Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ THE WOLVES OF MUSHIYORI CITY ❯ On The Crosshairs ( Chapter 4 )

CHAPTER 4: ON THE CROSSHAIRS

 

 

 

Mitarai woke to the irritating noise of a racquetball bouncing off of his bedroom wall and deduced that the day was sunday.

"I'm up, Yana! Stop that damn noise!"

 

He quickly dressed as he knew that Yana would not cease throwing a ball against his wall until he was dressed and ready to go.

Sunday morning tradition dictated a game a handball followed by lunch on Yana whether the world was ending or not.

"Kaito tells me that you're looking for Sniper. How come I had to hear from him? You should have come to me first."

 

Mitarai pulled on his padded gloves on his way out of his apartment and to the back of the elementary school located across the street they had adopted as their handball court.

"It was a spur of the moment idea. I didn't even start looking for him yet. That's what you're for, isn't it?" He served but Yana was too distracted to volley the ball back.

"Finding a guy I haven't seen in ten years shouldn't be too much of a problem for you, Yana. My point, by the way."

After nineteen more successive points by Mitarai Yana snatched the ball out of mid-air giving away the last point of the game. "I can learn to fight. All I have to do is find some kung-fu master, touch him and wham! I'll know kung-fu."

Finally winning a game of handball against Yanagisawa put Mitarai in a more nurturing mood than usual. He plucked the ball from Yana's hand and smiled. "I'd rather have a good detective and spy than a good soldier any day. I have plans for you but not now. Now I just need you to find Sniper....after lunch."

Yana knew that despite his friend's many faults Kiyoshi Mitarai never lied about a person's usefullness. The idea of being in danger for once was second to the idea of being of some use other than blackmail or industrial espionage as with his work.

 

Yana distractedly ate his lunch with Mitarai while scanning the phone book and writing down every number and address in the city under the all-too-common name Hagiri.

He sifted through Mitarai's older memories that still rattled around in his head for a visual cue to recognize sniper by.

"You know, it's funny how I'm Spirit Detective but I come to you when any actual investigation is needed."

"Yeah," Yana said as he copied from the phone book. "Hilarious. I guess they thought Guy Who Kicks The Hell Out Of Demons wouldn't fit on a business card. Did you know there are like a million people with the surname Hagiri in this city? All that time together and you never bothered to ask his first name?"

"We worked together because we were sociopathic not sociable."

 

Well into the afternoon and after the fifth Hagiri dead end Yana inquired if Spirit World had given Mitarai any useful gadgets to help them find Sniper.

He went through his inventory mentally. "Let's see....those communication mirrors, the stickers, that whistle that only demons and strong psychics could hear, the concentration ring, the demon compass....nope. Can't think of a thing. If Kuwabara were here he could just throw a dart at a map and we'd have a good idea where Sniper was."

"Can't we do that? I mean Kuwabara's like your henchman or whatever, right? The dude supposedly has the strongest E.S.P. ever."

"Actually, I kinda got onto him about always bailing me out of trouble. I can't ask him for help now."

"Okay, I guess we'll have to pay someone."

 

Mitarai estimated it would take the next two days to find a psychic who was for real but Yana surprised him by finding one in less than an hour. Yana lead him to a set of stairs leading underground then pointed up to a sign reading "Lost and Found Fortune Teller".

Before entering the subteranean fortune teller's establishment Yana stopped Mitarai.

"I have to work with this woman sometimes. She's doing this for free so remember that she's doing us a favor. Try not to be an asshole."

"Oh please. It's me we're talking about here."

 

Even though Mitarai had been accustomed to being in presence of other psychics he still had trouble letting go of his expectation of fortune tellers. He expected a shrivelled old crone deciphering yarrow sticks or tarot cards not a teenaged girl smoking a clove cigarette as she cut out photos of an actor from a magazine.

"Izumi here has a thing for Takeshi Kaneshiro."

 

Izumi dropped her magazine and extinguished her cigarette as she reached over the counter to shake Mitarai's hand giving him the opportunity to notice her pierced nostril and eyebrow and further shatter his image of the stereotypical fortune teller.

