Adult-FanFiction.org : YuYu Hakusho

Stepfather
By : Artemick
Category: Yuyu Hakusho > Yaoi - Male/Male
Views: 7320 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I make no money. I own no YYH.
Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
                My feet hit the ground. I entreated the lichen and roots, the microscopic mosses they'd tracked into the cave on their shoes. I asked them to pull the rock down behind me. I gave them my ki; they grew. The cave ceiling collapsed in a stone cascade. The passage was packed with rubble, sheets of rock the size of buses.
                My heart leapt for the first time in minutes. I felt my knees and toes ache, banging against the stone. I changed my run from that of a frightened boy to a fox, soft footed and light, on my toes. Silent, I raced up towards the scent of free air, tripping in a passage lit only by the faintest bioluminescence.
                Then ahead, bright artificial light. I did not slow down, only kept silent.
                I came into open space -- a cavern.
There were two people blocking the way. One was a child, leaning over a video game. The other was a tall boy, much like Urameshi. He stood and looked around, reaching into a pocket –
                I ran at him, throwing punches, charging in as he backed up, blocking. I swept my arm around his, snapped his wrist - I broke his knee, stomping into it, - I slammed the base of my hand into his chest, head butted his nose, brought my knee into his groin. I followed him down and slammed his head into the ground.
                He was still. I panted, staring. But he did not move. I lifted my head and looked at the child.
                The kid cooed, “Awesome.”
A publication on youth desensitization, which I'd dismissed at the time, crossed again through my mind. I bent and took off the unconscious boy’s shoes and jeans. "Thanks."
                “Are you a superhero?”
                I tugged the jeans over my bare legs. “No."
                The boy watched me dress. “That was cool.”
                “Violence is a last resort,” I told him sternly, as I pulled on the young man's socks.
                "You're like a fighting character."
Behind me, there tunnel rumbled. Sensui was removing the debris from the collapsed tunnel. I stomped my heels down into the tied sneakers and ran. The kid called after me.
A door appeared. I threw up my hands, smashing into it. It had appeared from nowhere.
The chill of a psychic's territory spread up my back. I turned. The child was in the middle of a chessboard, ordering two white bishops to carry Sniper off to the side. I inhaled hard, then stalked back.
The boy grinned at me, then hopped back behind his wall of pawns. "Let's see how good you are in a real game."
"Lets." I stepped up to the edge. All the black pieces were arranged, adult height statues of onyx. There was no king.
The boy was standing beside the queen. "I'm Gamemaster."
"I'm Kurama."
"You're pretty cool. And they all say you're the smartest enemy we got. But I bet you're not as smart as me."
I smiled. Slowly, I slid my hands into the jean pockets. "I'm probably not."
"Yeah. But I'm bored. So just do your best and I'll tell them you cooperated."
I stepped onto the board. "How kind."
"Forward!" His king's pawn slid fully out.
I matched it, saying quietly, "5e. Leaving yourself open?"
"Hardly." He put a knight in front of himself.
"Smart to stay guarded. A king is the only piece who matters, isn't it?" I put the queen forward to 4h.
"Now you're open." He brought his other knight forward.
"What does Sensui give you?" I asked, mirroring his move. "He lets you play games without interference?"
"I'm gatekeeper. I guard the door. And he'll get rid of school forever. And my stupid parents. They're always bothering me. And the other kids. Once they're gone, I can play with demons. That'll be great."
He brought up the queen's pawn forward to threaten my king's pawn. I took it with my knight.
"Moron. You're not watching the whole board. Should've backed off!"
"A good warning."
"Bishop, take his queen!"
I listened to the tunnel being cleared.
"This is hardly fair," I said. His bishop slid sideways, knocking my queen off the board. "You surrender if you lose. But do you know what happens to me if I'm caught?"
"Who cares? Stop being a sore loser and play."
"Knight to F3."
He stared at the board as it flickered and vanished. The boy was knocked down invisibly, as if he received a blow to the head. The fallen king. The surrender.
The territory retreated and there was nothing but a fading ghost of the statues, and in the center of the room, a cheap cardboard chessboard and the boy, unconscious.
I turned. "Checkmate."
The doors opened and vanished.
                I scrambled out of the cavern mouth and blinked. I was in the woods. But it was nothing like the field I was picked up in. We hadn't even been close to the right place - or there were two exits. This one as nowhere near the factory where Koenma had sent us. I reached out with my energy, finding oaks, chestnuts, maples - hard and soft woods, briars and rhododendrons, an embarrassment of riches, an arsenal.
                “Minamino.” Sensui, at my back.
