Chapter Text
Hokushin tried to explain the difference between the various villages and factions a hundred times. A thousand maybe, particularly while Yusuke was laid up on a bed after getting his ass handed to him by the cryptkeeper. Yusuke himself would try to fall asleep with his eyes open. He just wanted to sink into the pain of having nearly every bone broken, feeling his new body heal.
Raizen didn’t believe in the new healing technologies from the other kingdoms: it was a pride thing for him. “How do you get stronger in a pod?” Raizen asked when Yusuke complained. “All Yomi and Mukuro are doing are taking shortcuts. Pain is the best teacher.”
Yusuke had turned to Hokushin, begging him to back him up. Hokushin had shrugged. “He’s been saying that since the first reports a century ago.”
Yusuke listened faintly to Hokushin’s explanation of the tsuchigumo villages north of them. They exported silk to be dyed… somewhere.
Keiko would have remembered. She was good about that. She’d probably treat it like when she had to pick up groceries and order ingredients for the family ramen shop: a pad of paper in hand and a pencil to take notes. She would ask questions, make connections, and solve everything. She had the practice, she thought enough for both of them.
If Raizen was looking for someone to rule, Yusuke would nominate Keiko a hundred times. Sure, he could fight, but lead? Just because they were called Team Urameshi at the Dark Tournament didn’t mean he was a leader. They needed a name and all the other teams were either lame or named for some rich guy that hired them.
Yusuke wasn’t a leader, he was just surrounded by them.
Keiko was a leader; she worked hard and went for what she wanted. She hunted him down when she found out about the Dark Tournament. Botan said she didn’t even blink before demanding they go in that fawning way she had when she spoke about Keiko.
Even Kuwabara was more of a leader than him! Kuwabara took those licks from Akashi and those punks from the other middle schools for Okubo’s sake. That was a leader!
Meanwhile, Yusuke never gained a crew. It seemed stupid, a waste of time. He didn’t have time to be responsible for anyone but himself and maybe his mom.
As for Kurama and Hiei, well, Yusuke couldn’t imagine anyone willingly following Hiei.
Kurama was a different story: Kurama sometimes talked around his time in Demon World and Hiei would share the ghost stories they told about him. Kurama would look away, waving his hand and claiming “It wasn’t quite like that.” He would never elaborate. It was like he wanted to forget those days, sinking into his human life and forgetting who he once was.
Hokushin stopped talking, watching him. “How are the fractures?” He asked.
“Eh, they’re healing. Not a lot I can do but wait,” Yusuke replied. He tried to get comfortable on the bed. Someone had assembled it for him, probably one of the monks. He didn’t think Raizen was the type of guy to have servants, even as he starved himself to death like one of those creepy guys they’d find buried in the north of Japan.
“As you learn to harness your power, you’ll find these fractures will heal much faster,” Hokushin said. “You’re one of a kind, so we’ll need to monitor you carefully.”
“I take it there’s not a lot of great grandsons getting bodysurfed,” Yusuke groused, closing his eyes.
“I fear not. From what I know, it was a rare occurrence to control a descendant, especially one as distant as you.”
“Because it’s creepy as shit?”
Hokushin covered the chuckle with a cough. “That’s one way to put it.”
Yusuke grumbled. “Eating humans and bodysurfing your kids, what kind of society is that?”
“There’s more to it than that, but you should ask Lord Raizen for specifics. The mazoku are a solitary and closed off species.”
“Must make dating a challenge.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
Yusuke snorted before he winced. It hurt to laugh.
“I’ll leave you to recover,” Hokushin rose and found his way out of the room.
“I’ll call if I need something,” Yusuke called before he sunk into the pain of broken bones. He could feel them knitting together, one little piece at a time. It’d probably take a couple days before it was completely fused back together and another day after before he could put weight on it.
All of this had been learned from the last few months. Centuries of information were being frantically shoved into his head as the old geezer rotted away in his empty throne room. Yusuke wanted to take it as a sign everyone believed in him, that they were seeing something he couldn’t, but he kept thinking about Keiko.
Maybe he should have asked her to come with him. He could do the punching and she could do the administration, but it was dangerous. He could probably ward off the old man in case he wanted to take a bite out of her, right?
Yusuke rethought that. Nope. Not right now, at least.
Yusuke tried to think, tried to weigh his options for the hundredth time. He didn’t want to send anyone to their deaths on either side. What could he possibly do to avoid that?
He heard the old man’s stomach grumble. It could be any day now. Any day now and it stops and he has to make that call.
Yusuke grumbled and tried to block it out.
Keiko would know what to do.