Life of the Party
by Mousse K
author: Mousse K
email: mousse@crosswinds.net
web site:
www.crosswinds.net/~mousse/
Category: Conflict
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Standard disclaimer applies. Urameshi Yusuke, Kuwabara Kazuma, and Hiei were
created and are trademarks of Yoshihiro Togashi and Jump Comics. Ginny Seta was
created and therefore belongs to by Ginny S. Saitou Eiji is copyrighted ©
Ginny’s Friend 2000. Oh yes, and in case you’re wondering, Edanoshi Ryoma is
my own creation. Please don’t use the last three without our permission, and
please don’t sue if you own the rest.
Reader discretion is advised… not that there’s anything in here that needs
it…
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A Yu Yu Hakusho fanfic by Mousse K
Life of the Party
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kuwabara’s bedside alarm clock struck 12:00 AM on a cool spring Saturday in
April. Moonlight shone through a half-open window next to an unmade bed,
lighting up a corner of an otherwise pitch-black bedroom. It was quiet enough
for someone to hear a pin drop through a set of earmuffs.
Downstairs, of course, was a different story.
“Urameshi! Throw me another beer!” yelled Kuwabara Kazuma from the living
room couch. Yusuke winged a beer can at him, which sailed over the teenager’s
head and into the wall behind him. The can burst open, spraying the alcoholic
beverage everywhere.
“Hey, watch it! I gotta clean that up, y’know.”
Yusuke shrugged it off as he went back to watching Hiei sing on the karaoke
machine. He was noticeably off-key, but everyone was too drunk to care. Keiko
was giggling her head off at the sight of Hiei trying to dance to the music.
Shizuru watched as she poured Yukina some sake. Nearby, Botan chatted with Youko
Kurama while picking food out of a tableful of edibles.
A shower of applause filled the room as Hiei finished his song. He gave an
awkward bow and stumbled off of the couch he was standing on. Kuwabara plucked
the mic out of the drunken fire demon’s hands and held it up in the air.
”Alright! Who wants it next?”
Several hands made a grab for the microphone but Kurama’s made it to it first.
Yusuke and Shizuru trudged back to their seats, disappointed but eager to hear
Kurama sing. They’d never heard him sing in his full-youko form. Kurama
stepped in front of everyone and was greeted by catcalls. “Any requests?” he
asked.
“How about something by Glay?” suggested Kuwabara.
“No, B’Z!” shouted Yusuke.
“How about T.M. Revolution?” proposed Keiko.
“Sing something American!” yelled out Botan.
“American it is then! Kuwabara-kun, do you have any English CDs?”
Kuwabara looked through his bookshelf of CDs and carelessly tossed a couple at
Kurama.
“My dad bought these when he was in Las Vegas. See any you like?”
Kurama shuffled the CDs, pulled one out, and inserted it into the karaoke
machine.
“’Billy Joel’… I think I’ve heard of this guy before.”
The sound of an 80’s steel drum set filled the room and Youko Kurama’s
soothing tenor voice breathed life into the lyrics of “Only the Good Die
Young.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kurama’s voice was mesmerizing. The entire room suddenly fell silent as the
group listened intently to the fox-demon’s singing. No one understood the
lyrics, but nobody cared. They were drawn into a world where they could see only
Kurama, and hear only Kurama. Everyone was so drawn to Kurama’s performance
that they never seemed to notice the pangs of pain that struck him every two or
three lines. Kuwabara eventually noticed Kurama’s condition when he spotted
the silver haired Youko holding his stomach with his free hand.
”Yo Kurama, you okay?”
Kurama gave him a strained smile.
”I’m fine. Just let me…”
Kurama tumbled forwards onto the floor as a jarring pain stabbed through his
abdomen. To everyone’s surprise, the fox demon began coughing loudly,
scattering blood and saliva all over the floor. Kuwabara leapt out of his seat.
“Kurama? Urameshi! Call an ambulance!”
“Yeah, and what would I tell them? A six-foot tall half-human half-fox is
coughing blood up on the living room carpet?”
“Then what the hell are we… Wait, Yukina-san! Can’t you heal Kurama with
your youki?” he turned to the timid ice maiden.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t. If I don’t know what the cause of the problem
is, I can’t do anything to help,” she whimpered. Keiko put a strong hand on
her shoulder.
”Don’t worry about it Yukina-chan. Get the first aid kit. I’ll see if I
can figure out what’s wrong with Kurama-san.”
Youko Kurama writhed and vomited a bloody mess on the floor. Botan quickly
stooped to wipe his mouth while Kuwabara ran past her and out of the room.
”Come on, Kurama. Just hang on,” she comforted.
Keiko carefully looked over the situation. Stomach pains, bloody excretions,
high fever. She gasped. It was toxic ingestion. Someone had poisoned Kurama’s
food.
“So Keiko, what is it? Stomach virus? Infection? What can I do to help?”
probed a panicking Yusuke.
“Yusuke, I need to tell you something,” Keiko whispered into his ear.