"Hi. What can I do for you?"
Mitarai shook her hand but Yana interrupted him before he could speak.

"We need you to find someone. All we have is a surname. Hagiri."

Izumi rolled her eyes and grunted. "Uh.....all I'm getting is a church and a motorcycle. Sorry guys."

Yana once again spoke before Mitarai could. "Thanks, Izzy. I owe you one."

 

"Well, that was useful."

"You see why I didn't want you to talk? You're my friend and all, man, but you have almost no social graces." Yana then steered the conversation by mentioning that churches kept directories of most of their congregation so only a few phone calls would be needed.

"Being an investigator isn't all about obscure clues. Hell, most of the time all you really need is a nice phone voice and some manners to get what info you need."

 

Mitarai read through the old magazines in Yana's office as he called different churches inquiring about members named Hagiri. Before, he slightly envied Yana for being able to make money using his powers in a fun way but after three hours of listening to Yana talk on the phone he realized just how boring being a private investigator could be.

"Not like it is in the movies, is it? Not once has a beautiful woman come in here and dragged me into a web of crime and sex. There's a Hagiri at First Baptist. I talked to one of the ministers about him and it turns out he rides a motorcycle and is unbeatable at darts."

 

During the ride to the church Mitarai wished he'd gone the easier route of asking Koenma for Hagiri's file and location since spirit world kept tabs on any psychic above certain a certain power class. As Yana drove on Mitarai changed his mind as he noticed his friend happily singing under his breath. Losing a day didn't seem so bad as long as Yana felt useful and Mitarai could alleviate some of the guilt from what he intended to have his friend do later on.

 

Mitarai and Yana followed the noise in the church to a room filled with men playing cards and dominoes and a crowd cheering as a man with a shaved head and a handfull of darts threw bullseye after bullseye.

The last dart was thrown and the bald man sat down and his eyes widened in shock when he noticed Mitarai.

"No...." he gasped.

"I guess it's him," Yana said.

"Shut up, Yana." Mitarai slowly approached Hagiri and even more slowly sat down so as not to spook him. Sniper had always intimidated him somewhat despite the fact they hardly associated.

"I guess you remember me then."

 

"Sea Man. Actually, I've been meaning to look you up. For what it's worth I'm sorry about trying to kill you. I have a lot to make up for. I don't want to be a part of whatever it is you're cooking up, though. I'd like to avoid burning in hell if I can."

 

"I'll talk to him," Yana said as he handed Mitarai the keys to his van. "Go on home. It'll take a while but he'll come around. I have a lot of experience in defending you from talking with Asato."

 

Yana waited until Mitarai left before seating himself across from Hagiri. "You prefer mister Hagiri or Sniper?"

"I haven't been called Sniper in a long, long time, mister..."

"Yanagisawa Mitsunari. It's a mouthfull, isn't it? Friends call me Yana." He narrowed his eyes at the black beads hanging from his left wrist. "Are those rosaries? Those are catholic. I thought you were baptist."

Hagiri leaned closer and grinned as he unbuttoned the right sleeve of his plaid shirt and exposed a set of buddhist mala beads and then reached inside his collar and pulled out necklaces featuring icons of four different religions.

"I believe in hedging my bets."

 

Hagiri gestured for Yana to follow him outside and went on to explain that after abandoning his quest to destroy the human race he went about life in a normal way until his final month of college.

"You can't pay off your student loans hustling darts. Hitting targets was the only marketable skill I had. I'd killed before for free so I saw no harm in doing it for money. You'd be surprised how much someone will pay to for a murder that can't be traced. Launch a car at someone at midnight and people just assume it was a drunk driver."

"Let me guess, you killed an innocent person."

Sniper smirked. "You watch too many assassin movies. No, I stuck with offing yakuza and informants. I'm too precise to let someone get in the way. Most people don't give a shit when thugs are killed so no one investigated. Thing is, even mobsters have families. That's what got me to thinking that no matter how bad someone is they're still someone's husband or father or whatever." He paused and reached over his head and pulled off one of his necklaces and dangled it in front of Yana.

