the village, and any details you could tell us would help.”

“Oh, alright.” She seemed at ease again, though a little confused. “Are you assessors sent by the prefecture, or…?”

Kurama was grateful that she alone had come with a plausible cover story, but before he could run with it, Kuwabara said yes at the same time Yusuke denied it.

Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. She was watching for any kind of movement on their part. Those were the eyes of prey ready to either flee or fight for her life, and Kurama also chose that moment to realize that the can she had been holding moments before was full of paint remover, and was very much within her reach and within throwing distance.

He tried to do damage control. “We’re private investigators sent by the prefecture.”

“Private investigators,” she repeated. “That’s unusual. Don’t they have civil servants for that?”

Her right foot slowly, microscopically inched backwards.

They were losing her.

“In any case, we need to assess the state of the shrine,” he hurried to say before she could question anything else. Yusuke and Kuwabara had apparently decided to leave the entire conversation to him and he didn’t know whether to be grateful or resent them. “Could you tell us anything about it?”

“There isn’t much to say. They broke the doors and spray painted the rock.”

“Where can we find it?”

She hesitated for a moment, and without taking her eyes off of them, she pointed at the forest next to the house, to a small opening between the trees. “Take that path, it’s at the end of it.” It seemed that she wasn’t going to say anything else, but then added, as if on second thought, “Don’t leave the trail.”

“Is it easy to get lost in t—”

“Look, sorry, I left something on the stove. Just follow the trail. Don’t step away from it!”

And she ran towards the house, stumbled on a step, caught herself against the wall to avoid a face-plant, and shut herself inside her home.

A brief silence in which all three of them stared at the sliding door that Yato had just closed ensued.

Yusuke spoke first. “Maybe she is kind of touched in the head?”

Kurama’s eyes were closed, relieved that the conversation was over. “She knew we were lying. We scared her.”

“But why?” Kuwabara wondered. “We didn’t say anything bad. We don’t look that shady, do we?”

“What we don’t look like,” Kurama said with infinite patience, “is prefecture workers. And she’s a young woman, alone, who was just confronted by three strangers standing outside her garden.”

“Didn’t she come up to us first?”

Yusuke shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and kicked a pebble. “Ah, who cares. We know where to go.”

“And where the bad feeling is coming from,” added Kuwabara, staring at the forest with trepidation.

“Don’t piss your pants now.”

“You just can’t sense it! It’s bad, man!”

“I agree with Kuwabara. There’s something unnatural about this place.”

“Well, we won’t know for sure until we check it out. Let’s go, Urameshi team!” said Yusuke, punching the air, all traces of his bad mood gone.

Kurama followed Yusuke’s lead, but with the last glance he sent towards the Yato residence, he saw the owner peeking in their direction from a window on the second floor. She vanished behind a curtain as soon as she noticed his stare, and then he stepped into the forest, feeling unusually unwelcome in the midst of the greenery.

[collecting-stories]

Thoughts on YuYu Hakusho Live Action:

spoilers under the cut

Characters – 

Team Urameshi:

Urameshi Yusuke – I feel like the live action did such an amazing job with Yusuke. From the classic green uniform (which somehow looks even cooler in the live action than the anime?) to his attitude and even some signature poses (the deep squat has my heart!). I think the live action did a great job of building on Yusuke’s character and adding some great elements to his personality. There was nothing missing for me here, I was really happy with him throughout the entire season. 

Kuwabara Kazuma – Basically the same way I feel about Yusuke. The actor who played Kuwabara did a brilliant job bringing that attitude and over-the-top behavior to life in the live action. I don’t actually like Kuwabara in the anime, he’s one of my least favorite characters (here’s looking at you anime!Keiko) so I was surprised to find myself absolutely loving him in this adaptation! His outfit was perfect and I didn’t even mind the blond instead of orange hair. 

Hiei – Oh Hiei…I will say the actor playing Hiei did a great job. I liked the change up to his origin story for the Jagan (I’ll talk more about that in storyline) but the outfit…it wasn’t doing it for me. I missed the cloak and the “balloon” cut of the pants. If Yusuke and Kuwabara can keep their original silhouette why did they change Hiei’s so drastically. I’m not so peeved about the hair, there’s only so much you can do to real hair to make it look like anime hair. That said, the fighting? The dragon? The SLICING A CAR IN HALF? God I love him. 

Kurama/Minamino Suichi – Speaking of hair…what the fuck? Okay, Kurama remains looking absolutely beautiful but that hair…it was not the fiery red that I love from the anime. I’m not even asking for the style really, just the red guys. It was like, fuchsia or something. Hair aside I will say that I LOVED the uniform. The silk? The floral detail? Damn it if they couldn’t give me the hair they gave me a beautiful fucking suit for him to wear. And his rose whip looked awesome! 

I’m making a second paragraph to talk about Youko (Yoko?) cause I’ll be honest, I wasn’t feeling it as much as I thought I would. Don’t get me wrong, I feel the same way as I felt about his Kurama look, he’s beautiful but there’s just something missing for me. It was frustrating to say the least. 

Genkai – I loved her look…she was a little tall but I get it, it’s live action. I’m not trying to be unreasonable here. I was bummed that she died so early though but I’ll talk more about that later. 

Spirit World:

Koenma – I missed baby Koenma but that said, I love the look. They were spot on with Koenma, the sass, the beauty, the pacifier (mafuken). I loved it all! Same as Kurama, I loved the detailing on his robes, I thought it added such a wonderful element to his costume. 

