Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ THE WOLVES OF MUSHIYORI CITY ❯ Instant Spirit Detective! Just Add Water ( Chapter 1 )

THE WOLVES OF MUSHIYORI CITY

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 1: INSTANT SPIRIT DETECTIVE! JUST ADD WATER.

 

 

Kiyoshi Mitarai lazily tossed a red balloon from hand to hand while trying to watch the demon ahead of him through his half-lidded eyes.

"Just walk away. I'm tired and I'd rather not kill you."

 

Mitarai sighed and pulled a disposable cigarette lighter from the pocket of his jeans and ignited the red balloon he had filled with gasoline. The smell of burning rubber nauseated him for a moment until all that remained was a smoking fireball hovering beside him.

He almost offered a second chance at leaving him alone but instead decided to launch his fireball at the demon anyway.

The fireball hit the demon once then rebounded for another attack then repeated until the flaming demon charged at Mitarai who drew a water gun from the pocket of his yellow hooded sweatshirt and fired a solid, pointed stream of water puncturing the demon's forehead.

The flames soon burnt the remains into a unrecognizable charred mass.

 

Rarely were the times one of his offers of a way out of death taken advantage of. The irony of which was that his enemies considered him too weak to take seriously. He knew if he were stronger he'd have to kill less.

Mitarai noticed a steady stream of noise which he chose to ignore and fished through his backpack for the only container of water he had that wasn't a weapon.

 

"Are you listening, Mitarai?"

Most of his life people told Kazuma Kuwabara that he wasn't a good listener and was sometimes a chore to talk to. As he for the second time tried to explain to his protoge Kiyoshi Mitarai who replaced Yusuke Urameshi as Spirit Detective, he felt a owed an apology to the people he beat up after criticizing his listening skills.

 

"What was that, Kuwabara?"
Mitarai sat on a street curb and poured his bottled water over his head while panting heavily. Since he had just finished a fight with a horde of low-level demons Kuwabara decided to cut him some slack and settled for slapping the back of the Spirit Detective's head.

 

"I was explaining to your deaf ass about why there's been so many demon attacks lately."

Mitarai looked up at Kuwabara who stood before him and smirked. "I could have told you that. We live in Mushiyori City. It's been infested with low class demons for ten years now thanks to all that demon tunnel being opened."

 

Kuwabara shook his head and heaved a sigh. "You know, Mitarai, you should take your head out of your ass occassionally to get some fresh air. Don't tell me you didn't notice that instead of one demon attack every couple of weeks that there's been seven or eight a night now."

"So, what's been going on?"

 

"Wouldn't you like to know. I'd tell you if I weren't so damn sure you wouldn't listen."

Mitarai angrily stood up. "Fine then. Don't tell me. Go back to Koenma and tell him that you didn't deliver his message because you're too much of a jerk."

 

The Spirit Detective and his assistant stared one another down before simultaneously breaking out in laughter.

"I bet Botan didn't have to put up with this crap," Kuwabara said.

"I know for a fact there have been more difficult detectives." Mitarai stood and stretched and unzipped the backpack he carried and checked his dwindling arsenal of water baloons. "I need some more ammo. Fill me in on the way home."

 

Kuwabara proceeded to explain how in the past week the barrier keeping demons in their own realm had weakened allowing stronger and stronger demons free passage from demon world to the human world. Before it could be repaired fully the barrier would need to be dropped for twenty-four hours inviting a flood of demons for a short time.

Mitarai paused as he reached his apartment and let the whole thing sink in.

In terms of psychic powers Mitarai knew he was nowhere near the most powerful. In fact, he knew other psychics who would have been much better suited to the job of Spirit Detective. Mitarai assumed the only reason he was who chosen was he was the only psychic to take the job; that and the fact that he was friends with Kuwabara who personally chose him for the job.

 

He regained his bearings and headed into his apartment and straight into his bathroom/weapons cache filled with balloons and various liquids.

Kuwabara meekly held back as he knew Mitarai had his own system of inventory as well as many dangerous chemicals.

"White balloon please."

Kuwabara looked around until he saw a package of balloons underneath Mitarai's sink and pulled one white balloon from the multi-colored pack and handed to to Mitarai who funnelled bleach into it.

