A Cure for What Ails You Pt. 4
Kurama's mouth presses into a thin line, brow furrowing with some concern that Jin is unfamiliar with whatever has poisoned Touya. He nods at Jin's suggestion, though. "Yes, I had intended to reach out in the event that you didn't know what we were dealing with. I shall contact him now." Standing up, he walks to his desk and pulls up the webcam on his computer to begin a video call. For some reason, the Spirit World prince still insists on this method of communication. Kurama finds it to be somewhat annoying and a bit inconvenient.
The video call starts up and Kurama waits for the line to pick up, hoping that Koenma is not currently away or too busy to answer. Their time is running ever shorter and, in all honesty, Kurama is actually beginning to get scared for his friend's life.
The line picks up, but the person on the other end is not Koenma. Bright yellow eyes fixate on Kurama as Hiyuri grins wide. The camera view shows her torso, barely covered by her cropped halter, and one leg propped up on the desk. "Sorry, but Koenma can't come to the phone right now. He's a bit... preoccupied~ May I help you somehow, instead? You must be Kurama, yes? The red hair and gorgeous face are rather telling." She lets out a giggle, sharp canine teeth peeking over her lower lip.
Jin's more interested in Kurama's call with Koenma than he is in his food, so he sets his plate down and follows his comrade to the strange laptop-like device and does his best not to loom or crowd. Which results in him awkwardly bending his knees and leaning one hand on the corner of the desk, peering into the screen just out of the webcam's frame. Golden yellow orbs blink into the camera and an all too familiar lilting cadence comes sing-songing from the speakers.
"Hiyuri?!" Jin just about loses his grip on the desk and barely catches himself before he checks Kurama hockey-style against the wall. He has moved into frame now, all care not to crowd Kurama gone as soon as he recognized the cat lady. She looks preoccupied herself, and seeing her on screen reminds Jin that the last time he saw her on a screen, she was wearing a lot less.
Any other day Jin might blush about it, but he can see Yukina giving it her all out of the corner of his eye, and he knows they're running out of time. His heart sinks. "Now's no time fer delays. Are yeh certain Koenma can't be reached?"
Hiyuri's face lights up at the sight of the wind master. "What a treat to be seeing you again, Jin~ You look so sad, though." Her head tilts as he inquires about Koenma, her gaze dipping somewhere off camera. "Unfortunately, he will be busy for quite some time." She lifts her eyes back to them through the camera. "I am more than happy to deliver any messages to him for you, though? Or maybe I can help in his stead? I am quite knowledgeable despite my appearance, nya~" She offers him a gentler smile, sensing his desperation and urgency in his tone.
Jin must really look as shite as he feels if Hiyuri can pick it out after just a few seconds of looking at him on camera. He's also not sure he wants to know why Hiyuri looks down when she mentions Koenma, and he's too exhausted and desperate to waste time bargaining. "Touya's been poisoned." He almost bites the inside of his cheek again. "Kurama an' Yukina've kept 'im alive 'til now, but we don't know a cure fer ki-eatin' poison, an' I'm no help standin' here a useless lump." Jin's knuckles whiten as he curls his hands into fists against the desk. He holds Hiyuri's eyes intently. "Please, he's-" He swallows. "Must be there's a cure or a healer Spirit World knows of can save Touya."
All traces of playfulness retreat from Hiyuri's expression as Jin explains what's going on. "I am truly sorry to hear about that. A ki eating poison, you say?" She chews on her lower lip in thought for a moment, gaze shifting to the side as she seems to consider something. "I'm afraid that I can't help you with poison, but...,"
A shadowy circle appears in the space above her shoulder and a cell phone falls out of it. Hiyuri catches it and opens up her contacts. "I know someone who most likely can." She taps the screen and holds the phone to her ear as she calls someone and they must answer because her face lights up as she greets them. "Hello, gorgeous. Do you have some time to do me a little favor? You know I'm good for it~" She giggles, pausing to let them speak. "The mate of my friend was poisoned. He says it's eating his ki?......... It sounded familiar from - oh....... Wonderful~ You're simply the best. Say hello to Ire and give Neoma some love for me~ Bye bye, nya~!"