Botan – I’m not sure if this is controversial to say because I know this Botan wasn’t quite as over-the-top personality wise as I feel the funamation-dub I grew up with is, but I loved her. She felt like the perfect Botan to me honestly. Her kimono was beautiful and I loved the little heels with it. I will say that I missed the oar! 

Team Toguro:

Elder Toguro – Team Toguro might be my favorite part of this live action costume wise. Elder Toguro was spot on honestly. He was so creepy and perfect. I loved the look and it felt so authentic to the original to me. And the special effects on his powers were brilliant. 

Younger Toguro – I feel the same about Younger, Toguro looked so spot on for me. I thought the powered up look was even creepier in the live action and the actor who played Toguro did such a great job of bringing him to life. 

Bui – My only disappointment is that it felt so dark in the room where Bui and Hiei fought and I wanted to see Bui’s look more clearly. His outfit was perfect and I loved the effect of the stone breaking as he dropped the elements of his armor on the ground. They did such a great job bringing the armor to life and creating this character. 

Karasu – Again, no complaints aside from I would have loved more Karasu scenes. I loved his look and his powers, the bombs in the air looked so cool. He was perfectly creepy and beautiful, I was so happy with him.

Sakyo – Okay, my only real complaint here is that Sakyo had wavy hair! What was this hairstyle…like I know Hiei’s hair is hard to recreate on an actual person but Sakyo? This bitch had the most beautiful long black hair in the anime and it made him look so much more evil. I just wasn’t feeling this look as much as the original. 

Other:

Tarukane – My only thought for Tarukane was literally “how did they reach into the anime and pluck him right out?” like this whole look/behavior was spot on. 

Yukina – I really loved Yukina in this. I think her costume was absolutely beautiful. Like Botan, I felt like the live action just increased the beauty of her costume in a way that a drawing simply cannot. Her hair, eyes, and overall character were brilliant too. I felt like she really embodied Yukina in the best way. 

Keiko – As I said before, Keiko is by far, my least favorite character in the entirety of YuYu Hakusho. She spends the entire anime whining over Yusuke and generally being useless to the plot. That said, live action Keiko was brilliant. Hair/costume were spot on. Her personality was great and I loved her relationship with Yusuke in this, she really felt like she knew him so well as opposed to the anime when I never could fathom their relationship. I loved her interactions with Atsuko and Yukina as well. 

Atsuko – Not much to say because she isn’t super important in the anime but I did love her in this and thought the changes to the show really helped deepen her character for me. 

Storyline – 

The driver of the truck being infected with the bug: I liked that the driver of the truck that hits Yusuke was infected by the Makai bug. I felt like that really added foreshadowing to the storyline that the original lacks. It made more sense in a way to hint at what was actually starting to form in the Living World with Sakyo and helped set up the student who gets infected later. 

The continuation of the little boy’s storyline into the fight with Goki: I liked that the little boy Yusuke saved was seen again in the show and sort of helped him in his first official mission as Spirit Detective. I felt like it really captured some of Yusuke’s empathy and helped create a more complex character. 

The bullied student getting infected as Yusuke’s first mission: Again, I thought the bullied student helped to develop who Yusuke really was for us as viewers and I liked that it was him who got infected. I think it showed Yusuke’s ability to decern when and how to fight because he recognized the kid and refused to simply kill him to stop him. Reminded me of the fight with the doctor during the Dark Tournament.

Kuwabara and his friends in the alley fighting the student: I feel like all the scenes with Kuwabara and his friends really helped to develop that side of Kuwabara that has this unfailing honor code. He is a really good guy who always does whatever he can to help his friends and I felt like this scene and the scenes in the hospital later were great examples of this. 

The origin of the Jagan: I don’t know how other people feel about this but I liked the change up in Hiei’s origin story. I was a little upset at first but it makes sense to me simply because Hiei kidnapping Keiko and trying to turn her into a demon never really made any sense to me in the anime and he never really redeems himself from this action. I think just skipping over that and having his main goal be finding Yukina with the dagger makes more sense. 

Keiko getting kidnapped by Elder Toguro disguised as Hiei: I loved this scene! And later when Elder Toguro reveals that it’s him that kidnapped her, what an insane reveal! I thought this was really well played and a great nod to the original storyline while creating depth for the new story. 

The introduction of Sakyo early on: I liked that we got to see Sakyo from the beginning. One of the things I never liked about the original anime was how abruptly Sakyo makes his appearance and then becomes the bad guy. I feel like in this live action we really got to see his plans and they hinted at his depravity. (I actually would have liked this season to focus solely on Yusuke becoming spirit detective and them saving Yukina because I think Sakyo deserved a second season. I know Team Toguro did).

Keiko and Yukina breaking out of the jail together: Keiko and Yukina being in the jail together helped to deepen the relationship they have as well as show us a different side to Keiko that the anime never really showed us. She got to be self-sufficient and strong and really felt like she was her own character not just a love interest for Yusuke. 

Kuwabara seeing Botan: I thought it was cool that they changed the way Kuwabara came to figure out that something was going on with Yusuke. I liked that they didn’t take away his spirit awareness and I thought that this made sense as a reason that he would seek out Yusuke. (I will say that I missed Botan showing up at Yusuke’s school as a student though, and her and Keiko fighting the Makai bugs together…I know, I know, Keiko fought the Makai bugs in the anime but tell me she didn’t whine the entire time for Yusuke? You can’t can you?)