"Blood's in the 'fridge."

 

Although Kuwabara had seen many horrible things in the course of fighting demons the fact that Mitarai kept a plastic bladder filled with his own blood in his refrigerator gave him pause.

Mitarai filled the remainder of the bleach filled balloon with his own blood and tied it off then asked Kuwabara to hand him a red balloon which Mitarai then filled with gasoline and blood.

Kuwabara continued passing chemicals and balloons to Mitarai all the time wondering how Mitarai could handle the fumes and why his bathroom had never exploded.

 

Mitarai slowly filled his last balloon with a white flakey powder then slowly and carefully used a medicine dropper to drip in his blood and water. The fact that Mitarai had handled flamable and poisonous chemicals so nonchalantly made Kuwabara nervous about the mysterious powder inside the black balloon.

"It's lye," Mitarai said. "Like they put in soap. Add it to water and you get an acid. Burns like crazy."

Kuwabara relaxed and inquired just how bad a soap additive could burn. Mitarai replied by pushing up the long sleeve of his hooded sweat shirt and revealed a nasty chemical burn on his upper left arm.

"That's a lye burn from about a year ago. You ready to go?"

 

"So, I guess you'll be recruiting Kaito and the rest?" Kuwabara asked.

"Yep."

Kuwabara grimaced as he tried to think of a nice way of calling Mitarai's friends weaklings. "How about I call in Urameshi and Kurama? Hell, just one of them could handle the flood of demons."

The Spirit Detective shot a glare in his trainer's direction. Instead of responding to Kuwabara's subtle criticism of his ability with the variety of curse words that formed in his mind, he took a deep breath and voiced the first reasonable thought that presented itself.

"Yusuke's a father now. He has better things to do than fight off a bunch of demons. That's why he turned the job down again, remember? Same with Kurama. The guy just got married and I don't want to bother him. Besides, there's nothing they can do that Kaito and the rest can't."

 

"Sure there is. They can repel a demon invasion. I know these guys are your friends but I wouldn't trust them to guard my seat at the movies if I got up. You've got less than a month to safeguard a whole city when the kekkai goes down." Seeing that there was no way his friend was going to back down from choosing his own army to ward off a city-wide apocalypse, Kuwabara decided to let it drop. Even though it seemed impractical to depend on friends rather than fighters part of Kuwabara was proud of Mitarai's devotion.

"Mitarai, will you do me a favor at least if you're not going to listen?" Kuwabara asked knowing full well that saving the Spirit Detective's life ten years prior forbid Mitarai from refusing any of his requests.

 

"Name it."

"I want you to put someone on your team. There's a psychic I know who's been bugging me about getting some more fighting experience. This works out well since you could use some raw power on your team."

"Fine. This psychic powerhouse have name?"

Kuwabara tried to suppress a grin a failed. "Shepherd. Someone that'll help look after your sheep.

Try to have your army of great psychics ready in a few days."

 

The fact that Mitarai was embarking on his first major and therefore most dangerous mission, he let Kuwabara's last bit of sarcasm as well as the comparison of his friends to sheep drop and went about his rounds.

 

He absently disposed with the weak E-Class demons whose only threat were disturbing looks and went about trying to remember the addresses of people he hadn't seen in years and think of reasons other than impending doom that they would want to help him.

When nothing came to mind he decided to retire to bed leaving only the demons whose powers were more annoying than dangerous and solve his staff problem in the morning.

As a rule Mitarai never tackled a problem he could put off until he had at least ten hours of sleep.

 

.....

 

As apocalypses went Mitarai found the one on the horizon the most unsettling. Mostly because it was up to him to stop it. Though he did find it novel that unlike the last one he was not on the supply side of human extinction.

He told himself over and over that the worst case sceneario would be a city-wide infestation of demons leaving Mushiyori city a mausoleum until someone stronger than himself dealt with the problem. As grim as it was it still cheered him up that at least the whole world wasn't at risk.

 

He took three steps outside his apartment before what felt like a broom handle hit him across the face and knocked him down. He looked up to find a woman a year or two his senior holding a long stick and looking disappointed.

 

"Is he really Spirit Detective, Kazuma?" She asked as she dissolved her stick into a mass of spirit energy and began to clean her ovaloid glasses.

