Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ THE WOLVES OF MUSHIYORI CITY ❯ Counting Coup D'tantei ( Chapter 6 )

CHAPTER 6: COUNTING COUP D'TANTEI

 

 

 

Mitarai surprised Hannah by using his first choice to pick Yana over Sniper as one of his two agents. She spared no time in choosing who she considered the best offensive psychic next to herself.

"You're with me, Hagiri."

 

Kaito and Amanuma saw they were the only ones left. They gave eachother a look of recognition as they both were always the last ones picked for any sort of team sport during their respective tenures at school.

"Once again the intellectual and the gamer are last picked," Kaito said with mock self-pity.

"It's like junior high all over again. Maybe we should form our own team and...."

Hannah pointed to Amanuma. "You're with us."

"Hah! In your face, Kaito! I'm not the last one picked."

 

Hannah and Mitarai mumbled to eachother about who would explain the training excercise and what the consequences would be.

"This wasn't my idea."

"But I don't like public speaking. I get nervous and I start to stutter. Come on." She then braced herself to speak since it seemed Mitarai wouldn't cooperate but stopped. "How about we just explain to our teams separately? That'll be easier."

Mitarai nodded. "Sounds good. See you later."

 

Once Hannah, Sniper and Amanuma left Mitarai bid Kaito to explain the concept of counting coup to Yana.

"Counting coup is an old tradition whereupon a warrior must break through an enemies lines and touch the enemy general without actually harming them. It's also used as a training excercise. Also, I'm guessing that Mitarai and Hannah have a wager going."

"Winner gets to lead. Now that we've got that out of the way let's watch a movie or something," Mitarai said.

 

"I think I'll go help Hannah out," Asato said as he got up from the couch and left Kaito's apartment.

 

Two hours after the noon starting time Hannah began to wonder aloud what Mitarai was up to.

"They're probably watching one of the Puppet Master movies or some samurai flick," Asato answered with more good humor than Hannah thought him capable of. "Don't worry, they never watch past the third Puppet Master. I like watching puppets kill as much as the next guy but I thought I'd lend you a hand."

When another hour passed without a confrontation Hannah relaxed and sat down underneath a bridge with her back against the wall.

"Where the hell are those guys? Mitarai said he wanted this resolved by dark."

Asato walked out of the shadows of the opposite side of the bridge and sat down beside Hannah. "Mitarai likes to take a page from Miyamoto Musashi's book and arrive to all conflicts late. He says it's to rattle his opponent, but I think he just does it to be a pain in the ass." He stretched out his legs and wiggled his feet.

 

"Where are your crutches?" Hannah darted to the side and stood up as Asato reached out his hand. She created a wooden sword which she pointed at Asato's throat.

Asato stood and demonstrated a few steps of tap-dancing he had picked up from a dancer he had once brushed against before turning into a taller man with a smile and a foot of blue hair standing straight up from his head.

 

Yanagisawa reached out once more only for Hannah to nod as she jumped into the sunlight and out of the shadow of the bridge which Yana had failed to notice was inside of the real Asato Kido's territory.

Hannah walked up to the immobilized Yana. "You know, if you check out the shadow of the overpass it extends quite a way. I know Asato's your friend so I didn't think you'd fall for the whole 'stepping on your shadow' thing."

"I'm not that bright."

Hannah decided not to gloat and lightly touched Yana's shoulder and took him out of the training excercise.

"I don't suppose you want to tell me where your two cohorts are, do you?"

"Back at Kaito's watching some samurai movie with Kuwabara last I checked."

 

Sniper abandoned his tedious guarding on the bridge above Hannah who also seemd to be cracking from boredome and pulled his two way radio from the pocket of his ragged jean jacket.

"Got anything, Amanuma?"

"Yeah, got squirted in the face by Mitarai about twenty minutes ago. What about you?"

"We caught Yana but-" Sniper cut himself off when he felt a psychic territory being summoned around him.

He quickly turned around and flicked a dime he retrieved from his pocket his pocket at Yu Kaito and Mitarai Kiyoshi who had snuck up on him.

 

Even though he hadn't put much force into his projectile dime, it still bounced off of an invisible barrier around Mitarai's head.

"Remember, there can be no violence while in my territory, also all palindromes are now taboo," Kaito said.

Sniper thought back to his junior high language classes but still came up empty when trying to recollect what a palindrome was.

 

Kaito extinguished his territory just long enough for Mitarai to squirt Sniper in the chest with his water gun.