The emergence of Yusuke’s spirit energy in the house when he saved Keiko: I liked the entire fire scene way better than in the original and this was a key moment of it. While I’m bummed Yusuke didn’t have a little egg to throw in the fire I did love him coming back to life right then and saving them both. 

The updated fire storyline: How it started, how Yusuke comes back to life, the fact that Keiko runs up as Atsuko is saying that she saw him move. I think it makes so much more sense than the original fire storyline and honestly I love Yusuke running out of the house alive after his LITERAL FUNERAL to go chase down a demon. So on brand for him. 

The introduction of Team Toguro early on: I will say that Team Toguro deserved a whole season and not like, the two episodes they actually ended up with. I was so excited to see them early on but the elements of their story that I love (Bui and Karasu’s hatred of the Toguro’s, their basic slavery to Sakyo, the power imbalance between Elder and Younger) didn’t get their fair shake. So initially I was thrilled to see the four of them together but then it was kind of disappointment.

The dark network of humans keeping demons as slaves: I thought the gambling and the introduction of the committee would have been much better utilized in a dark tournament centric season. I liked that Sakyo introduced the fighting for sport aspect and the gambling but I felt like this could have gone a lot darker and I wish it would have. I really think it could’ve transitioned into Sensui’s storyline really nicely if they had explored more of Sakyo’s character and bridged that vague gap between the Dark Tournament saga and Chapter Black saga

Genkai’s death: What the actual fuck? We didn’t even get to see them really fight. I was robbed of Genkai. I also felt like her premature death robbed Yusuke of his time with her. When she gives him the spirit wave orb in the original series and they go through the trial together, it really built up Yusuke’s character. And her death scene in the anime? Yusuke being there and holding her? I just felt like we didn’t get the depth and complexity of the Genkai/Yusuke/Toguro relationship that we could have gotten and I’m kind of pissed about that. Also, I genuinely felt like Genkai fighting with them in the Dark Tournament saga strengthened the relationship of the team as a whole.

The lack of transition between the three objects and the fight with Sakyo: I felt like Yusuke was still tracking down the final object (which technically he was cause Hiei still had it?) when they boarded the boat to go to Sakyo’s island. There wasn’t enough of a clue in for Yusuke as to what he is getting into and I wish that there had been. I liked the idea of the four of them going together but I felt that rushing into Toguro knowing Yusuke’s power and Yusuke gaining that power so quickly and then the island…it all felt like they were trying to wrap up a storyline they didn’t know what to do with.

The rush through the storyline with Genkai/Toguro. Again, all we got was a measly flash back and some backstory supplied by Elder Toguro…none of the nuance of the anime. I was bummed. And I felt like missing lead up to the Genkai/Toguro storyline took away the hints of power imbalance between the brothers. I think the anime did a better job of showing that Younger had grown sick of Elder. 

The lack of the Dark Tournament: So many great characters, so much team building and character development lost (where was the reveal of the Dragon and Hiei fucking eating it! Kurama’s fights with Shishiwakamaru and Touya? The even cooler spirit sword, PUU!). I think the dark tournament is one of the best story arches in anime (sorry not sorry) and I felt like throwing that away really took something from the overall story. Jin, Touya, Chuu, Koto…so many great characters just missing from what could’ve been an even darker and more complex dark tournament had they developed it fully. I think it would have added to Sakyo’s character and the relationship between him and Koenma as well. Koenma betting his life at the end of this season didn’t hit as hard as it did during the Dark Tournament saga. 

The Absence Maze Castle: I’ll admit that there were parts of Maze castle that were long and unnecessary but overall I think the added mission helped to build the bond of Team Urameshi that was lacking in this season. I mean, there was no friendship building really, not like they had in the anime and I think some version of a maze castle could have really aided in that. 

Kurama’s transition to Youko: What was this? He just transformed like, with no help. I just felt like the whole transition lost the reveal factor and internal struggle that Kurama goes through. I mean, if he can just transform whenever he wants what’s the big deal. Youko is supposed to be a part of himself he never thought he could access again and then he does and ultimately decides he never wants to or may never want to (you know Kurama is indecisive). 

Lack of relationship between team Urameshi: I said this under Maze Castle and I’ll say it again, I felt like they just weren’t as in sync with each other as I wanted them to be. 

All of them fighting Toguro: No. I didn’t like this change, I felt like it was a cop out. I would have preferred to see Toguro fight Yusuke and win and then (of course) had a tournament where Yusuke becomes stronger and can fight him. I was annoyed that they all fought him together and then Yusuke won cause I feel like Toguro’s fight is with Yusuke, not everyone. I feel like this live action didn’t do Toguro’s character justice the way he deserved. He was a really complex character and I felt like they could have leaned into that more and given him the screen time he was supposed to have. 

Final Thoughts: Overall I really liked it and I’ll definitely watch it again. I’m interested to see where they go with season 2, if they’re renewed. I hope they do the Chapter Black saga, especially since they did the Elder Toguro reveal at the end. I went into this with as open a mind as I could and honestly I wasn’t really let down. There were parts that I missed and felt like they should’ve done but I realize nothing is ever going to be exactly how I want it. There were definitely parts of this that I liked better than the anime, same as there were parts of the anime that I liked better than this.

[fetus-cakes]

Yu Yu Hakusho review episode 3

episode 1x, 2x

Oh boy, we're just speedrunning this aren't we? so instead of Hiei being defeated as an early level 1 boss, he just hangs around moping in an empty warehouse until he's needed again by the plot, which seems very out of character for him when Yukina is involved and there's people's bones he could break to gather information.

