Scared

Chapter 4: Can’t Wait

Rating: M


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Yusuke rubbed a hand over his eyes as he made his way down the street. After getting back into the precinct, he and Lin debriefed their chief on their findings. Since it was late afternoon, Lin was able to convince him that she and Yusuke should continue this tomorrow rather than tonight considering what they saw. Just before he left Yusuke made a pit-stop at the morgue just to see the woman one last time. He lifted her a bit to see the scarring of a cross-shaped wound on her shoulder blade. He had a wound just like that…

“Damn it…” Yusuke hissed as he rubbed his shoulder. The wound from last night began to ache after everything that happened today. He leaned on the lamp post and tilted his head back to look at the night sky. He had opted to leave his motorcycle at work since his arm was basically useless to him. His mind immediately wandered back to the case he was on. “Fuck it all to hell!” He slammed his head back against the light post with a growl.

“What did the light post do to you detective?” A voice said from above. Yusuke opened his eyes, which he didn’t remember closing. He could vaguely make out a shape beyond the bright light.

“Hiei, so nice of you to stalk me,” Yusuke pushed off the post and began walking again. “Now if you don’t mind, I have things to do and errands to…” He was cut off as his tired body dodged-jumped into the street to evade out of the way of a sword. “Really now Hiei? Must you…” A honk cut off Yusuke as a car swerved around him as he jumped out of the way again. The driver cursed at Yusuke, who instead of getting up, lay on the sidewalk with his hands over his face.

Hiei frowned. He’s never seen the former spirit detective so stressed or jumpy. Looking down at Yusuke he raised an eyebrow. “Do humans normally lay on the ground or is it just you detective?”

The half human got up with a growl and hiss. “I’ve had a long day Hiei, can you please decide to come bug me another time.” Yusuke dusted off his arms. He glared at Hiei. “If you think you are going to try to talk to me about being missing for the last few years, fuck off.” He began to walk away ignoring the fact that he was going the opposite way than where he was going. “Oh by the way, tell Kuwabara he needs a bath and that Kurama needs to really find out how to mask his scent better.”

Both men stepped out of their hiding places and walked to the shorter demon with frowns. After Kurama had woken up, he had immediately tried to get information out of Atsuko on where Yusuke was. But she was tight lipped about it, saying she wasn’t going to betray her son when he gave her information like that. So he called up Kuwabara and found Hiei and went searching for Yusuke. They didn’t find him all day until he was two blocks away from the police station Kurama assumed he worked at.

“Couldn’t get the detective’s address?” Hiei asked looking at Kurama.

“Unfortunately no,” The fox murmured in defeat. “He listed his mother’s address as his
primary and then as his secondary all it says is ‘Ask Lin’. I wasn’t about to reveal myself to her.”

“So let’s continue to go after him.” Kuwabara said as he crossed his arms. “I’m sure if we…”

“I’m sorry boys I can’t let you do that.” The two demons spun around as the human gave a loud shriek in response. Lin Chong stood behind them with her hands on her hips.

Hiei growled. “Start talking Human! How’d you sneak up on us?”

Lin shook her head at them. “When you are trying to appear human, you should at least try to refrain from calling others human. Makes you sound suspicious, speed demon.”

“So you know about demons.” Kurama tilted his head. “You’d have to, if you were going to be Yusuke’s partner while investigating ‘strange’ crimes.”

“And the intelligence of foxes never ceases to amaze me. Tell me, are you as mischievous as some of the others I’ve met?”

“Psychic?” Kuwabara raised his eyebrows.

“Of sorts…” Lin answered cryptically. She watched them for a moment before nodding to herself. “Listen back off Yusuke for a few days, we’ve had a rough day.”

Kurama put his hand out in front of Hiei, who was about to grab his sword. This woman was being serious. He could tell from the haunted look in her eye as she avoided looking directly in their eyes. “What happened?”

“We were called into a scene, it…” Lin paused as she wrapped her arms around herself. “It caused Yusuke to close down completely. I felt no emotion from him at all when he ordered me away from it as he began to inspect the bodies. I watched him going between them meticulously, he so cold and precise…”

“He was searching for something…” Kurama murmured. Lin nodded.

“What?” Kuwabara asked. He had a feeling and shifted a bit as he thought about it. Hiei glanced at him before turning to the woman again.

“I don’t know what he was searching for but when he got to the last body he froze. I think the wounds got to him.” She murmured. “And with his wound from last night, I think it would be best to leave him alone for a while.”

“I think you might be right.” The fox said. “Would you mind, giving us his address so we can make sure he gets home alright?”

Lin snapped out of her solemn daze and crossed her arms glaring at the fox. “Nice try Red, but Yusuke won’t be going home any time soon.” She turned and walked back toward the precinct. “By the way, if you try to steal away into the office again, I’ll make sure you are under arrest fox…” She said before disappearing around a corner.