Kuwabara slung his arm around the woman as he gleefully took in Mitarai's shock at who his new recruit was.

"Kiyoshi Mitarai meet Hannah Shepherd."

Mitarai responded with silence and Hannah with an indifferent grunt.

 

"Well, I'll leave you two to do your thing."

"Wait." Mitarai snagged Kuwabara by his shirt collar and pulled him close to him. "You're not leaving me alone with her are you?"

"Yeah, man. I'm just the assistant, remember? I give you the jobs and supply information. I don't fight if I can't help it. Besides, I've got work in the morning and I can't take time off every time the world's about to end." Kuwabara then leaned over.

"See you tonight, Hannah. Try to be nice to Mitarai's friends, okay?" Kuwabara said with a goofy smile.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get to going, Kazuma."

 

Without Kuwabara to act as a buffer Mitarai and Hannah silently appraised eachother and waited for the other to speak.

"Kazuma speaks highly of you for some reason," Hannah finally said.

"That's funny, he never mentioned you before. He just meet you at the bus station or something?"

"No. We met through Kurama and started dating about six months ago."

Any other insults he had forming in his head died and he absently suggested they scrape together their team.

 

"Kazuma tells me you once tried to kill him," Hannah said as off-handedly as she could as they walked down the street.

"That was some time back when I first met him. Now we just settle for the occasional friendly jibe. Of course back then I was working toward exterminating the human race. But, I gather Kuwabara told you that."

Hannah paused for a moment to absorb the idea of working with someone who aspired to genocide then caught back up with Mitarai. "Kazuma usually doesn't volunteer information unless I ask."

"He used to be more open. He got a lot more guarded after his last girlfriend dumped him. Well, here we are."

Mitarai pointed to a skyscraper and walked inside and up to the front desk.
"I'd like to speak to Yu Kaito in Accounts Receivable."

 

After ten minutes of staring at the floor tiles Mitarai finally heard Kaito's voice.

"Sorry. I was in a meeting. What is going on that you had to call me at work, Kiyoshi?"

"The kekkai barrier is coming down in less than a month. They need to take it down for a day to upgrade it. Apparently afterward it'll keep even the B-Class demons out. For a little while things are going to get crazy. Come on, last time the world almost ended we didn't get to do much."

He sensed his friend was on the fence about the whole thing.
"Come on, Yu. I need someone smart and powerful." He intentionally paused to make sure that his next words would sink in. " I could always call Kurama...."

Kaito raised his hand which made Mitarai stop. "Anything to stop your pathetic attempt at manipulating me. Call me when you get the others and have some sort of plan formed."

 

Kaito began to go back to work before Hannah called out.

"Hold on. I need to test your fighting skills. What's was the most powerful class of demon you've taken out?"
Kaito's face was a blank. "Are you serious? I've never even thrown a punch before. I don't like violence."

"Oh. Well then pardon my asking but what fucking use are you? I'm certain you can't snide these demons to death."

Yu Kaito finally smiled. "You've obviously never experienced my snideness so I'll forgive your ignorance. If it's a test of my fortitude you wish I can spare a minute or so before I go back to work."

 

Hannah followed Mitarai and Kaito outside and into a nearby alley where they would not be disturbed. Kaito stood in the middle of the alley and turned to Hannah.

"Don't hold back on my account, miss."

She looked at Mitarai who looked a little confused and nervous but finally nodded. "It's okay. You won't hurt him."

 

"I hope for his sake you're right," she said as she formed a razor sharp nodachi out of her spirit energy the full length of which surpassed her in height.

With a speed which surprised the other two psychics she charged at Kaito who made no defensive posture other than straigtening his tie.
Mere millimeters away from Kaito's skull the nodachi broke and left him unharmed while Hannah shielded herself with her arms from the shards of her shattered sword.

Ignoring the blood trickling down her arms she appraised Mitarai's choice.

"Okay, mark me down as impressed. But what good is being invincible if you can't fight?"

 

"No one can come to any physical harm in Kaito's territory," Mitarai answered. "Right now he just has it extended just beyond his own skin. What's useful is that he can extend his territory to a good thirty feet."
"Actually, I've gotten it to about sixty now," Kaito corrected before excusing himself and returning to work.