                I took all my energy and poured it out as a sacrifice to the trees, a bribe and tribute. I will them to carry a message: my location to the Spirit World. They accepted. I lowered myself onto my knees, gasping.
                “What was that? What did you do?”
                I opened my eyes to see his shoes on the grass between my hands. I threw myself back.
                Sensui stood, imperious before me in the rainy light. “That emptied you. I hope it was worth it.”
                “I told you I wouldn’t hurt him,” I breathed, lifting my hands before me in a guard position.
                “You kept your word,” Sensui acknowledged. “Itsuki is fine. His throat is bruised.”
                I glanced down. “Are you sure those are new?"
                “We can check on fresh skin. Like yours."
                I swallowed. My vision prickled on the edges. “Sensui, sir,” I said, blinking hard. “Let me pass. I’ve played whore to your boy. I was told you were a principled person.”
                Sensui stepped up. “By who?”
                “The spirit realm,” I bluffed. "Their files."
                Sensui laughed heartily, throwing his head back up the the sky. He clapped his hands as if it were a good joke. The instant his eyes closed, I bolted. His hand came down on my shoulder and he flung me – I felt a whip of vertigo and I plunged into the ground. I pulled out my rose and got to me knees, crouching.
                “Spirit world's files.” Sensui chuckled. “Then you know what I am.”
                “A man,” I said. “Like any other.”
                “Right! A spirit detective,” he said, advancing.
                I felt like I saw him down a long tunnel. A spirit detective. My vision was closing off with exhaustion, just as my reactions sped with adrenaline.
                “Like your Urameshi,” he offered. “I was an idealist then. And then I learned the truth. Demons are animals. You do what you’re programmed to. You obsess. You adore strength. You run. And you steal, fuck, and kill like the mindless opportunists you are. So do men, but for some reason we pretend we’re better. A defense mechanism to con others into softening.”
                “The polite conceit,” I said, dry mouthed.
                “Pride! Right,” he chucked my chin, suddenly beside me. "Clever. Clever fox. You are charming."
                I tried to dodge away and tripped pathetically over my own crossing feet, tumbling. I was tired – and he was fast. His foot tapped my ribs and I crawled, crawled away, begging him, “Please, please let me go. The world is ending. Let me at least spend the last hour with my family. Please."
                “That’s right. You’re the demon with a mother.”
                “I know your strength. I knew it even then, in the cavern – before, when you tied me. You're experienced; you know how people think; you know what I am and you've disabled my kind before. I can't fight you.” I shook my head. “You’re so much stronger. Even holding back, you could – “
                He kicked me.
                I leapt out of the way – my rose whip shattered as I lost my concentration, putting all my energy into my muscles to move.
                "Fast.”
                I stood, dizzy. I was blind – close to passing out. I held one hand out, the other in a fist guarding near my jaw, and I listened for anything - a footstep or breath, anything that would let me know he was coming. That was the only help I would have: to know an instant before he struck. I had to be out of the way or I would die. Fast, as he said, I had to be fast.
                “Are you…” I heard his voice shift – he was bobbing his head, trying to see if I could follow him with my eyes. “Are you blinded?"
                I shut my useless eyes and tried to take a breath.
                “How are you going to flee me, with no vision? How will you see the road?”
                I listened. I couldn’t speak; my words might blot out some clue of movement.
                "You can't see me." He laughed softly.
I heard him coming near and I stepped back. I inhaled, trying to scent him. For a second I had him and turned, but he darted – several times, quickly, and the trail was confused. It seemed he was everywhere.
                “Come here, Minamino.”
                I stepped back again – into flesh. Sensui was behind me. I felt hands clasp my elbows from underneath. He slid his face down into my hair.
                I could not die here, not relinquishing myself to his hands.
                “You’re low, Minamino. But you want to know how to survive the waterfall? You relax, and it will carry you around the rocks.”
                I smothered the memories and drew breath. “I'm not Itsuki. I didn't follow you here in love. I was raped and dragged back to be raped again. I asked you to protect me. You didn't. I cannot let you carry me back in there to him.”
                “Why don’t you fight for me?”
                “I love this world.”
                “Over your own.”
                "Easily." I took a breath, evening my voice. "You have no idea what it is to live among demons. Humanity has more to it than you’ve seen. Humans are cruel, but their cruelty is the bare shallows; their crimes are tidal pools, while demons play in the depths of the oceans' trenchs. You have no understanding of our heritage. You're idolizing your lover and his kind; you think we are exotic and lead natural lives. But we invent newer and deeper tortures every generation. It's an art. Even your repugnant rapist is charming compared to the world you're describing. I'd rather him tear me apart than bring the Makai here."