“Ha! Someone caught you.” Kuwabara said as he grinned at Kurama. The fox shook his head and turned to Hiei.

“Did you?” The fox let it trail as Hiei nodded. He quickly sent the mentally image of the clearing as well as the way Yusuke looked when he shut down to Kurama and Kuwabara. The taller man paled rapidly, knowing he was able to pick up more than Hiei and Kurama from just those images.

“Shit…” Kuwabara murmured. He glanced at the two demons before him. “I….I think we should listen to her.”

“What?” Kurama looked at the human. “What’s wrong?”

Kuwabara shook his head. “The emotions from Yusuke…Lin is psychic through her memories I was able to scan Yusuke myself. We need to leave him alone until they come back to him.”

“What are you talking about idiot?” Hiei growled. “What do you mean come back to him?”

“His emotions…” Kuwabara looked at the two seriously. “I couldn’t feel anything from Yusuke. Nothing at all…it was as if he was died again.”


Yusuke had made sure he took the long way to the internet café he wanted to go to. Thankfully, this one allowed him to smoke in it. He promptly went to the computer in the dark corner and sat down. He immediately went about using the skills he was shown a few times to hack into a secure server and began to chat with the correspondent he knew would be there.

DeathAdvocate: Are you there?

He knew he shouldn’t think that the other person was on. Hell they were in a whole other time zone. But he knew that he would get a response. He waited for a few minutes before his reply came through.

HazyPerception: I’m guessing something came up.


Yusuke smiled and began typing in earnest to the person.


DeathAdvocate: If you consider mass homicide something. But you knew that already…

HazyPerception: Nothing I can do from this side of the world sweetheart. Tell me when you discover which butler did it.

DeathAdvocate: I’m going to need your help with this.

HazyPerception: Depending in what capacity it might be too expensive for you.

DeathAdvocate: Cute, but I’m serious.

HazyPerception: This hit close to home didn’t it?

DeathAdvocate: You hacked into the files of my background...you tell me.

HazyPerception: That bad huh?


He didn’t type anything as he waited for the answer. He knew that he would need all the help he could with this case. Yusuke had a feeling it wasn’t just going to disappear even when he did solve it.


HazyPerception: Must be, for you to use this line instead of calling. I can be there within a week to a few weeks depending on the time frame. Case?

DeathAdvocate: Case File 50793. Don’t use my name or anything. I had even fun last time you used my badge to hack the system

HazyPerception: Still getting bitched at for the last time I did?

DeathAdvocate: You tore down all the computer security we had! Took the geeks three months to repair it all!

HazyPerception: Whoopies.

DeathAdvocate: Whoops my ass. I trust you’ll take a look through all the information and material before trying to contact me.

HazyPerception: You want lover-boy and our favorite Irish bitch in on this?

DeathAdvocate: If you want, I just want to find out if this bastard is alive or not.

HazyPerception: Three days, same payment. I’ll have all you need. Until then, do try not murdering anyone.


Hissing to himself, he didn’t bother to say goodbye as he logged off the secret server. He began to do a bit of research on the internet about a car accident that happened a couple years ago. One that was labeled as an accident done in by alcohol. Yusuke stared at the picture of the victim with a blank look. Memories of watching the report on TV with his mother came back to him in rapid succession. He stared at the picture, his vision tunnel around the face as the memories slammed into him. What the man did to him, what he was never tried for. Then for some reason, to solidify the idea, Yusuke uttered the man’s name.

“Takimori…” The picture looked back at him with a level look. The small smirk left a foreboding feeling in the pit of Yusuke’s stomach. “Was it you? Did you survive…”

Quickly closing down the computer, Yusuke made his way out of the café and headed home. After double back a few times to make sure that no one was following him, he finally got home. Wearily, he walked into his home and locked the front door. He immediately went about putting his guns in their set locations of his house as well as hanging up his holsters. Grabbing a six pack of beer from his fridge, he quickly made his way to his back yard to the hammock that he had set up under the large tree in the corner. He tossed off his jacket and settled himself to see back on the hammock sideways so his head could hang back over one of the sides.

He popped the top of the beer off with the open and started to let his body relax in the hammock. He stared up at the stars as he drank his beer. As he was taught by a friend, he let his mind simply go blank, enjoying the coolness of the night sky and the stars that were shining on him. Yusuke got through the fourth beer when he had slipped into sleep.

His dreams were not pleasant. Trapping him in the memories he had long ago locked away. He only settled when the wind carried the voice of a woman who had soothed his fears and gave him strength. Just a gentle whisper carried through the breeze murmuring his name.

‘Yusuke…’


In a different location a dark haired female looked up at the night sky with a sigh.

“Yusuke…” She murmured softly.