This is another missed character development moment because he was NOT defeated by Yusuke. I do think it's important that Hiei was defeated by Yusuke when Yusuke was much weaker (pre-Genkai training). It was humbling for Hiei that he was defeated by a significantly weaker human because Yusuke was able to strategize on the spot [we're also missing yet another instance of Yusuke demonstrating that he's book-dumb but very clever at fighting].

I don't think it's exaggerating to say that later in the manga when Hiei and Yusuke team up, Hiei only agrees because he has a (begrudging?) respect for Yusuke's fighting skills. There's a marked difference between how Hiei treats Kuwabara and Yusuke and that's because Hiei has not been defeated by Kuwabara, so he's beneath his notice. insert joke here about Hiei only being interested in men who can defeat him in battle and that's why Kurama is his forever husband

I'm not sure I like Genkai taking on Yusuke and Kuwabara as students just because Koenma asked her to. I preferred her tournament style of picking students, because it made her more discriminating about who she passes her technique on to. They didn't even have to do the whole tournament, we could have caught glances of it where Genkai thinks to herself that Yusuke and Kuwabara show promise, but they're both still rough. Her praising Yusuke directly and being somewhat motherly (??) seems to nice, she's not that nice. Her sending Yusuke away and dying alone in her home also hits different from her sacrifice in the tournament. It's also to save Yusuke, but now it feels that she's sparing his feelings too. also it feels weird that they specified that his training took exactly 20 days instead of a vague summer vacation time.

Younger and Older Toguro have already been introduced and they already kidnapped Keiko. I guess we're doing THAT now? this moves fast!

how nice of Toguro to wait until Yusuke is back from training and getting stronger to kidnap Keiko. what an attentive villain

if they can use computer effects to make Older Toguro so small they can also make Hiei smaller. Where is our Short King! we have been robbed

[thuganomxcs]

𝐔𝐍𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐃 | @deathblossomed | 𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆

It's the end of Yusuke's first full week of school. Botan has made sure to text him every day to chat and give him updates, always asking about how his classes are going and if he's made any friends yet -- or if he's managed to stay out of trouble. She misses him but manages to keep herself busy. She's working more and more in the archives and less in the field and spends her evenings cuddling with the animals at home -- Yusuke will come home to find they've all been spoiled rotten. When friday night rolls around, Botan packs a bag, says good bye to the animals and to Atsuko who had come over to watch the place in her stead. She opens a gateway and steps through, straight into Yusuke's room. Just as he'd promised, he keeps the mirror open so she can walk straight through. He won't be home for a while yet, which gives her plenty of time to set her plan into action. She brought take out from his favorite restaurant back home, dessert included, boxed up to keep it warm. She slipped out for a little while, moving discretely around his school until she found the school store and made a small purchase. When Yusuke comes home, he'll find his bedroom door open slightly. Inside, Botan is perched on his bed, now wearing a sweatshirt with his school logo and colors. She even has on a new blouse to match the colors, her hair curled and pulled back. She smiles when he comes in, trying to contain her excitement and not tackle him immediately. "Miss me yet?"

Finally, classes were over, and the BEST PART of it all meant that there’s a two day weekend to enjoy. Imagine Yusuke’s surprise upon discovering the West had two days worth of a break from this hell, although when it came down to ‘work loads’ he’d have to say that high school back kicked his ass far more than College is doing right now out here. GRANTED IT HELPS being somewhat of a prodigy in the practical line of his education, though the language barrier does still keep him from finishing his work as fast as he wants to.

But that was a problem for Future Yusuke on Sunday afternoon because Present Yusuke is going to probably paint the town red. He’s done his best to stay out of trouble but of course he’s gotten involved with local gangsters, and often avoids the beach area because of his tattoo (draws waay too much attention from locals). He then felt his phone vibrating in the pockets of his pants, quickly taking it out to read that it’s from Botan once more. 

This was something typical between them. Instead of just responding to this hello he sent her something in the form of a video message, holding the phone and giveng her the brightest smile possible.  ❝   𝐀𝐥𝐨𝐡𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐞.   ❞  That was soo catchy, he’s feeling like an honorary Hawaiian at this rate. “I’m actually going back t’ the dorms now. What’d ya say you surprise me with wearin’ somethin’ SMALL over the camera.” Then he gives her a wink and cuts the video before sending it…and huh, it was read rather quickly, he figured she’d be busy reaping souls, fetching Koenma his morning Gerber.

But, he’ll eagerly await his lecture once she decided to write him back. Now he took his way back home, back to his dorm. A few flights of stairs and he’s standing before his door,  a twist of the doorknob and he enters the vicinity. “Man…I’ll never get used t’ this silence..” By now at his home, he would have been already greeted by his pups, his chickens in the coop would have been clucking as well, taking it as a sign that they’ve also MISSED THEIR FATHER. 

Coming to this…silence and isolation was a game changer..but he knew it was a temporary set-up. “Hold on..” He caught the door leading into his bedroom being opened..not much but enough for him to know that SOMEONE HAD BEEN HERE. With his guard up Yusuke steps towards the door, opening it to find that there’s a familiar face in his room.

Both his eyes widened, lips practically began to quiver because he was soo happy, there’s a slight glistening in his eyes as well. “B-botan?? Is that you? IT IS YOU!! C’mere you freaking sight for sore eyes.” Yusuke said happily, shoes already off as he ran towards the bed, hopping upon it just so he could embrace his fiancee, kissing her for a moment and held her once again. “The hell didn’t you tell me you were comin’?! AGH, I could have made a GREAT LOCAL DISH for ya.”