Sensui leaned his chin on my head. "I can’t let you leave."
                I waited, feeling where his body was, where his limits were.
                There was a hole scarcely enough for a needle.
                I relaxed, leaning.
                “Sensui…tell him you killed me.” Trembling, I lifted his hand to my throat. “Tell him you left me in pieces with my blood sinking into the forest.”
                He chuckled.
                "Or do it. This is a beautiful place. A fox should die in the woods."
                “I wish I could let you go, sweet boy. But you’re a hostage. As long as you’re alive, I have another challenge for my little detective.” Sensui moved his hand to my head, patting me. “Besides, my employee needs incentive.”
                I twisted and punched into his kidney.
                It barely impacted – he vanished, moving back.
                I could sense the trees in my blindness like warm shapes, which called to me, begged me to touch them. They wanted the wild fox energy; they sensed our alliance. I raced blind at them, willing them to shut behind me.
                Tree trunks rolled closed in a wall at my back. But just as quickly, Sensui burst through– the force of his blow threw branches that knocked me onto my stomach.
I scrambled up and ran. His feet thudded. Branches knit after me. He burst through again, roaring.
                He was above me. He struck me down, his fist into the back of my head.
                I tumbled down, rolling hard into a tree trunk. I blacked out.
                Perhaps it was only seconds. I heard the world as if it were inside a sea shell.
                I pushed up on my elbows. His foot came down on the small of my back.
“Down, boy.”
                I grabbed fistfuls of dirt. I was too tired to cry.
                His hand tugged down the waist of the jeans I was wearing. “I saw what you did to Sniper. Back in the caverns. You're fast. Smart too. A great fighter. As promised.”
                I rested my forehead on my arms, feeling around. I could not hear the plants. My energy was nothing, depleted. I had nothing left.
                “I do like demons. Your coloring. Your beauty.”
                No.
                “Itsuki is recovering. But he was like you once. Ferocious. A fighter. Proud – the polite conceit." The lilting, poetic admiration paused. When he spoke again it was as before, and almost a different voice. "It’s been years since I’ve had to hold him in the dirt like this.”
                “He must love you,” I whispered.
                “You things don’t love. Neither do people. We use each other, we obsess. The trick…is to get it out of your system where it won’t cause trouble. Like when Itsuki and your lovely master aren't around.” He ran a hand from my waist to my heel, tearing the jeans from waist to hem and leaving my leg bare.
                “Please…”
                “I am pleased. Look how pale you are. Like a fish, those veins. Lie still.” He wrapped his arm under me and pulled me up, his hand flat against my stomach. My palms stayed clenched in the dirt, trying to draw some healing from it.
His knees shoved mine far, far apart.
                I did nothing except feel as he pushed inside me. I had no strength even to react. Blood was trickling inside my mouth, the lacerations from my teeth against my cheeks when I impacted the ground. I let the blood drool out, the ugly taste.
                He patted my back. “Not bad. Not great, but not bad. Not what I imagined.”
                Blood pooled under me, sinking into the dirt.
                A waste.
                I closed my hand around the bloody dirt, making a blade. Then I plunged it through his wrist and tore up toward his elbow, shredding the arteries and veins on the inside of his arm.
                He grunted, then grabbed my forearm. Yanking it straight, he dropped his knee onto my elbow, hauling my wrist back. I couldn't twist away and the bones cracked. I screamed. It hurt, it hurt terribly.
                He breathed raggedly. Then he spoke quickly. "I was going to let that bitch Shinobu deal with you. Yeah. Yeah. The cunt. He subdued hundreds of demon foxes. Very practical little shit that he is. All the right wards and precautions, all that crap. But he doesn't have the stomach to fuck you up. Not like you deserve. Oh ho, no. He can execute the strong, but the weak, they're my game."
                It was like he was a different man.
                I swallowed to wet my throat and gasped, "Who are you?"
                "No friend of yours. But we actually share a name. Kazuya and I."
                My stepfather?
                "And now we share your nightmare."
He let go of my wrist, then pulled up his arm. He grabbed my skull with his wide hand and jammed my face into the ground. Holding me there, he caught his breath. Then he began to rock.
I lay still as he drove into me.
                He finished inside. I could feel it. My insides crawled.
                "Don't you and I have more in common?" I said, turning. "Dissociation can be induced by trauma. Did someone put you through nightmares?"
                For a moment, there was a silence, then he made a sound like a woman crying. But Kazuya kept his hand on my skull. Then I felt all five fingers on my skull shift. He twisted my hair around his hand like a rope and jerked it. "Get up."