“What’s wrong?” A tall male asked from behind her.

“I can feel it,” She answered. “We need to be ready for the effects when it happens.”

“Think that he’ll be able to handle it?” The man question as he stood beside her now.

“Honestly…” She looked at her companion. “I don’t know, maybe…he will break under the pressure.” Turning back to the sky, she felt herself smile. “But I still hold faith in him.”

“One of very few…” Another deeper male voice said from behind the two. The female and her companion turned to the man with raised eyebrows.

“Joining us?” She asked.

“Observing the conversation,” Was the answer they were given.

The woman sighed and shook her head. Her companion grinned before turning to look at her again, his smile falling.

“Symptoms?”

“Insomnia, nightmares, exhaustion…” She murmured. “He’ll be out of it. Twitchy and a bit jumpy too…”

“Interesting…”

“Indeed,” The man behind them said. “Let us see if he can handle the pressure before we do anything.” As the woman started to protest, he added. “If he is the warrior you claim him to be, he will find ways to survive and fight strength against this.”

The woman shook her head. “It hits too close to a wounded past...I…I don’t know if he’ll be strong enough to overcome it all, but I still hope.”


The next few days was really trying for Yusuke and Lin. They had to start taking double shifts just to put in more time to figure out what kind of weapon did the wounds on the victims. On the third day, Yusuke was at the precinct late, everyone else on the office floor was gone, only leaving the officers on patrol and dispatch in downstairs. He had sent Lin home after figuring out the wounds were done by a serrated sharp edge weapon…as well as a power drill for some of the other victims.

Yusuke laid his head down on the desk, cushioned by his arms. He shook his head trying to make sure all the information was sorted into a place that was accessible but hidden. He gritted his teeth. Soon he would need to start doing this with his underground resources. There was only one person he could remember that called anyone a meek house-bitch. It was to him and that man was dead. Well…he was suppose to be dead anyway. The past few days doesn’t include dodging his former teammates as well as the monks that keep trying to get him to go to Makai.

Before Yusuke could think about it anymore, his desk phone rang. He jerked a bit and reached over to answer it without raising his head.

“Urameshi,” He answered.

“Oh be a little nicer to me,” A female voice said. “I got you the information you wanted to know.”

This caused him to look up and lift his head from the table. “How much do I owe you?”

“How about a one night stand? I’ve heard how fun you can be in bed.”

“Angel,” Yusuke growled a bit. “I really don’t think your boyfriend would like that.”

“I’m sure I can convince him to watch.” Angel said. Yusuke could practically see the grin.

“Angel…”

“Alright, okay…” The woman said. “I found no news on the dearly departed in question, but I did find something that could help you on your case.” He heard some papers shifting and some keys tapping. Suddenly his computer at his desk was alive and open. She spoke as she brought up some articles from underground news sources. “A man known only as the Collector has been gathering various ritualistic items. He has avoided Japan until now. Apparently he is looking for something that could help him tip the balance of power in his favor.” As she told him this various articles of the items popped up on his computer as well as a picture of a scroll which supposedly had the item of power inscribed in it.

“Why would he want that kind of power?”

“You got me, but apparently whatever these items do, the last piece is in Japan.” Angel answered.

“What does this have to do with the case?” Yusuke narrowed his eyes.

Angel sighed. “There was a body trail that led to each item Yusuke. It had a similar M.O that you have there. With each item that was stolen, dead bodies appeared in gruesome ways.”

“Do you know what the items were?” Yusuke asked sitting back in his chair, watching his computer screen.

“It all varies,” Angel said. “One was a large crystal, another was a chalice from Italy…but some of them don’t make sense. A rope that was supposedly used to slay a dragon...the spoon that apparently was used by the Egyptian Gods.” He could hear her frustration.

“You think he stole more than he needed to for decoy purposes?”

“He might have,” Angel said. “But if he did why bring so much attention to him with all the murdering?”

“I can’t answer that, I’m not the psychopath.”

“Yes, we all can’t be savvy delinquents.”

“I know, you aren’t that perfect.” Yusuke replied with a grin. “You don’t have to come to Japan, I’ll just update you when more happens. Thanks for the help Angel.”

“No problem, but just so you know, I’ve told Jaxxia about this. She’s going to keep her eyes and ears open for you too, this way I can have some alone time with my man.” Angel answered.

“Thanks for the heads up, I’ll keep an eye out for information from her as well.” Yusuke answered.

“Be careful Yusuke,” Angel answered. “Whatever this guy is after, I’m sure he’ll do anything to get it. And I’m sure he has some very powerful allies…” She didn’t bother saying goodbye when she hung up.

Yusuke put the phone back on the receiver and looked at the pictures on his screen. If this guy really was working the same underground, then there were going to be demons involved. He grinned.

“I can’t wait.”