"A Saint Dismas medal. My favortite Catholic Saint. He used to be a thief. He was crucified right next to Jesus, in fact." He put his Saint Dismas medal back on and grinned. "They didn't have a saint that used to be a killer. I checked. Former thief is good enough for me. Tell Mitarai that I'm sorry but I won't help him kill off the human race."

 

Yana nodded and tried not to smile. He knew that Hagiri would readily agree simply for the sake of karma once he found out Mitarai was the new Spirit Detective.

He started his story at a point five years ago when Yusuke Urameshi declined to once again take up the mantel of Spirit Detective and stay at the restaraunt he managed with his wife. Yana told of how secondary applicants Kurama and Kuwabara both preffered their normal lives to the stress and danger of the position being offered even if Koenma was now offering pay and a rent-free apartment.

"The whole time Kuwabara keeps suggesting Mitarai. Mostly because they became friends. Koenma kept saying no since he considered Mitarai too weak and unstable. Kuwabara kept pressing and Koenma kept coming up with no recruits so he finally caved in just as long as Kuwabara trained him and stayed on as his assistant."

 

Every Christan bone in Hagiri's body told him not to laugh but couldn't stop the enormous belly laugh that exploded from inside of him. "He got the job because of connections and because nobody wanted it. I don't mean to laugh. Really, I don't." He snickered. "It's....just....so....sad...." he said, pausing in between words to chuckle.

Yana joined in the laughter and waited for the opportune time to ask for Hagiri's help once more.

"Come on. It's for a good cause. You said yourself that you owe Mitarai for trying to kill him. He even said that you could make as many concessions as you wanted just as long as you join up."

"Really?"

Yana nodded even though no such agreement had been made. "Yeah. Just as long as you're not asking for money or sex or anything. Besides, helping guard against a demon invasion will be good karma, right?"

"Good point. I'll go along but I won't kill. Not even a demon."

"Uh....I'm sure that Mitarai will find a way to work around that. Welcome aboard."

 

Yana then remembered that he had promised Mitarai to gauge Sniper's powers before he reported back to him. Although a simple touch would have given Yana Sniper's memories as the perfect judge of his abilities he wasn't keen on the idea of yet another set of other people's memories to sort out from his own.

"You can still drink, right?"

Sniper rolled his eyes as he pondered Yana's question. "Let's see...the baptist in me says no, but the catholic in me says it's okay. The muslim-"
"Tonight let's say that you're catholic. I'm buying."

 

As far as Yana was concerned bars seemed like one of the best places to test psychic powers. His reasoning was that anything a psychic could do while drunk they could do even better when sober.

Hagiri quietly drank while Yana bought round after round of drinks until the silence was broken when Hagiri slowly said:

"Do you have any idea how fucking scared I am?"

Once again Yana found himself in the position of being the keeper of someone else's secret. Even when he wasn't copying people's memories they seemed all too eager to open up to him when drunk.

"What have you got to be scared of? You're a strong psychic with cool powers. I once saw you crack open a guy's head with an eraser from five-hundred hundred yards away."

 

Hagiri drained his fourth tequila. "Hell. I'm scared of going to hell. No matter what religion you go by none of them condone killing." He then swiveled his stool to look at Yana. "I know we just met, but do you think I'm a bad person?"

 

"I couldn't say, Sniper. I do kind of hate you for springing that question on me, though." Yana then dumped his change onto the table in front of Hagiri. "We're going to play some quarters."

Yana set his empty mug of beer on the adjecent table three feet from Hagiri who lazily bounced one of Yana's quarters off of their table. The quick and unnatural jump of the quarter from the table top into the mug told Yana that even while drunk Sniper was still in command of his psychic powers.

Yana kept setting the mug further out until it and Hagiri were the furthest they could be from one another.

 

Even as he plied Hagiri with more liquor and replaced the mug with an empty shot glass Yana had a feeling that each quarter would find it's mark at the other end of the bar which they did.

Five dollars worth of quarters overflowed three shot glasses when Yana called it quits.

 

"If nothing else, Sniper, you'll help us win a lot of bar bets. You're too drunk to drive me home, aren't you?"

"Probably."