                My right arm was swollen and throbbing. I pulled it up to my chest like a dog with a hurt paw. I put all my weight on my left hand and scrambled up after him. He held me low; I fell, twisting, and dragged along the grass for a few steps before I got my feet under me, awake enough to follow.
                Kazuya, or Sensui, reached back and tapped my arm. I covered, flinching.
It'd tear out my hair, but I could try to run again, maybe. What else could he do, but beat me again? He'd admitted he wouldn't kill me. I'd given up, sent my message for help.
                Sensui spoke. I heard a wash of sound, and rubbed at my ear. He repeated slowly, and I picked out the words, "…fought with Gamemaster?"
                "He's alive," I said quickly. "I left him alive."
                "You didn't kill him?"
                I really should have. I didn't have time and it didn't seem necessary when I was escaping, but I should have killed them both; now I'd have to fight them again, or the others would, and one might kill a Reikai Tantei member, someone I loved much more. I should have killed both. But I was afraid to stop even an instant.
                "Of course not," I said. "He's a child. How could I kill a child?"
                "Soft heart."
                Half his words were getting lost. No doubt my voice was off tone; I couldn't hear my own words. I was dizzy.
                I ducked and twisted under, diving toward some tall grass and brambles. I readied for my hair to tear –
                But it didn't. He let go. Prerecognition warned me, the lack of sound – he was moving like Hiei, behind me. I reversed, throwing my guard up as his knee ploughed into my elbow just as I bent low to protect my ribs.
My feet left the ground. Air hissed past. I hit cavern rock. I slid down, throwing my stance wide to balance. I panted, leaning against the wall. My knees trembled.
                Sensui followed me. I blinked, my sight barely good enough to give me his black outline against the bright day. He stopped directly in front of me and locked eyes. Slowly, he lowered himself to my height.
                "Why don't we go inside?"
                His presence was a jail. I couldn't move. But I watched him.
                "Shinobu?"
                Sensui cupped my face in his large hands. I flinched, tilting my chin up. I let him flick my hair back. "Yes."
"Who is the poet then?"
He frowned. "I must seem quite insane to you."
"No. How many…" I glanced over his face. As Shinobu, Sensui was a little frightened – but in control. The dominant personality of many.
A memory lifted in me. The seven.
Sensui reached near to my face. He pushed my lips aside to check my teeth. I wanted to tell him my teeth were fine; I was a professional. This wasn't my first match.
"You're a fighter, Minamino. Mmm. It's good. Itsuki is…passive."
I tried to push his hand from my face. He put his fingers to my pulse. I could feel his aura testing mine, coming deep into me. It proved how depleted my soul had become.
"This dry well."
                "Do you enjoy that I am dying?" I asked, hoarse. "Do you prefer your lovers in their last moments?"
                "No. Of course not." He looked honestly disgusted. "Come on. Why don't we go inside?"
                I looked out at the light. "I can heal myself if I'm near the forest."
Sensui rubbed his jaw. "Tell me what you did there."
"What?"
                "You spent your energy. Doing what?"
                "I don't understand – "
"Fox. Kazuya can take care of you. Or I can."
"Please, Shinobu. If you don't want me dead, don't let Kazuya out again."
"I returned because he wants to sweep troubles away instantly. He has no eye for the long game. He wants a clean desk and he has one strategy to get it."
"You and I are the same," I said. "Our souls hold demons, unhinged. Love ties our hands. Sanity lives on a knife's edge."
I wanted to talk to the poet. The poet could not fight. If I could bring out the poet, I could run. I lifted my chin. "You like a controllable challenge. An ally to dominate. I understand completely. Which is why I know that however you love Itsuki as a demon, a friend, it is another part of you that is in love with Itsuki. Who is that?"
Sensui got up. He walked into the daylight. Leaning around the edge of the cave for a moment, he swiped his hand down a vine, picking the heads of the wildflowers.
He brought them back and held his hand out.
I opened my hand. He dropped the flowers into my palm. Honeysuckle. Antibiotic; anti-inflammatory.
"Thank you."
He grinned and lifted his hand as a priest might. He knelt beside me. He said nothing.
After their fight, Hiei and Yuusuke sat bruised, side by side. Hiei looked over. Yuusuke lay on his back. "Feel any better, detective?"
"NO."
"Less suicidally impulsive?"
"Yes," he moaned, drawling like a bad student.
A wave hit them both. A sudden rush of energy, foreign and brilliant, like prismatic sunlight. Images of leaves, the pump of sap, and the quiet strength of hidden roots pierced their eyes.
