The rest of the Suzaku Seven glanced over at the fettered monk, but before they could register the situation, the door flew open and Tamahome and Miaka entered. There was a sudden and joyous reunion between them all.
On stage, Renkotsu was disgusted by this sight and was about to turn away when he suddenly saw a child he'd never seen before- floating in midair. Renkotsu carefully picked up his jug of liquor, slowly, to make his action appear nonthreatening. If he remained casual, the levitating child wouldn't realize that the jug was a powerful weapon, that a swig or two would enable Renkotsu to breathe fire. He noted that the child was holding a small wooden spike.
"Hm?" the child growled at Renkotsu in a surprisingly harsh voice. "Are you going to get off the stage?"
"Why should I?" Renkotsu demanded. "We're the opening act."
A hulking man with graying hair appeared from the stage exit. "The Seiryu Seven won't wait to perform," he said. "Not when a chance to get revenge the Suzaku Seven is before us!"
Ginkotsu turned his imposing cyborg form upon the newcomers and pronounced, "Grsh."
A man with a painted face tapped Ginkotsu on the back. "I suppose you think you're intimidating. But when my illusions allowed me to sneak by you so easily, I realized you were- agh!"
Kyokotsu picked up the man with the painted face, and Jakotsu, who turned to look, started to laugh. "What have you got there, Kyokotsu! A man with a painted face! It's so funny-looking!"
There was a clap of thunder, and the lights dimmed momentarily as the concert hall suffered a direct lightning strike. A woman with red hair tied in a severe bun stepped in front of the grey-haired man and told Jakotsu, "Your painted face looks much funnier." Jakotsu pointed at himself in shock.
The lightning bolt had finally managed to distract the Suzaku Seven from their happiness, and they looked in irritation at the stage.
"I suppose their arrival was inevitable," the sword-bearing man, Hotohori, pronounced grimly.
"We've already won, so there's not really anything they can do to us, you know?" the blue-haired Chichiri reminded them.
"Nonetheless," Chiriko said with distaste, carefully surveying the child with a wooden spike, "it would be prudent to keep our distance."
"If they'll just listen to Yui," Miaka said worriedly, "they shouldn't attack us. I just don't know if they will listen to her."
"Hey, with all of us here, they won't try anything," Tamahome said, putting his arms around Miaka.
Bankotsu swaggered up to the red-haired woman, one hand on his hip while the other hand balanced the hilt of Banryu on his shoulder. "Well," he pronounced lazily, "I'd guess you're Soi of the Seiryu Seven. I'm Bankotsu, slayer of a hundred humans and a hundred demons."
Soi said crisply, "I am Soi. And you should know that lightning loves to diminish those who think too highly of themselves." She stared directly at Bankotsu as she said this, who reacted by smirking. Soi then said, "If you doubt me, we could see how well your giant withstands the weapons of heaven."
There was a flash, and a bolt of lightning suddenly struck Kyokotsu, who staggered backwards, dropping the painted man. Yusuke lept out of his seat with an oath, and Inuyasha and Hotohori drew their swords. The rest of the Suzaku Seven assumed combat readiness. On the stage, Bankotsu brought his halberd to the ready and said through his teeth to the rest of the Band of Seven, "Don't start anything." Then he made a fake smile and complimented, "That was nice illusion work."
"An illusion?" Mukotsu muttered, then realized that Kyokotsu was looking around with his mouth hanging open in surprise, unharmed and unsinged, and the painted man had been freed. The painted man was standing on the stage and smirking. "Really," the painted man said cockily, "how could you ever hope to defeat Tomo, the master of illusions?"
Suikotsu stepped forward. "We have our ways," he said gently, but with a threatening edge.
"Come, Tomo, Miboshi, we've scouted out the theater," Soi said firmly. "We've accomplished everything we desired." The floating child Miboshi and Tomo the painted man scowled but they left the stage. Tomo went to stand beside Soi and the grey-haired man, but Miboshi floated off the stage and into a row of seats just behind the Suzaku Seven.
"I think you want to pick different seats," the purple-haired man informed them as he raised a fist.
