Yu Yu Hakusho: The After Years

Episode 2: A Human Enemy

It wasn't long until they reached the restaurant. The evening crowd was already beginning to file in through the front door. Yusuke was busy behind the counter, frying noodles. His head turned as the door opened, he saw Rieka and shouted, "Hey! You're late!" he was prepared to say more, but with a cheeky smile Rieka deposited Hiei at the counter saying, "Look who we found!" before she and Hiro disappeared up the stairs and out of her father's reach.

A wide smile stretched across Yusuke's face and he forgot about the noodles for a minute, "Oh, Hiei! What are you doing here?" In that moment he remembered the noodles and began plating them, "Take a seat, I'll make you something and we can talk when things slow down a bit."

"I didn't come for idle chit-chat," said Hiei.

Yusuke already moved on to the next order, "Yeah, well, whatever it is, you're going to have to wait. So you might as well sit and have some food on the house."

Begrudgingly, Hiei obeyed and took a seat at the counter, arms crossed. Just then, Rieka and Hiro re-appeared wearing aprons. Rieka moved to the kitchen and took up the next order while Hiro started bussing tables and taking orders. They had a practiced fluidity to their movements. The order tickets quickly began to disappear behind the counter, and Hiei saw a delicate hand reach over and place a steaming bowl of ramen before him. He looked into Rieka's smiling face, "Sorry for the wait," she said, "Enjoy."

"Hey, Ri-chan! I'll have what he's having if you're the one serving it!"

"Kay!" Rieka said with her easy smile, and set back to cooking once again.

Hiei stared at the bowl disinterestedly, until he saw something strange in one of the garnishes. He picked it up with a pair of chopsticks, and saw it was a piece of radish cut into the shape of an eye. A joke? Hiei thought, biting down on it. It gave him enough interest to finish the bowl.

The tables soon cleared, and Hiro bowed the last group of customers out of the door, locking it behind them.

"Mom sure is late today," said Rieka, cleaning the last of the pans.

"She'll be back late tonight," Yusuke said, thrusting two rice bowls into her hands, "You and Hiro take these and eat them upstairs. Get started on your homework."

"Today was the last day of school before break. We only have our summer assignments," Rieka protested.

Yusuke crossed his arms, "Go work on one of those summer assignments then. No time like the present."

"But I--"

"Scram."

Rieka looked askance at Hiei, looking somewhat disappointed, "Alright," she said, "Let's go, Hiro."

As they walked up the stairs, Hiro whispered to her, "I thought you'd want to hear more about your dad's old friend."

"Sure. I'll eavesdrop while we're eating, then we can study," muttered Rieka, "You can hear pretty much everything down here through the living room vent, anyway."

Hiei watched the two of them head up the stairs, "Well aren't you the diligent father," he said dryly, "I must say I was surprised to see her today, for a moment I thought she was you." It was the first time Hiei had gotten a look at Yusuke's face since he sat down. Hiei saw him at least once every three years, during the Makai tournaments, but seeing his face compared to Rieka's somehow made the lines of age seem more visible. Yusuke had aged well for a human, but still, he was nearing forty, and the fresh boyishness of his face had gone. Humans were around for such a short time...

Yusuke nodded in response to what Hiei said, "She's a talented fighter too, but I have to say, I'm happy she took after Kieko when it comes to school. I'd have a hell of a time if she turned out like me in that respect."

"Is she also a Spirit Detective, then?"

Yusuke laughed, "Get this, Koenma asked her, and she said she'd only accept contractually. Meaning, only if she gets paid. She says Koenma cheated me by 'forcing me out of school and leaving me with no transferable skills for the workforce.' Like I would have passed anyway. But yeah, she takes an odd job here or there. Nothing big has happened since my day, just small fries trying to get past the Makai laws. Koenma pays her a little, and she's got quite the savings account going, Hiro too."

"Hiro Kuwabara, was it?"

Yusuke smirked, "I thought you weren't here for 'idle chit-chat,' but here we are gabbing away like two school girls."

"You know why I'm asking. Is he--"

"Kuwabara and Yukina's son? Bingo."

"But how? That shouldn't be possible."

"For that, I'm afraid you'll have to ask Kurama. He explained it to me once but I didn't really get it."

"He said he lives with you."

Yusuke nodded, "Yukina and Kuwabara live with Genkai now. Home-schooled him for awhile, but well Kuwabara's--"

"An idiot"

Yusuke let that slide, "--and Yukina doesn't have enough knowledge of the human world to be a good teacher. So he stays with us for school and we go visit them on the breaks. Now, I know you didn't just come here to catch up. So, what's on your mind?"

"I'm here as an emissary. There have been rumors of an S-class human going around picking off yokai in Makai."

"But can't you tell if a human enters Makai right away? I thought that was kind of your job."

"Yes, well, I haven't detected any humans in Makai. No one out of the ordinary, anyway."

"Then what makes you think it's a human? Yokai kill each other all the time."

"This," Hiei said, chucking something that looked like a scale at him, "There is still a slight aura on the bodies of his victims."

Yusuke looked at the scale and saw a vague shimmering golden light around it. He'd seen aura before, but something of that particular shimmer and hue was something he had only seen once before, "That's sacred energy!"

"Yes, and as we both know, only humans can produce such a thing. But that's not even the strangest part."

"What, then?"

"He's eating his victims. All he leaves is scales, bones, and hair."