"Kurama." Hiei stood. He pointed.
Yuusuke saw the branches of the forest had folded back into a line.
I wanted to heal my arm, but Sensui promised he would break it again if I tried. When I had used all the flower to heal my insides, my ki, a process of barely eight minutes, he said, "Let's go make your excuses."
I should have killed Takasune. I should have killed Gamemaster and the other boy. I should have killed Itsuki, even if it meant Sensui would have killed me. Now they were all alive, angry, and I was being walked back into the kicked hornets' nest. Nothing gained but a flare sent up.
Sensui was singing. It was a demon song, a love song, about drinking tea and writing poems in the new rains of spring. But it was not the poet. He sang it with sarcasm; Shinobu, singing a song Itsuki had taught him perhaps.
His voice echoed behind me, making my march through the passage surreal.
Sensui was baffling; his humor changed in great range, and his lies came so easily. I edged ahead. I was blazing the path for the team by encouraging spots of luminescence. Sensui did not seem to notice or care.
Once, he reached out, fingertips stroking between the blades of my shoulders. I stopped, leaning against the wall, waiting for it to escalate.
"Keep walking. I can get what I need when you're under control."
The sprint over stone and the fights had taken their toll on my knees and feet, making me limp slightly as I came into the Gamemaster's cavern. Seaman was there, bending over Sniper. Under crisp hoary curls, he was pale with shock.
                Sensui put his hand on my back and looked at me.
"They're only unconscious," I said. "Gamemaster's territory exacted the consequences for his loss. I never touched the child; it was the rules of the game that the king would fall in surrender."
                Sensui laughed. It was a loud sound in the quiet cavern. "Minamino thinks you're worked up over nothing, Seaman."
                "Nothing?" Seaman's voice went high.
                I looked up at Sensui. "Aren't you a medic?"
                "We had a surgeon." Sensui smiled. "We sent him out to kill Urameshi."
                Yuusuke would be fine. He was with everyone. "Why?"
"It's a test." He left it at that. "You know medicine, Minamino. I've watched you heal yourself; I can feel you running energy now."
                "I need plants."
                "No. You don't get near anything green."
                "I can't heal either of your child soldiers with rock."
                He leaned very close to me. "Why don't you try? For your own sake?"
                I edged forward and knelt beside Seaman. He glared, eyes red rimmed, and growled, "I'll kill you if you hurt them. I'll drown you."
I nodded. "I know. I'm only taking his pulse."
I touched Gamemaster's throat. He was fine. I tapped his face with the back of my hand and his eyelashes fluttered. He opened his eyes.
Seaman looked at me.
I nodded and moved to the older boy. His chest moved; he was breathing. I saw gashes. "That wasn't an injury I caused."
"He was fighting Urameshi."
Yuusuke survived the surgeon then – and surely this boy.
"He lost blood. That's all. It'll clot on its own. I'm sorry, Seaman -- I just needed him to let me pass. I needed to escape; I didn't want to hurt them."
Seaman nodded.
I muttered, "Why would you sent your only medic to spearhead an attack on the spirit detective?"
                Seaman tilted his head at Sensui. "He did it."
                "Your boss is as dumb as my boss," I murmured.
Seaman exhaled a weak laugh.
                Gamemaster sat up, moaning. He saw me and frowned, then rolled away.
"Don't be a sore loser," I said. "You played well. Chess isn't like video games. People memorize openings for years. I'm just older. You'll get better."
The kid sulked. Seaman exhaled. I watched his face and realized why I hadn't killed any of them. I'd obeyed instinct, and it was right. We weren't fighting a battle of numbers, slaughtering an uncompromising foe. We were fighting a tiny team of idealists in a moral war. How we fought had to be persuasive. Their complaint was the evil of the world. I could bring Seaman, Sniper, and Gamemaster to our side. To win was to show mercy.
                I cradled my swelling arm, wincing. "I'm glad they're okay."
                Seaman looked at my torn jeans, the mud and scrapes on my knees and face.
                "You wouldn't help me," I whispered, looking at the ground. "I had to. I had to escape this. I didn't want to hurt anyone."
                Sensui stepped up behind me. I could smell him now, his sweat and stench.
                "Seaman, this is a demon. A fox, specifically. It looks human and it'll tell you whatever it thinks you'll listen to. But it wants to get out and tell its friends about us. Ah!" Sensui shook a finger at me -- he had realized what I'd done. "Bring an army to our door. You sent a message, didn't you, you crying little… Anyway. This fox is a soldier, a spy and our enemy. It wants to kill you and all of us. It doesn't care about a better world."
                Seaman grew cold. "I know, sir."