"These were reserved for the Seiryu Seven, Nuriko. Do try to remember that there's a truce in effect here." Miboshi sneered at him. "I think I'll enjoy sitting behind you, Chiriko," he said, turning his address to the brown-haired youth.
"I'll enjoy remembering that your evil was halted," Chiriko sniffed. Miboshi grimaced.
"Don't do that again," Soi said callously to Tomo.
"If you insist," Tomo grumbled.
"Hey," said Bankotsu a little too loudly. "You haven't introduced your friend. It's not very polite of you."
The grey haired man growled, "My name is Ashitare, and I've ripped apart a man with twelve times your strength!"
"Thirty times!" Nuriko yelled from the audience. "And I was the clear winner!" Ashitare stepped towards the voice.
A man with scale armor, flowing blond hair, and a lifeless expression strode commandingly out of the door behind Ashitare, Soi, and Tomo. His eyes bored into the back of Ashitare's head as he simply pronounced, "Heel." Ashitare gulped and was silent. Soi turned around and said excitedly, "Nakago!"
Nakago didn't reply, but when he reached her side, he put his right arm around her waist. The gesture appeared both affectionate and rib-crushing. Nakago said, "I've scouted the perimeter of the theater. It's all clear."
Bankotsu extended the point of Banryu to within an inch of Nakago's nose. "I don't know which would make me happier, having the stage cleared of you, or increasing my kill count."
"We should return to our seats," Nakago stiffly told Soi. Their group filed off the stage and towards their seats.
Miboshi asked suspiciously, "Where's your friend Chichiri gone to?" The blue-haired monk and his hat had entirely disappeared from the Suzaku Seven's aisle. As if on cue, the hat blew back into the theater, and Chichiri popped out of it. Miboshi repeated his question. "Miaka and Yui asked me to pick up Amiboshi, you know?" Chichiri replied.
Out of the hat popped a tall, teenaged blonde, sporting a blue headband that he wore parallel to his eyebrows. He turned back to the hat and extended his hand towards it. A hand reached out of the hat and the man took it, helping a mature woman step out of the hat. The blonde then did the same for a man about the woman's age. "Thank you, Kai-ka," the woman said.
Miboshi stared in disbelief. "Amiboshi, what on earth is wrong with you? What kind of a name is Kai-ka?" The blonde hadn't responded to the word Amiboshi, but did at the sound of Kai-ka. "My mother and father," he gestured to them, "gave me that name. I prefer it to the one I had."
Miboshi would've said something else, but Nakago and the others were coming closer, and he subsided.
Miaka stepped forward. "Amiboshi, thank you for coming. You're the only part of the Seiryu Seven act I can enjoy." Amiboshi nodded, "Thank you for getting the tickets for my parents. I'm glad I don't remember any of the Seiryu Seven."
"Where are they?" Kuwabara asked as he twisted around in his seat, looking at the entrance.
"Hiei may not have been able to get off duty yet," Kurama murmured.
"You mean he likes to dawdle," Kuwabara frowned. "I meant where's Mitarai? And all of them?"
Just then the door opened and the last band entered the theater, the Seven Psycho Psychics. Recognizing one of the members, Kuwabara jumped up, giving him the peace sign with both hands. "Hey, Mitarari!" Mitarai yelled back, "Hey, Kuwabara!"
"Wow, that's the third coincidental arrival tonight," Botan commented.
"Botan?" Keiko and Yukina turned in surprise and indeed beheld the blue-haired Grim Reaper in her street clothes, sitting to the left of them with her paddle by her side. "When did you get here?" Keiko asked.
"Just now," answered Botan. "I'd think," she fixed Yusuke with a steely glare, "that you'd invite your trusted partner to a wonderful occasion like this!"
Yusuke grinned wickedly. "I'm surprised at you, Botan, this is a date with Keiko here!"
"Yusuke!" Botan groused. "This is a case, not a date! We're supposed to be figuring out how all of these demons managed to get past the border patrols of Demon World!"
"I'm not a Spirit Detective anymore, remember?" Yusuke put both hands behind his head and leaned back. "I don't have to take orders from the toddler anymore."
