Ruby City Inbox

[niceskirts]

"Hello. You've reached Keiko Yukimura. I'm not available right now, so please leave your name and a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!"

Comments

[roseblooms]

No...I do, I think. If for no other reason than that there are a few things I'd like to ask you, as well, and it's only fair to answer a question for a question.

You mentioned you'd seen him before. I know we had an agreement not to share much about the future you remember, but...in this case, I'd like to make an exception, if you're willing. You saw Youko Kurama at the Dark Tournament?

[niceskirts]

[Oh. That didn't go somewhere she was expecting.]

...Yeah, I did. Why do you ask?

[roseblooms]

I'm simply curious how that came about, is all. The circumstances...and the reason, if there was one.

[niceskirts]

It was hard to tell what was really happening from so far up in the stands, but...

You were fighting a man on Team - um, the team you all were matched with in the finals. He was attacking you with some kind of invisible bomb, and you were having trouble until...you just changed. Maybe because you were in danger?

[roseblooms]

That's...strange. And a little unsettling, really. To have made a transformation like that with no apparent catalyst — I suppose it would suggest that I was in some extreme form of danger.

[Ah, but. Hmm. No, he should follow up here, shouldn't he.]

You saw us fighting Team Toguro, I presume. Yusuke told me that was the reason for our...invitation to the tournament. If it were the finals, then I can only imagine we were finally matched with the defending champions themselves.

[niceskirts]

Yes. It was you vs. Team Toguro in the end. The man you were fighting was named...Karasu, I think.

He was really scary. Be...be careful when you fight him.

[roseblooms]

...Did you...watch ALL of the fights in that tournament?

I ask because the Dark Tournament is fairly infamous for being...gruesome, to say the least. Hardly the sort of thing any decent person could take pleasure in witnessing.

[niceskirts]

I couldn't bear to watch any of the other teams' matches. It was hard enough just watching you guys fight. And there was one round we missed because of a miscommunication about the arena.

But...yeah. Other than that, I saw the whole thing.

[roseblooms]

...I see.

Did it frighten you?

[niceskirts]

What do you think?

I'm just a normal human girl, Kurama. Watching my friends put their lives on the line over and over, sitting in a crowd of demons screaming for their blood, seeing - seeing them get beaten up and worse...

Of course I was scared. I've never been so scared in my entire life.

[roseblooms]

Wait, you sat in the STANDS?

With the DEMONS?

[niceskirts]

Yeah? It's not like the tournament committee was going to designate a safe, special cheering section for the team they wanted to kill off!

[roseblooms]

Well, no, of course not, but I would've thought...

...

I don't know what I would've thought, actually, but I'm glad you made it through the experience unharmed.

[niceskirts]

Yeah, well...

I think the demons sitting closest to us were scared of Shizuru. So it worked out.

[roseblooms]

From what little I recall of Kuwabara's sister, I'm hardly surprised by that assessment.

...

Keiko, I wonder if I might ask you something, but with the understanding that it stay between the two of us. I'm sorry to have to ask that of you, but. It's — I need to know. Or rather, I need to have the suspicion confirmed.

[niceskirts]

Um. Okay, shoot.

[roseblooms]

Yusuke is going to fight the younger Toguro, isn't he.

It won't be Hiei, in the end. It'll be Yusuke pitted against him.

[niceskirts]

[Keiko closes her eyes a moment before she answers.]

Yes.

It's you against Karasu, Hiei against... I think his name was Bui. Kuwabara fought the elder Toguro brother.
And Yusuke fought the younger.

[roseblooms]

Kuwabara fought the

[But wait. Captain Strategist is doing some math here, because in a best-of-five tournament, a round going to four matches means each side must've suffered at least one loss.]

That's madness. As dangerous as the Toguro brothers are, I can't imagine what would've possessed us to field our lineup that way.

Though I assume Yusuke insisted on his own match. I...would've hoped that Hiei might succeed in taking it away from him.

[niceskirts]

Did Hiei want to fight the younger Toguro that badly?

[roseblooms]

The Toguro brothers tortured someone very important to him. And he's not someone inclined toward forgiving — or forgetting, for that matter.

So yes, I would imagine that any opportunity that arose for him to address that, he would immediately seek to take.

[niceskirts]

I see. Yeah, I don't think I'd forgive something like that, either.

But it was personal for Yusuke, too. Looking back on it... I'm not sure anyone else could have claimed that fight.

[roseblooms]

It's not that I don't believe in him, you know. It's nothing to do with that.

...I suppose I'm just concerned what a fight like that might do to him, and coming to the grim realization that I honestly don't have an answer.

[niceskirts]

No, I
I know.

Watching that fight, helplessly, from the back of the stands...that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. And I still couldn't even do that. I wasn't strong enough to watch him...get hurt like that without going completely numb.

And even when it was like that, he still...he still won. Yusuke got back up and defeated him, for good.

[roseblooms]

Then I'm only going to ask one more question — one more thing I need to know — and then I'll consider my curiosity sated.

Is Kuwabara alive?