                "Your fair leader is studying under the tutelage of the Makai," I snarled. "You can see in the cruelty of his docents. That's his better world, where he can rape whatever he likes, whatever he can - "
                Sensui hooked a hand over my mouth. "You see. It shows it's sharp little teeth." He let go and gave me a hard pat on the head. "Watch your language."
I glared up. "You think dehumanizing me will convince Seaman – "
                "Don't let him talk, Seaman. That's an order."
                Seaman stood. He took a water bottle from his hip and unscrewed the top. He poured the water out and, grunting, threw out his ki.
                I was cowering, but the water hit me in the face. I fell over Sniper's body. The water covered my face, my nose and mouth, like a glove, like a mask. I clawed, but my fingers scraped through.
                I lifted my good hand up to Seaman, grabbing at his clothes, and tried not to breathe.
                Sensui came up, crossing his arms. "He's killed before, this boy. He'd kill your teammates in a heartbeat. Whether they'd touched him or not."
                Seaman's hand trembled.
                If I had my plants, oxygen would not matter. As it was, seven minutes. Four before loss of functioning. He wouldn't expect that, wouldn't know I could handle it. Most couldn't.
Most couldn’t kill a child either.
Perhaps Seaman couldn't be saved.
                Sensui said, "I'll be watching him until his team gets here. Me or Gourmet. Someone senior. Unless you need to take him out right now."
                I toppled, heaving. But I watched him, watched his eyes.
                Seaman ripped the water off. I gasped.
Sensui took Seaman aside to calm him. I rolled to my side, coughing.
                The child, Gamemaster, put his hand on my shoulder. "You okay?"
                "Hurt." My voice pitched high. "My arm is broken."
                "Broken?"
                I sat up, holding my chest. Breathing deep, I asked, "You've never broken a bone?"
The child shook his head.
"The bone shards stab at you from the inside. It hurts."
                Seaman shouted, "Get away from him, Gamemaster. Come here."
                "Why do you adults fight like that?" Gamemaster said. "Why don't you play games to see who wins, if it hurts so bad to punch people?"
                "We play lots of fun games," Sensui purred. "In fact, Nightmare wants to play a game with him now, or we'd leave him to you for your chess board."
                "I'd rather play chess," I said. "I'll stay here and play chess."
                "Shut up."
                Gamemaster snorted. "Well if he wants to play and I have the board out, can't we – "
                "Please set up the Goblin game right now, Gamemaster," Sensui said. "Koenma's team is on their way, thanks to our precious - guest. You have a job, the most important job right now."
                Gamemaster balked. "You said no one would tell me what to do. Ever!"
                "No one will. But right now, you're like a game hero. We need you. You're the only one who can protect us. You have to stop the enemy while we fight."
                Gamemaster turned up his nose, but then he nodded and wandered off, picking up a console from a cardboard box and dragging out wires.
I saw Sensui coming at me.
                "You think I won't break your other arm?"
                I stumbled upright.

                Seaman carried the older boy, Sniper, on his back. Sensui walked with me ahead.
                A thought occurred to me. I waited. Then, thinking I could cause confusion in the narrow passage, sure that Sensui wouldn't dare attack so near his people and Seaman would be weighed down with Sniper's dead weight, and having an excuse if I failed – I bolted.
But the water whipped my feet out from under me and began dragging me up. My head cracked on the stone, my arm jerked -
                "Be good," Seaman said.
                Sensui laughed as I dropped.
                I hit the ground curling around my arm. I began to cry. I let myself sob in pain, in frustration, then crushed it down.
                Sensui took Sniper and motioned. "Get him up."
                The water lifted me. I protested. "No – it's not – it's the child. Gamemaster. That Goblin game. He can't use that."
                "The games are harmless," Seaman said. He walked beside me, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets. "Your friends won't even die. We just want them to stay put. They can keep playing forever, they just can't leave. It's a stalling tactic.
                Sensui smirked at me - a nod to me at the idiocy of his people. "Seaman, hush. Don't tell him anything. He's smarter than you know."
                "It's not about my people," I insisted. "If that child loses, and the game extracts its own consequences, the territory rules will kill him."
                Seaman turned. "What?"
                "That particular game has a graphic depiction of the death of the villain if you win."
                Sensui struck at me. But he was angry, and I was expecting it: I dodged and feigned a hit, dropping and crying out.
                "Stop," Seaman said.
                "It's not true," Sensui said. "Don't you think I'd have checked that? Seaman. You know me."
                "All in, then?" I taunted him.
The blond boy looked at me. He put out a hand to pull me up. "It's fine, Kurama. Gamemaster never loses."