[deathblossomed]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 & 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐒

@thuganomxcs : “ please, tell me why you’re upset. tell me who did this? ” Soft Angst

𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄, when Botan shows up at Yusuke's door, it's a fun surprise. She's bored -- or hungry -- or she was near by. But sometimes it's because she doesn't know where to go. Usually, it's because she's had a hard day at work and the presence of someone warm and alive is a comfort. She trusts Yusuke to put on a movie and make her a snack and let her lean against him until she feels better. He's good like that. She feels safe at his side.

And usually that's enough, she just needs time to calm down. But when she showed up at his door, the smile she put on fell a little flat. She's never been very good at hiding her emotions and Yusuke's someone she's never been able to lie too.

He let her inside and she sat quietly on his couch, insisting she's fine, just a long day, all the while twisting her hair around her finger anxiously. But he's not letting up. He asks her, even says please and she knows she's sunk.

"It's-- it's not a big deal. It's stupid," she mumbles, eyes lowered. "I just-- Koenma's been giving me more responsibilities lately. With everything that happened, the palace is a mess. And he's been having me work in the offices, trying to go through thousands of years worth of records to sort out the mess his father caused and get everything back on track. And I don't mind it. My hours are more regular since I'm not ferrying as much and that means I get to come here more often. And I like helping. He says it's because I'm more familiar with the other realms, on a personal level, then most of the others. So he trusts my judgement," she smiles a little, still sheepish, but she's proud to be important and helpful to her home and to her friends. But she chews her lip.

"So I've been spending a lot more time in the archives. And today-- I was coming out and I overheard people talking... I know it's stupid, and I shouldn't care what others think. And I should have just walked away but... I heard them say my name," she sniffs a little. "They were saying how... weird it is that Koenma appointed someone like me into an advisor position. I mean, they're right, I'm still young and I'm just a ferry girl. And I haven't even been doing it that long in comparison to the other girls. But.. one of them said that she was glad I was out of rotation. Because every time I come in... she can practically smell the yoki on me. They just kept talking about how it's so weird that I spend more time with demons and humans than I do with my own kind. And I guess one of them was an SDF officer, and... he started talking about you being a Mazoku and that I shouldn't be allowed to hang out with you. And that made me really mad. They don't even know you! You're my friend, why does it matter what world you come from."

Botan's twisting her hair tightly around her fingers and there are tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She pulls her knees up and hugs them to her chest, hiding in herself. "I know it's stupid. And I shouldn't care what they think because I'm happy with how things are. I like coming here. And it's not like I was that popular to begin with... But I don't understand why it's so wrong. And I hate hearing people talk badly about you and the others. A lot of people back home look down on the other realms, that's why Enma was able to get away with everything for so long. But you helped save everyone! Even Reikai! Maybe I'm just.. being dumb. Like I'm a kid getting picked on in school... I'm an adult, it shouldn't matter. And... it's not the first time I've heard stuff like that."

She looks back at Yusuke and tries to smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to dump all of that on you. I'm okay, really. I just.. I always feel better after I come here."

[yyh4ever]

Did koenma and botan know about the three kings before that arc?

Koenma probably knew. He's been around for about 700 years, even before the barrier was lifted. Also, he mentioned to Yusuke the letters the Spirit World got from the 3 kings. There was probably a gentleman's agreement between the two worlds. Then, with Raizen's death, this cold peace was about to end.

Since Botan didn't know about Sensui or the different classes of youkai, I doubt she knew about the kings. In the Black Chapter Arc, when Koenma was explaining to the gang about it, she says it's her first time listening to it.

I take this opportunity to inform you all my Tumblr Direct Message is not working, I don't know why. I can't check or write messages. When I click the chat bubble at the top right of my dashboard, nothing happens. Is anyone having the same issue?

My "inbox" is working normally, so please use the Ask section on my blog to message me until I can sort it out.

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 130 Rundown

Inuyasha: We’re still on the string of post-Hakurei filler but at least this one’s kind of dealing with the fallout of some of the events there. Mostly centered around the dramatic shenanigans that happened between Miroku and Sango, this episode kind of pulls on the thread that it’s odd their relationship just kinda reset after that. But yeah there’s a village of women kidnapping dudes and feeding them to paintings, it’s kinda weird shit and there’s a subplot about a dude looking for his fiancée but basically we get a cliffhanger of Sango about to be brainwashed by the painting cult so we can do the ‘oh my god they love each other but they’re fighting’ plot that Yashahime did like four times.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Still breaking down the Sensui reveal from last episode, we get the full backstory of Sensui breaking into Sakyo’s Speed Grapher style Roppongi demon torture club and having his Saturday Morning Cartoon view of the world shattered and then decided to recruit as many people as he could to the ‘humans are assholes’ bandwagon. I do kinda like how we’re still incorporating parts of past arcs to explain some of the history between Sakyo and Koenma to make the world feel fleshed out and explain how Sakyo and the Black Black Club managed to get their hands on so many demon bodyguards for their demonic slavery ring. However the exposition is cut short when Sensui and Sniper decide to jump into their own backstory explanation and try to off Seaman, revealing they were tracking him and caught his doubts on tape. Surprise surprise it’s Kuwabara they’re after because man can’t get a powerup without it being a plot device to actually help the bad guys. Though Seaman seems to be really dragging his feet on getting this info to everyone and Yusuke and co. go to confront Sensui in a good old street standoff and they tell him it’s actually only two days until the demon portal opens and just when it seems like Yusuke made a move Sensui can’t predict, he snaps to block it and is about to deck Yusuke because you can’t have shit in this anime.