Mitarai and Kaito made their way to the bottom of the overpass where Hannah stood follwing them with unblinking eyes.

"There's fashionably late and then there's just late."

Mitarai leveled his gun at Hannah. "Sorry, got caught up watching movies then Kuwabara wanted to get a taco. You must know how he gets when he's hungry."

Almost on cue, Kuwabara walked into Hannah's sight, still she refused to let her eyes leave Mitarai.

"Guys? Can we get this done, already?" Kuwabara asked.

 

Hannah and Mitarai circled eachother with their weapons at the ready. Hannah knew that even despite Mitarai's water gun she had him beat in speed. She grippd her wooden sword and waited for Mitarai's defense to waver to strike.

Mitarai took his eyes off of Hannah to turn and nod to Kaito who once again opened his territory and declared a taboo letter the use of which would take out the soul of who uttered it. In which case every letter of the alphabet declaring any word or sound forbidden.

The small grunt that Hannah made as she started to swing broke the taboo and rendered her immobile and unconcious with her soul hovering over body in the form of a small gray orb.

 

As the sun began to set Mitarai bid Kaito to return Hannah's soul to her and squirted her with his water gun the moment she regained consciousness.

At first confused by the sudden return of her soul she deduced that from the wet spot on her forehead she had lost. She kicked over a discarded crate and sat on it.

Mitarai sat down in the dirt next to her but said nothing. Eventually, he worked up the nerve to speak.

"You shouldn't have given me time to plan. You're a lot stronger than I am but that's not always enough. Um, I know we don't particularly like eachother but I'd like you to stay. Sure, you're strong but you're pretty smart too. You lead your team well. I'd like to have someone around I don't have to worry about."

Hannah fought the grin forming on her face. "You mean someone you don't have to micro-manage."

 

"Thank God! The tension between you two has been killing me." Kuwabara said as he handed Hannah the bag of taco's he held. "You two have done nothing but bitch about eachother since you met. It wouldn't be so bad if you had decent arguments like me and Hiei."

Hannah and Mitarai simultaneously groaned at yet another one of Kuwabara's reveries about one of his former associates from his demon fighting days.

"Suddenly mister doesn't-fight-demons-anymore is getting nostalgic about the old days with the rekei tantei," Hannah said with a smirk.

 

Hannah and Mitarai made a few more barbs at Kuwabara's expense who absorbed them with more goodwill than usual.

After a few minutes Mitarai walked towards home while Kuwabara took his place next to Hannah who couldn't help but comment on Mitarai's suddenly awkward style of walking.

"Is there something you should be telling me, Kazuma?"

"Oh, you're funny." He tapped his finger on the space in between Hannah's feet where a string of spirit energy connecting her ankles was made visible.

"You spirit cuffed him? I guess that explains why he was so late. It took me an hour to move after you cuffed me."

Kuwabara's face almost ruptured as he smiled and laughed. "I know I shouldn't laugh but it was kinda funny watching him try to move with his arms and legs bound like that. All he could do was watch movies as he struggled to exert his spirit energy enough to move. It took an entire Puppet Master movie and Gohatto for him to get moving."

"I know that lame horror and samurai movies would get me moving." Hannah started to laugh at her own joke but cut her mirth short as she decided to ask the one question she'd been meaning to ask her boyfriend since the day she met Mitarai.

"Why didn't you tell him about us?"

 

Kuwabara plied his high spirit awareness to gauge his girlfriend's mood to come up with a more palatable version of the truth. Both his ESP and his knowledge of Hannah's body language told him to tread carefully.

 

"I know you. You're gearing up to sugarcoat something. Just flat out tell me the truth."

After an extended moment of chewing his bottom lip Kuwabara felt able to speak. "At first I just didn't want to hurt his feelings because he's my friend and we have to work together."

"And now?" Hannah asked with a defeated tone that almost drove Kuwabara to tears.

"Now...well, it's complicated. I'm not attracted to him but I just can't bring myself to cause him any pain. I get this feeling when I'm around him that I need to protect him...even from something like a broken heart." Kuwabara then walked behind Hannah and wrapped his arms around her. Partly as a gesture of love and partly so she couldn't run away. "I guess in some weird way I love the guy."

 

Hannah knew she didn't have the strength to struggle out of Kuwabara's embrace and didn't bother to try. Instead she asked to be left alone for the next few days to which Kuwabara obliged with a grunt.

In restrospect she wished that he had sugar-coated it.