                "Against Kaito Yuu?" I stared. "You don't even know who you're up against."
                "I do." Sensui crooned. "I assure you, Seaman, there's no harm. Besides, even if there were, the risk of martyrdom is worth the reward. We've all accepted this."
                The blond boy nodded. "Yes."
                "He's a kid," I said.
                "We're all kids," Seaman said slowly. He was giving up. Piece by piece, letting it all change around him. He had no strength.
"You think you're the only one trying to fix this world?" I hissed. "I know what people are." I pushed myself up the wall, standing. "Look at me. I've suffered more cruelty at your hands than you ever have or will. I still don't think humanity deserves to die."
                Seaman stopped. He was so pale that his features were lost in the gleam of the light. "Humans are sick. This is only proof."
                I looked through my bangs at Sensui. "Letting a child die. For a test?"
                Sensui smiled. "First the new spirit detective will have to murder of a murderer, in active self defense. Then we'll see if he can the murder of an innocent, but still in self defense. Can he sacrifice a guily man for his righteous cause? An innocent man? A child? Let's see. What comes next…"
                He pushed his open hand at my neck. The webbing of his hands touched my throat. Then he brought it straight up, jerking my jaw.
                "How about a friend?" He whispered.
                "Sniper returned alive," I said. "And the surgeon is likely incarcerated, madman, not dead."
                Sensui shoved me forward.
                We came into the large cavern. They'd moved Kuwabara close, out on the lake, where the gash between dimensions was feeding on him. He was bound tightly, in the bottom of an anchored canoe.
I wiped my face and breathed.
Takasune got off the couch and jogged over. I stopped. They all stopped.
                "Minamino." Takasune gave a half grin.
                I let a smile glance over my face. I stepped forward, putting my hands up slowly, and I lay my lips on his. He let me. I pulled his lower lip between my, very softly. Then I stood back, waiting.
                Takasune put his arms around me.
                "Save me from Sensui," I whispered in his ear. "Please, Taka-kun. He tore into me – please."
                "Nightmare," Sensui called. "I need you to go to the backroom and wait. Your doll has a little role to play before he follows."
                I held onto Takasune's jacket, whispering, "No, no. Don't make me go with him. Take me. Let me be yours."
                "Go on." Sensui waved. "I'll send him in later."
                Takasune was fixated on me. His eyelids hung; his grin was unresponsive. Grabbing my upper arms, he leaned in and smashed his lips to mine. He held them there. It was odd, passionless, like a stage actor kiss. Like he thought to give a kiss meaning if he held motionless for an eternity, like a movie ending. He must never have kissed anyone before; perhaps he didn't know how.
                He pulled me into his hips. My injured arm hit his chest. I gasped and recoiled. He stared and I excused my reaction: "My arm's broken."
                "Broken?"
                My eyes went to Sensui, who was quite close now, and I stuttered, "An…accident."
                Takasune followed my eyes. "Hey. You want to play rough, use Itsuki. This one's mine."
                Sensui motioned Seaman forward. "Takasune. Your doll nearly killed Itsuki when he got loose. Then he beat Sniper to a pulp and knocked Gamemaster unconscious. When I caught him outside, he tried to kill me, and then tried to kill Seaman as we were returning. In another ten seconds he's going to kill you, that close to your throat."
                "I'm not!" I cried. "He's l – "
                I wanted to say 'lying' but Sensui lifted a finger and I flinched. Like 'rape,' that was another word to watch.
Takasune looked me over. I cradled my broken arm, mute, looking like a frightened idiot.
                There was a grunt; Sniper was awake enough that Seaman was able to help him sit on the arm of the couch.
                Sensui told me, "Give him back his clothes, kitsune."
                I checked with Takasune, who motioned to go ahead. I slipped my arm out of the jacket and tugged it off over my broken arm. Holding it gingerly by the collar, I edged over to them, watching Sniper. I extended the jacket, like I were handing meat to a junkyard dog.
                Sniper blinked. "Hey. You. You're the guy from the field. How'd you get that?"
                Concussions could cause short term memory loss. I started to pull the tshirt over my purpling arm, but Seaman stopped me. "Nightmare, just get him a new one, will you? And some other jeans."
                "Don't pity him. He's playing you. It isn't his fault. That's what it is, to be human or demon," Sensui said. "Deception and malice is a natural state."
                I stared at the floor in front of me. There was one game left. "I'm not playing anyone."
                "Liar."
                I looked back up at him. "What? You going to make me suck your cock if I run off again? That's what you use your authority for, raping prisoners. Beating the shit out of teenagers."