Fate/Apocrypha: We continue the final battle matchups and we’ve got Semiramis vs Mordred which for the poster girl of the series giving her like one and a half fights the whole show I kinda expected more but okay. Apparently Semiramis can just like flood poison everywhere and negate Command Seals because… reasons, idk she doesn’t explain except saying ‘yeah that doesn’t work’ because Semiramis is a shitty DM. But yeah Mordred fights her and they get Lion Dude in to give her her epi-pen or whatever and it’s another cool-looking Getsuga Tensho fight and Mordred’s motivation is different every Fate scene I see her in so idk what to make of her character but she’s badass and kills a billion giant snakes so that’s all I could really ask for but Lion Dude dies in the fight and I guess Mordred just like loses the will to live because she dies immediately after that despite Servants usually being able to stick it out for a bit after their Masters die and Lion Dude implying she’d have time to make another contract if she wanted like I get she’s not Archer Emiya and isn’t THAT self-sufficient but you’d think it’d be not like immediate death after him. Fate seems to explain its rules a lot and then go ‘fuck it’ for whatever’s most dramatic so idk what to think. Then we have Shakespear vs Jeanne where Shakespeare just narrates Jeanne’s backstory at her and like given Jeanne’s backstory is historical fact instead of mythological fiction I feel like hers is the one we least need narrated to us but okay. She gets bored of the Christmas Carol treatment pretty quick and he’s like ‘oh boy you killed people and died doesn’t that suck’. Anyway he brings out Saber Gilles and is all ‘hey bro you killed people but like Sieg, what’s up with that’ and it’s like… fuck off bro she didn’t say she liked killing or thought of the people she killed as nothing, plus of course she’s gonna react a bit different to a dude she knows to still be alive being murdered in front of her like Shakespeare really is a terrible writer. Though given Jeanne is literally of two minds on the subject as a bastardized historical figure and a horny French college waifu I guess it makes a little more sense for her to be somewhat conflicted.

Speed Grapher: We’re coming up to the finale! Japan’s currently in chaos because every single person on a management level for any government position is stuck down in Suitengu’s fuckdungeon and the Prime Minister is dead, makes me wonder how the place functioned while everyone was at the club in the first place like you’re telling me EVERY SINGLE person of import was a part of the Roppongi Club? I guess it doesn’t have to be all of them but they seem to paint it that way. And judging by a cutaway we see later they’re still down there fucking each other, like it’s been like two days and they still down there doing the humpty hump, like I kinda feel bad for all the sex workers Suitengu hired for this like I doubt they signed up for this shit but we saw last episode Suitengu doesn’t necessarily put high value on their lives either and is kinda too far gone to care at this point. But yeah with the Japanese Government essentially non-function, it’s time for everyone’s favorite villain to step in… ANIME AMERICA. God I love when Anime America is the villain in these things like it’s just random shadowy capitalists doing shit for money and odd pastiches of George W. Bush and god bless Anime America. Basically the plan is to bomb Suitengu’s building and then sell Japan the weapons they just used to bomb the fuck out of them so they can defend themselves in case Blood Sephiroths decide to attack again. Knowing Kagura’s still there Saiga decideds to storm the place and seeing as he’s get Mangekyo Sharingan blindness going on atm Ginza decides her character arc is complete and she’s done being a hedonist and she’s gonna help him. Suitengu and Kagura have a nice little chat about how the existential nightmares that are their lives have progressed and Kagura’s made her peace while Suitengu just wants the pain to end. Also they find out if Kagura survives if they can induce her first period the hormone imbalance will throw off her Euphoria Factor enough o possible stop it from killing her which… idk what that’ll do about the tumor but okay sure, that was something that was foreshadowed that they were trying to keep Kagura a child despite dressing her up as a woman and changing her birth certificate so she could marry Suitengu. I feel kinda weird about how much of an easy out this is for Kagura’s terminal condition but at the same time like I said it was foreshadowed and I do kinda like how the symbolism is for Kagura to not die from the greed of her parents is to just… become an adult, that’s a neat little metaphor. So yeah Ginza fights off Tsujido’s group while Saiga goes to confront Suitengu who has apparently cashed out all the money the unregulated government and corporate infrastructure of Japan have invested in the Tennozu group which is apparently something you can just do I guess. But yeah his plan is that once the Americans bomb him and Kagura into the stone age that the Euphoria Factor will die and take enough out of the Japanese Economy to tank the fucking thing and wreck Capitalism. I just kinda love this plan like no notes, excellent plan bro, just stick all the millionaires in a fuckdungeon and burn all the money, Capitalism over. I get this weird feeling this is where that scene from the Dark Knight of the Joker burning the huge stack of money was inspired from but I may be talking out of my ass, god this show is bonkers the whole way through and I love it.

[graphospasm]

“Speak” Spoilers & Unwritten Ending

BUT FIRST, here’s a recap of what happened in chapters 1-11 of Speak.

Yusuke is contacted by Spirit World to track down a violent demon named “Hide,” who has illegally entered Human World. Yusuke conscripts Kurama, Hiei and Kuwabara to help him. They trace the demon to a well-populated area of Human World, where they encounter a young woman named Momo and her friends (Sugi, Aki and Yuuki, the latter of whom was lost in the area). They are in their final semester of high school and weeks away from graduating. Momo cannot speak due to a medical condition, relying on sign language and writing to communicate. The demon escapes, leaving Kurama to socialize with the young women who only narrowly avoided running afoul of a dangerous demon. Kurama and Momo hit it off and exchange contact information. Yusuke encourages Kurama to let loose, live a little, and maybe go on a date.