Hiyuri hangs up the phone and addresses Jin and Kurama on the screen once more. "My dear friend, Grimm, will be arriving soon. He says that he's more than happy to take a look at Touya. Don't worry, healing is something he's very talented at. Can't think of anything he can't heal." A sly smile curls her lips, "Oh, and Jin? Once everything settles, give me a call. You owe me that date, nya~ Tata~" With a wink, the screen goes black.
Kurama was surprised, to say the least, when someone else answered his call that was not Koenma. He had heard that there is a new spirit detective, but had yet to learn their name or meet them. He is about to ask when @askjinthewindmaster unceremoniously crowds into him, nearly shoving him aside, and greets the woman with cat ears as 'Hiyuri'. Kurama finds himself surprised again that Jin has met her before.
The familiarity between them sets him at ease, though, no longer concerned about whether Koenma had been usurped from his position. Instead, he listens quietly, trapped against the wall, to the conversation between her and Jin, and then the chat she has on the phone. Someone named 'Grimm' would be helping them. The name sounds familiar, but he can't quite place it. Then - she's gone, the call ending without a single word from him.
He raises a brow over at Jin, curious about what she meant by him owing her a date, but he doesn't press him on the matter. It's none of his business. Instead, he lets out a heavy sigh and gently pushes Jin out of his space and back towards his food. "It seems like there is someone who can help us, which is good news. You really should eat, hungry or not. Touya is going to need you when he wakes up."
Kurama offers him a small smile as he gets up from his desk and returns to his microscope. "In the meantime, I'm going to study this poison some more. I would like to discover an antidote for it in case we run into it again. I hope that we don't, but I like being prepared." His mouth presses into a firm line, "There is also the small possibility that this friend of Hiyuri's may not be able to help, as well. I don't want to rely only on a stranger." Without another word, he adjusts his microscope and leans in, examining the poison's structure and behavior in the sample of Touya's blood.
Hiyuri, mysterious as always, makes her mysterious call to her mysterious friend, and then she hangs up. Not before mentioning the date Jin owes her, of course. He's between disbelief and shock, forgetting to move out of Kurama's way until his friend gently steers him out of his personal space bubble and away from the desk. Of course, it isn't until then that Jin realizes he'd essentially pinned Kurama between himself and the wall for the duration of the call.
"'m sorry 'bout takin' over like that." He lets Kurama maneuver him back towards his plate sitting on what looks like a family heirloom coffee table. The fox doesn't give him much time to respond before getting back to work at his microscope, and again Jin feels like he's just there to take up space. He hopes this Grimm won't be too long before he arrives. Touya's pale face rests on the lip of the chest freezer looking for all the world like he's soundly sleeping. He hopes Kurama's assertion is correct: when he wakes up. Not if. When.
He looks up at @melted-heart-yukina with concern, her own plate of food and her tea untouched. "Yukina, lass, know yeh said yeh'd be alright fer a while yet, but between me an' you, it's you I think matters more that yeh be eatin'." He's just sat down, but Jin gets up to carry Yukina's plate to her. "If yer not able to take yer hands away from yer work, least I can be good fer somethin' an' help yeh eat." Then, more quietly he adds, "Thank yeh fer bein' here. Know it means the world t'me, an' more than that, to Touya."
Yukina only hears a bit of the conversation that occurs over the computer, mostly when Jin yells the name Hiyuri. She catches that someone could help, named Grimm, and would be coming to do so. Her attention, otherwise, is focused on watching Touya and keeping track of their now shared ki. She frets internally, doing her best to keep her worry off her face. She doesn't want Jin to worry more then he already is.
She smiles at Jin's offer to help her eat, not at all embarrassed by the prospect. "Oh, I suppose a few bites would help tide me over," she agrees, partly because she does need energy and partly to help keep Jin preoccupied while they wait for Grimm to arrive.
Her smile only grows brighter as Jin thanks her, for both himself and Touya. "Of course. I'll always be there when either of you need me," she assures him.
Nearly thirty minutes after their phone call with Hiyuri, a thick energy weighs down on Kurama's house like a blanket. It's imposing, but it isn't hostile. No sooner does it settle, however, that it lifts and condenses into a single point outside.
A moment later and there's a knock on the front door.
Kurama had been immediately absorbed into his work that the sudden shift in energy around them is a bit more than startling. He looks up and shares a wary look with @askjinthewindmaster before standing and cautiously makes his way upstairs to answer the door.
