Requiem For A Dream

By : May-D, aka KuroNeko.

Prologue

“So tell me again, where are we going?” Keiko asked, still slightly confused.

“Well, there’s this festival at a local shrine, and they have a small exhibition about a legend that has demons in it. The toddler wanted us to check how much the people that live there really know, and if they are a threat. We’re supposed to be undercover or something like that, so we’re all coming, the excuse being that we’re researching for a school project.” Yusuke answered, not willing to say anything else.

Yusuke, Keiko, Kurama, Hiei, Yukina, Botan and Kuwabara were all in the bus, slowly making their way to the shrine they were supposed to inspect. Yusuke was looking angry, because Koenma forced him to wear something else then his school uniform.

“It’s a festival, Yusuke. You are expected to blend in with the crowd, so no uniforms!” Koenma said, the last few words shouted to make sure Yusuke got it.

“But… but…” Yusuke managed to say. “What’s wrong with my uniform?”

Koenma sighed, and turned to the others in the room. “Could you take care of him?”

Botan, upon seeing that Yusuke wasn’t going to explain anything else, felt sorry for the girl and decided to explain more.

“You see, usually the legends with demons in them are twisted by the spirit world, making sure that people won’t get suspicious. However, they could only do this with written documents. Shrine legends are usually not written down, they are told again and again. Most of them are still not close to the original anymore, because people can’t remember the exact words, but we still have to be careful, because every now and then they come pretty close to the truth. Therefore, every time a shrine is holding an exhibition or festival that involves demon legends, we try to check it out, just to make sure.”

Kurama, who was looking at the sky through the window for the entire journey, looked at Botan, his eyes curious. “Koenma never told us what legend it was about, did he?” He said, still looking at Botan, who was now grinning, slightly nervous.

“Hey, look at that cloud! It looks just like cat, doesn’t it?” She said, trying to distract them.

“Kuwabara, don’t look.” Yusuke said, now also looking at Botan.

“You know, maybe I shouldn’t tell it here… what if someone hears?” Botan tried.

…

They looked around the empty buss.

…

“Botan… What. Legend. Is . It. ?” Yusuke growled.

“The legend of the Shikon no Tama.” Botan said, not looking at any of them.

Kurama glared at her. “And Koenma sent us on this mission?”

“Yeah” came the soft answer.

“He sent us on a mission involving the Shikon no Tama?”

“Yeah”

“He sent the demons on a mission that involves a jewel almost every demon wants, and not only that, he sent Youko on a mission involving a very valuable jewel?”

“Yeah”

“Idiot.”

“Yeah.”

Yusuke still looked confused, just like Kuwabara. “What is this ‘Shikon no Tama’ ?”

Hiei shook his head at the detective’s stupidity, while Kurama just sighed. “You’ll see when we get there, Yusuke.”

Yukina looked outside.

“We’re here.”