 

"That's about sixty feet of the city we won't have to worry about. And you were questioning his usefulness."

"Yours is still in question, though."

Clenching his teeth around his tongue, Mitarai tried to make an effort at not calling his new partner a bitch outright. "Next up is Yanagisawa Mitsunari. Do me a favor and don't try to split his skull open when you first meet him...though I'm sure you'll want to."

 

In a run down office building in the slums of Mushiyori City Mitarai cautiously pulled out a small squirt gun and stealthily ascended the stairs while sliding against the wall. Hannah followed quietly until the silence got to her.

"Okay, what's going on? Is this Mitsunari guy dangerous?"

For the first time since meeting that morning Mitarai's mood lightened and he smiled. "Yana? I could beat the guy up. No, he's just got a weird sense of humor. He can copy the looks and memories of anyone he touches. So, he likes to ambush me while disguised as other people."

Mitarai stopped at a door with two identical anthropromorphic cats wearing trench coats and fedoras which read: Copy Cat Detective Agency and gently pushed the already ajar door open with the tip of his squirt gun.

"Moron didn't even lock his door. I guess we might as well sit down and wait."

 

As Mitarai sat in behind Yana's desk he smiled suddenly again. "Hey, Hannah. Why don't you test Yana's reflexes by hiding by the door and hitting him with something?"

"What would that do? You said he wasn't a fighter."

"I know, but it'd be funny," Mitarai said.

 

For Hannah the fate of the human race looked more bleak by the second when she took into account the earth's main defense against demons was weaker than herself and had a prediliction for practical jokes with his equally weak friends.

Still, she held a wooden pole over her head ready to strike the first person to enter the office. "I can't decide whether this is more immature or stupid."

"As long as you don't kill him it'll be more immature. Now quiet. I can feel him coming."

 

A tall man with long, dark blue vertical hair wearing a royal blue suit stood in the hallway across from the office where he could see Mitarai sitting at the desk.

"Yo, man. Haven't seen you for a while. What's up?" he yelled.

Mitarai cupped his hand to his ear in a "I can't hear you. Please come closer" gesture.

Yanagisawa took a few cautious steps forward and stopped. Then a few more. Then began increasing the number of steps until he hit the threshold of his office.

He slowly stuck his head inside anticipating some sort of surprise but not a wooden pole crashing down on his skull.

 

"That's for the sumo wrester strip-tease on my birthday, you dick!"

Yana rubbed his head and looked up at Hannah who was in position to strike once more.

"Hi. I don't think we've met." Yana outstretched his hand which was met with a cold stare by Hannah.

"Kazuma told me to avoid you as much as possible because you were some sort of perverted lecher."

Yana tried to formulate a defense but his head hurt too much to think.

"There's worse than me. So, you're Kuwabara's chick, eh?"

Hannah struck Yana's head in the exact spot as before with her pole. "Why exactly are we recruiting this idiot?"

 

Mitarai got up from Yana's chair and helped the fallen psychic up. "Intelligence gathering. Yana here can copy everything about a person just by touching them. Looks, voice, even memories. That's what makes him a good detective. If someone else knows something he knows it too just with a touch."

"I don't see where that comes into use in this situation, Mitarai. We just have to guard the city."

"You can't be too well-informed," Mitarai said. "Even if we don't find anything for him to do he can at least be comic relief."

 

Yana squeezed his eyes shut and put on a big, goofy smile which got a chuckle out of Mitarai but encouraged only eye-rolling in Hannah.

"Besides..." Mitarai continued "Yana, I need you to talk to Asato for me. He might listen to you."

Yana extinguished his goofy face and adopted a more somber look. "Are you sure? I think you're just setting yourself up for disappointment." He paused. "Alright....I'll do it but I think you're an idiot."

 

The spirit detective sighed and laid his head on Yana's desk. "You're probably right. It's just...I may never see him again." His tone had lost the subtle hostility as he addressed Hannah directly. "Go with him, okay? He could use the muscle. Yana couldn't fight a stuffed animal and win."

The ambient mood made Hannah just want to leave the office and was glad that she wouldn't have Mitarai's dour disposition seeping in.

She was glad to leave with the lecherous pervert to find their next recruit.