Just as Kurama starts warming up to Momo via text communication, he is introduced to his new stepfather’s extended family—and, coincidentally, it turns out Momo is a member of it. She is the daughter of his stepfather’s estranged brother. When they first met, Kurama introduced himself to Momo using his demon name, but after a tense discussion, she agrees not to tell his family about this name. They part ways on a good note, still looking forward to planning a date...only Kurama is unsettled. It seems oddly coincidental that he randomly happened to meet this woman, who was so intimately connected to his family, during a mission from Spirit World.

Throughout these events, references are made to a so-called “terrorist attack” in a village called Sakana. Humans at large believe the attack was perpetrated by a doomsday cult, but in truth, this attack was the same incident caused by Ryu and Seishou at the end of Future Talk. Further references are made to Dani, who is still in a restorative coma at Genkai’s compound. Hiei (who has been living with Mukuro in Demon World in the two months since the attack) did not ask to see Dani the last time he dropped by.

Momo confides in her friends (especially her BFF, Yuuki) about Kurama’s double name and his coincidental connection to her. Her friends reveal he had a reputation for being mysterious (and popular due to his looks) when he was still in high school only a year prior. Momo wonders if she deserves to even go on a date with someone so handsome and accomplished. Her lingering questions about his identity lead her to slowing her communications with him.

Kurama and his friends meet with Koenma for more information about the demon they’re hunting. Beforehand, Kurama tells Yusuke about Momo, and Yusuke encourages him to keep seeing her, cutting through Kurama’s over-thinking with his refreshingly simpler outlook. During the meeting, Koenma shows them the face of the demon they are tracking (“Hide”). He further reveals that Hide conceals his identity by changing his shape, able to masquerade as a human very easily. 20 years ago, Hide was in jail in Spirit World when he escaped, fled to Human World, and (apparently accidentally) killed a human child named Kusagawa Arata. For reasons Koenma will not disclose, Spirit World did not see fit to track the demon down at that point, leaving him to his own devices in Human World. He also does not reveal why Hide was jailed in the first place, prior to his escape. Kurama notes these details aloud, but Koenma refuses to provide clarity. Koenma gives them a tracker watch that can trace Hide’s energy.

At school, a classmate of Momo’s reveals she was present at the attack on Sakana. Momo’s friend Yuuki consoles her, showing a level of empathy and compassion unrivaled. Momo reflects that Yuuki has always been extremely sensitive to those around her, an unfailing wellspring of support and kindness to all. During this scene, we learn that Yuuki has a deceased sister named Arata—though of course Momo has no way of knowing that this makes Yuuki intimately involved with Kurama’s current Spirit World case, yet another odd coincidence in their budding relationship.

When Momo goes oddly silent via text message and email, Kurama requests they meet. Yuuki interprets Momo’s use of sign language to aid their conversation. Momo has confided in her friends about Kurama’s double names and the strange coincidence of their meeting, and he immediately dislikes that she spoke to her friends...but he is reminded that Momo is utterly human, a fact he had forgotten. He resolves to try and be human in return and enjoy her simple, warm company without reservation. They flirt a bit once the tense portion of their conversation ends, but before they can plan a future date, the demon-detecting watch on Kurama’s wrist beeps.

Before he leaves, Yuuki does an impressive read of his mental state (dropping hints to his supernatural nature that are obvious to the reader). Some of Momo’s friends from a Deaf education center stop her for a brief conversation. Kurama makes a number of social blunders involving Deaf/non-speaking culture, upsetting Momo. The thought of having to constantly educate her romantic partners sounds exhausting. Later, with Yuuki and her mother, Momo discusses the pitfalls of dating when you have a disability. Her mother counsels her to give Kurama some books on Deaf culture; if he reads them and makes an effort to better understand her world, it will show he’s worth pursuing. Momo then receives a text from her other friends to meet them downtown to do something exciting (though not necessarily legal).

Kurama, Kuwabara and Yusuke trace the demon downtown, where they detect multiple energy signatures. One is Hide, whose energy Kuwabara notes is full of pain. The second energy source is nearly identical to Hide’s to the point where Koenma’s watch can track it, but it’s full of rage rather than pain. An imp demon also enters the mix. The trio splits up to each track one of the energy signatures. Kurama tracks his quarry into an alley—and standing at the end of it, clad all in black, is Momo.

I will reblog with the next chunk of the story summary soon.

[kurama-is-love]

Kurama: A fearsome and cruel character?

I want to talk about how people view Kurama as a character and enemy throughout the series. I found a thread on reddit that can be found here. And while I mostly agree that Kurama is the most dangerous “non-villain” character in YYH, there are some things I highly disagree with and I want to explain them with phrases the users said and why I disagree with it.