Botan looked at Kuwabara, but he forestalled her, saying, "Botan, half the people here are humans anyway. We'd have a really hard time keeping all of them safe."
Shizuru added, "Besides, it'd be difficult figuring which are the bad demons and which are the good demons."
It was at this juncture that Kiyoshi Mitarai reached their aisle. Kuwabara jumped up and greeted him. He had been known as "Sea Man" in the villanous Seven Psychics group, but had been reformed thanks to Kuwabara's help. Tsukihito Amanuma, "Game Master," shyly and grudgingly greeted Botan, the closest person to the Spirit World, which had resurrected him. Kurama knew he and Amanuma weren't quite ready to face each other yet- he had given Amanuma the fatal blow.
"Yes, I passed that history final, though I had to study for a long time," Mitarai replied to a question Kuwabara had asked. "You said you'd have an exam today- how'd you do?"
Kuwabara grinned, "I got a ten!" Mitarari winced and Shizuru frowned at the low score, and Yukina felt embarrassed. Kuwabara then added, "Out of ten!" Mitarai laughed in relief, "Don't scare us like that!" Kuwabara put his hands on his hips and laughed happily at their reactions.
Shinobu Sensui stood behind Yusuke Urameshi's chair. "It's odd, isn't it?," he mused aloud. "You took the place I vacated, then you were thrown out of it by our employers. Now there is no Spirit Detective."
"Yeah," Yusuke said unconcernedly. "Does seem a pity. But then, this new treaty with Demon World seems to be holding up fine. I'm not complaining."
The two didn't really have anything more to say.
A man used his third eye to gaze at Yukina, though his body was far from her. Certain she was still safe, he returned to the last task of the day.
The house lights dimmed, and everyone began to return to their seats. It was finally time for the concert to begin. The Band of Seven, the opening act, began to assume their places on stage. Bankotsu walked to center stage and took a microphone off a stand.
"We'd like to thank our enigmatic sponsor for resurrecting many of us from the dead!" Bankotsu announced.
"Not at all," a mysterious man in a baboon costume said affably. He remained upwind of the air conditioning vents so that Inuyasha could not catch his scent.
"I sense a strong demonic aura," Miroku said. "It's coming steadily nearer," Sango agreed, holding Hiraikotsu at the ready.
"You're probably referring to me," Hiei said grimly as he sauntered past the row that Sango and Miroku were sitting in.
"Hiei, you're late!" Yusuke complained.
"Some pathetic fool wandered into Demon World, and I had to round him up."
He was welcomed enthusiastically into Yusuke's row.
Miaka wondered where her older brother Keisuke, her friend Yui, and Suboshi of the Seiryu Seven, were now. They were all going to come to the theater together, but where were they?
Nakago had the same concerns, so he whipsered to Amiboshi, "Your brother and Lady Yui are taking too long. We need to find out where they are. You have a way of communicating with them." Amiboshi stared at him. He didn't care for the Nakago's manner, but was curious about what his meaning. "Your bodies are specially linked," Nakago continued, "and any mark you make on your body appears on his. Cut yourself in the pattern of letters and your brother will be able to read the message."
Kuwabara was feeling bored and looking around, when he suddenly wailed, "What is that guy doing! Eww!" Keiko looked where he was looking and put a hand over her face. Kuwabara said, "Sorry, Keiko. Yukina, Sis, don't look, you don't wanna see." Yusuke craned his neck to observe what Kuwabara was seeing, and noticed that Amiboshi was cutting his own arm.
Kagome rushed over to the young man. "Bloodletting doesn't cure you of anything! Let me use my first aid kit on you."
"What are you talking about?" Amiboshi said in confusion. "I'm just text messaging my brother!" The cuts on his arm did somewhat resemble Chinese characters.
Looking at him oddly, Kagome took out a bandage. "No, wait," Amiboshi insisted, "I need to read his reply!" His skin began to change and new characters appeared as his brother similarly marked himself.
"Yusuke," Keiko said determinedly, "next time let's just go to a movie."
Next Chapter:
"Is this cacophony really considered music?"
"There exists a food that even Miaka won't eat?"
"Where's Hiei?"