                "You shouldn't talk about those things in front of a bunch of impressionable kids." Sensui grinned, his eyes bolted to mine.
                "You shouldn't be doing them."
                "Seaman. You ever fuck a redhead?"
                Seaman and I met eyes. We both ducked our heads, I, embarrassed and he, mortified.
                "They're a real treat. The way they like it halfway through."
                It was getting to me. I didn't want it to. But it was getting to me.
                "You're a liar," I said. "You're a liar, and you're sick."
                Seaman cleared his throat. "I'm going to go rest, Sensui."
                "Abandon me again, coward."
                I said it loud. Seaman breathed fast.
                "This boy is the bravest I know," Sensui soothed him, squeezing his shoulder. He pulled Seaman into a half hug, grinning at me. "See it bark? I warned you, Seaman, it'll try to rile you up. Don't let it. Demons are just animals; they don't mean anything by what they say. It's just noise, whatever they think will hurt you. They're just bullies."
                "Me?"
                Sniper lifted a hand. "I'm sorry. Who is this?"
                "Mine," Takasune said.
                "What the hell's that mean? We 'get' people now?"
                "That's not a person," Sensui purred. "Just a thing. Pretending."
                "I am a person. I have a mother, I have a family, I have friends, and I have a life!" I shouted, walking up to him.
                Sensui smiled, stepping up. I stopped, startled, inside his reach. I backed away.
                "Of course you do," Sensui condescended. "I know you think that. But the truth is, they're casualties in the way of a greater good. We've all made sacrifices."
Sniper, fed up with his own confusion, put on his jacket and lay down on the couch. "Whatever."
                Takasune stood near.
                "Nightmare. Go to the surgeon's room and get bandages. We need to leash your pet. I'll wait till you get back."
                Takasune nodded and jogged off.
I looked up to Sensui. He sauntered to me, put both hands on my shoulders and leaned into my face, murmuring, "You think you're going to turn them on me. You're not. I've been in the game longer. Built up trust."
                "You're a psychopath." I returned. "You can't recognize trust. You can't feel it. You think you feel guilt, love, all those things. But you don't. It's fake. Paintings of emotion. And they know. They know."
                "Poetic. Meaningless."
                "You don't know what they're thinking. You never will."
                He laughed hard. "None of my 'people' recognize psychopathic mannerisms. It's a moot point."
                I was going to ask, but I scented something awful, like rubber cement, something I recognized. Then it made sense. I stopped smiling.
Gourmet stepped out. "He knows."
                "Knows what?" Sensui said.
                "That I can read minds. And why. Because of your joke." Gourmet sighed. "Can't keep a secret from this one. Treat him like he's me."
                I blanked my mind, sending my thoughts low, like fish that spent the winter in depths of mud and leaves. Alive but cold.
                Gourmet stared.
                I ran energy through my arm, healing.
                Gourmet translated. "He bought himself credit with the more vulnerable: Gamemaster and Seaman. Now he's working on Sniper, and an alliance with the pervert. He thinks they're ripe for turning, ready to be converted assets. But worst of all is the guilt, the guilt he feels for using them this way. Like sacrifices; he's sad because he's acting like you. He's copying you, he knows it. He feels guilty that he does it so well. And hurt pride that it's his only choice."
                Sensui leaned over to my ear. "I don't need to understand them. He'll let me know if any one turns traitor, and I'll break their neck."
                My lip curled. In my mind, I let the water of the pond freeze. First distracting, intricate sworls of frost; complex reasoning that went nowhere, only repeated and trailed off. And below that, ice. Just ice full of shifting shadows, theories, criss crossing and contradicting. And above, blowing snow.
                "Cover all you want." Gourmet crowed. "I don't need to read your mind to see how weak you are! You've only got pathetic no-power strategy left. You're cozying back to Nightmare so he won't whip you like a naughty runaway, but he's expendable. He'll be dead soon."
                Sensui cleared his throat. "Quiet, prophet."
                Gourmet giggled. I looked at Sensui. Sensui sat under my examination. I looked away.
                Itsuki stepped out of a dimensional rip. I jolted in surprise, but didn't run; there wasn't anywhere to go safer than the floor.
                Itsuki was lovely up close as languid as Yoko. He came up to me and knelt down, putting his fingers over the pressure points on my neck. I looked at his hair, crystalline, covering the bruise I had left, thin as watercolor paint. He whispered, "We need to move you. Too much of a risk, to have you so near the breach."
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Stepfather	By : Artemick Category: Yuyu Hakusho > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 7320 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I make no money. I own no YYH.

Stepfather