(Please note, that I just want to share my view of Kurama and why I don’t agree with some of the points regarding of (maybe their lack of knowledge behind these scenes) the situation they called out for Kuramas “rutheless” and showing no mercy. I don’t want to attack or offend any of the posters of reddit or people who share the same opinion of Kurama, I just want to clarify some points that didn’t get mentioned)

Secondly, he's ruthless. While Kurama might seem like an intelligent man, one who is good with words, he's easily the least sensitive non-villain character in the series. Kuwabara probably takes the spot as the most sensitive and biggest heart out of the crew, even Hiei has his sensitive moments with his sister and Mukuro and has a great arc that develops his humanity, and Yusuke was never really lacking humanity in the first place despite being a delinquent. He still has a sense of justice. But Kurama...he's straight up asked in the Dark tournament if he believes in mercy and the dude just straight up said..."no"

I agree that Kuwabara has the biggest heart and even Hiei shows some mercy sometimes, but the user totally leaves out, that Kurama has a really big heart for his family and his friends, and this friends include Yusuke and the others. Kurama would never let them get hurt without getting angry and punish the enemy for hurting his friends. He also had some human nature moments from the moment he met Yusuke for the first time. Hiei and Kurama are both influenced by Yusukes kindness and learned to understand humans. And let’s not forget, that the person in the example, where Kurama didn’t showed mercy, was Roto. The filthy little bastard that used Kuramas mother / family to take advance in battle. And if there is one thing, we have learned about Kurama: Do. Not. Fuck. with. his. mother. Or family. Don’t do this. He’ll lose all his good natured sides if you put someone in danger, that Kurama is bond with. Let’s be honest here, it’s just natural to protect the ones you love. Everyone would react the way Kurama react when his family is put in danger. Kurama hadn’t killed Roto, if he hadn’t pulled this dirty trick. Kurama has mercy. He really has and it’s shown several times while he fought. He even says to one of his enemies: “I’ll help you… But not by death, this world has enough of that. You can keep your life as long as you change the way you live it. It’s never too late, believe me.” Kurama even says it: It’s never too late to change, he went through this change aswell. Just because he rarely shows mercy with his enemies is just because his enemies were threats that has to be rid of.

He pretty much kills everybody he comes in contact with too, there really is no mercy.

Genbu dies. The only person in the Dark Tournament that he doesn't kill is Ura Urashima and that's because someone kills him first. He makes Kaito lose his soul in the word game, kills the game master...

There's a lot of people Kurama has killed, when they could of been spared in some way. To be fair, not a lot of the people he faces deserves mercy, as they either are in a situation where death is the only way out, or they're threatening his mother, but the point still stands.

Hiei was capable of showing mercy to a man who beat and tortured his sister, of whom he swore his life to protect. Kurama hasn't ever shown that kind of mercy.

He doesn’t kill everybody. Genbu is a bad example, everyone of the Sacred beasts died. Besides.. almost every enemy the group faced died o_O Thats the nature of these old shonen anime. Killing your enemies. I don’t like this handling of enemies but.. you can’t blame Kurama for killing his enemies when everyone killed their enemies too. It was just.. how the show handled antagonists. He also didn’t killed Gama, Gama died from blood loss and exhaustion because he wanted to attack Kurama with his blood to make him weak for his next fight. Hell, Kurama even warned him about his attacks: “No, don’t. You will die, when you continue like this.” Does that look like “he has no mercy” to you? I can’t really remember the case with Kaito, but I absolutely guarantee that he didn’t wanted to kill the Game Master boy. He felt terrible afterwards (and if we face the truth, he had no other choice as to kill the boy. It was either him or the boy and if Kurama had died at that phase, the others weren’t able to stop Elder Toguro. Speaking of which, Kurama had no mercy with him because he made him “kill” a child. That’s the main reason why Kurama seemed to have no mercy when he trapped Toguro in the eternal torture plant. And not because Kurama is a sadistic asshole who enjoys killing and making others suffers. All his “merciless” actions came from emotional decisions and only shows how much he cares for what he does and what others do. Kurama never killed someone as “non-chalantly” as Hiei killed Zero in the Dark Tournament. And ... about “Hiei showing mercy to the man who beat and tortued his sister”.. Uhm.. Nope. Hiei would’ve beaten him to death if Kurama hadn’t intervened by telling Hiei, that it’s forbidden for a demon to kill a human and the punishment from Koenmas father would be so frightening that even Hiei stopped his personal vendetta. That’s what actually happened during those episodes.

I feel like the comments are cut short in only showing Kuramas resulted actions and not why he acted this way in the first place.

I won’t say the people are completely wrong, Kurama is a quite complex and mysterious character. But he is not evil. He cares for his friends and he even cares for humans, like he even decided not get attracted to humans anymore after what happened to Maya, a person who was in love with him, but he didn’t loved her back. Despite that he didn’t loved her, he thinks it’s his own fault that she was dragged into this and to save other humans from being used against him, he decided not to get close to them anymore. That actually sounds quite compassionate and kind.

Of course, he’ll show his enemies another side of him. A more cruel side, but only because his enemies are pure evil. He never even fought someone who was at the “good” side, aside from Yusuke at the beginning. And if we recall what happened, he haven’t even fought him. He begged Yusuke to let him have the mirror until he wished for his mothers life and then giving it back and hand himself in. All other of his enemies tried to kill him and were evil. It is his right to defend his life and showing no real mercy when his enemies don’t have mercy too. He may be a good guy, but that doesn’t mean he is naive enough to let an evil and dangerous creature live until something happens.

I dunno, maybe my thoughts are just because I like him, but.. You know guys, I’ve been told that I have a very good grasp for characters and portray them In-character (Canons and even OCs that are not mine. I wrote several commissions for people and I only had a briefing of the OC and they said I did an amazing job in writing their personality. So.. maybe my grasp for Kurama is not bad either..), so I hope my opinion makes sense.

It’s just not true that Kurama is more ruthless as Hiei. Kurama is the reason why Hiei is not that merciless anymore.