”What? And why are you whispering? Wha…”
“Look. The symptoms Kurama-san’s experiencing are like the ones for the
ingestion of several kinds of household poisons. I think… I think someone
poisoned Kurama-san.”
Yusuke fell silent. It was an incredible shock to him. One of his most trusted
friends poisoned Kurama? It was impossible. There was no way.
“That’s not important now,” Keiko continued, ”we need to save
Kurama-san’s life first. Go get some milk of magnesia. We have to try to get
everything out of his stomach.”
As Yusuke ran to the bathroom to fetch the medicine, Keiko walked over to the
food table. She took an analytical look at Kurama’s plate. On the yellow
plastic dish were pasta stains, crumbs from a hot dog, an uneaten bit of
lettuce, a few strands of chow mein, and a half-consumed slice of tiramisu.
Keiko sweat dropped. She momentarily wondered if overeating was the cause of his
stomachache.
“Let’s see,” she said to herself, “Shizuru-san made the pasta, Botan-san
brought the hot dogs, I made the salad, Kurama-kun made the chow mein, and
Yukina-san made the tiramisu. Everyone was at the food table at least once, so
everyone but Kurama-kun and me could have stuck the poison in there.
Everyone’s a suspect.”
She put her hand through her chestnut hair as she looked back at the youko.
Keiko walked up to Botan, who was holding a hot towel over Kurama’s forehead.
“How is he?” she asked.
”Not well. He’s stopped vomiting, but he’s still in a lot of pain,” the
ferry girl sighed.
Keiko looked down at her youko friend. Kurama’s face was twisted in pain, and
his eyes were tightly shut. He had both hands over his stomach, which was
distended noticeably. Keiko looked upon Kurama’s pathetic state with a frown.
Why Kurama-kun? Why now? Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sounds of
Kuwabara stomping down the hallway.
”Yukimura! I got the first aid kit!” The orange-haired teenager thrust a
brown medical chest into Keiko’s arms.
”Thanks, Kuwabara-kun, but I don’t think we’re going to need it.”
”Whaddaya mean? Kurama needs first aid! He might die if we don’t do
anything!”
“Yes, he’ll die if we don’t do anything. But then again, he might die if
YOU do something.”
“What are you talking about?” Kuwabara yelled.
“I’ll tell you what I’m talking about!” Keiko shouted back, “You’re
the one who poisoned Kurama-kun, and you’re going to kill him now that he’s
down and defenseless.”
Kuwabara was stunned. What was Yukimura saying?
“What the hell are you talking about?” he swore.
Keiko brought Kurama’s plate over and slapped it down on the floor in front of
Kuwabara.
“Take a look at this. Yukina-san, Shizuru-san, Kurama-kun, Botan-san, and
myself brought all of the food here. Since no one else got sick from eating any
of the food, none of them could have put the poison in it. That leaves you, Hiei-kun,
and Yusuke. Hiei-kun couldn’t have done it because he only went to the food
table once, and that was before anyone else got there. Yusuke couldn’t have
done it, because he hasn’t come even close to Kurama-kun’s plate,” She
pointed her finger at the center of Kuwabara’s face.
“That leaves you as the only suspect! You’re the only one who could’ve
done it! Shizuru-san, call the police! Someone help me hold Kuwabara down!”
Hiei and Keiko rushed Kuwabara and threw him to the ground.
“Let go! I didn’t do anything!”
“Still professing innocence? You’re pathetic!” she shouted into his face.
“But… but…”
“HOLD IT!”
The entire group froze in their places as Yusuke made his way towards the center
of the room.
”What the hell are you doing? Give Kurama this before he dies.”
Yusuke tossed a brown bottle of magnesium hydroxide at a surprised Keiko. She
handed the bottle to Botan but refused to release Kuwabara.
”Kuwabara-kun’s the one who poisoned Kurama-kun! We have to keep him
restrained until the police get here.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” said Yusuke in an unnaturally calm
tone, “until I saw this.” He pointed to Kurama’s plate. Keiko blinked.
”What are you talking about, Yusuke? That’s proof that Kuwabara-kun was the
one that put the poison in Kurama-kun’s food.”
“No it isn’t. And even if someone really did plan to poison Kurama, it still
wouldn’t be Kuwabara.”
”Oh really?” Keiko said, almost mockingly, “The tell us, who would it
be?”
Yusuke didn’t reply. Instead, he turned to Botan, who was spooning the
medicine to the bloated Kurama.
“Botan, you were the one who brought that cake, right?”
”The tiramisu? Well, yes, I was the one, but…”
“And you were the one who made it, right?”
”Yes, but…”
“And you were the one who fed it to Kurama, right?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?” asked the ferry girl in
a shaky tone.
Yusuke let out a groan. The poor girl had no idea what she had done.
“One of the main ingredients in tiramisu is chocolate, Botan. Chocolate kills
animals.”
Yusuke then knelt down and slung a limp fox-demon’s right arm over his left
shoulder.
”Now let Kuwabara go so he can help me take Kurama to the bathroom before he
makes even more of a mess in here.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The End