They are expecting a guest, but with such a massive display of energy, he can't help but feel a bit of trepidation. Making sure Jin is behind him first, Kurama opens the door and narrows his eyes slightly at the man who stands there. "Are you 'Grimm'? How did you make it past my man-eating plants?"
Kurama opens the door to a tall, well-dressed man. An eyepatch covers his right eye, the other a blazing gold, and a hand rolled cigarette hangs from his grinning mouth that gives off a smokey sweet scent. A large wolf watches them with wary yellow eyes next to him.
"Pleasure to meet you, Kurama. I am, indeed, Grimm." He places a hand over his chest and bows slightly, "At Hiyuri's request." Grimm looks up from his bow and his grin turns salacious, "I would have been here much sooner had I known I would be greeted by such...," His gaze slides over to @askjinthewindmaster and smiles even wider, "Beautiful people."
Reaching up, he takes a drag on his cigarette, breathing the smoke out between them. Oddly enough, the smoke seems to dance in place before filtering out into the open air as though alive.
A tailor-made three piece suit, smoke the scent of a finely aged whiskey and the low rumble of a butter-smooth baritone are not what Jin expects when Kurama opens the door to their "guest". Never mind the eye patch—or the massive wolf staring up at him with an uncanny intelligence. And that's when it hits him—Jin know this wolf. In his exhaustion he hadn't clocked the familiar signature when Grimm's energy descended over the house, but now that he's eye-to-eye with the grey wolf, there's no doubt about it, the first time he'd come across this wolf and its heavy, all-encompassing energy was weeks ago on the island.
Jin's shoulders tense and he has to actively fight not to curl his hands to fists. Grimm towers over he and Kurama both, and while Hiyuri claimed he was a friend, Jin wasn't feeling too friendly wondering if their visitor sent his wolf skulking around to sniff him out. The way one eye of melted gold devours the sight of Kurama and himself causes the hair on his neck to stand on end. Jin narrows his eyes, still fighting the way his hands twitch against the urge to clench defensively. Beautiful people. Was the bugger playing with them?
Another terrible possibility occurs to him: what if Grimm was the one who attacked Touya to begin with? Who was to say he hadn't scoped the island out to find an opening to attack them unawares? He couldn't let this guy through without knowing, dammit.
They don't have time. But Jin isn't sure about letting this stranger past the threshold to lay his gloved hands on his mate.
But, if Grimm had been the one to poison Touya, usually the one with the poison also had the antidote. Or the recipe to the antidote at the very least. And right about now Jin doesn't care if he has to resort to some older, darker tricks to get Grimm to cooperate with them. The whispering pulse of bloodlust courses under the surface of Jin's otherwise cautious expression.
And, if it came to a fight, it's three against one, and Jin tells himself that's got to be enough. Yukina might not be a fighter, but she's an intelligent and resourceful demon. If Grimm tried anything, he and Kurama would be enough to overpower him physically. He hopes. Jin's has no idea if he could take Grimm on in top fighting condition, let alone operating on little sleep and no food. He regrets not having listened when Kurama urged him to eat earlier.
Dirty tricks it'll be if it comes t'that, he resolves. For Touya, Jin would kill again if he had to.
"Think yer wolf friend an' I 'ave met before." A quick nod at the canine. There. Now Mr. Three Piece knows Jin isn't having any wool pulled over his eyes if that was the play. If it was going to be a fix like that, Jin was going to make it known he was in on the game. "Can tell me more of it on the way inside. Touya's downstairs."
Kurama does not react to Grimm's advances, narrowing his eyes instead. It does not go unnoticed that the other man completely ignores his other question. It troubles him that his plants didn't so much as stir in his presence. If he is truly honest, it's more unsettling than anything else.
Jin's reaction next to him is even more defensive, startling him slightly when he admits to having met the imposing wolf at Grimm's side. He wonders if Jin thinks that he may be connected to Touya's condition somehow. It seems he will have to keep a close eye on this one. He steps to the side to allow Grimm inside, "Please, come in. Though, I would appreciate if you kept things professional."
Raising his hands in surrender, his grin relaxes to something more friendly. "Professional, of course. Sorry about that, I sometimes can't help myself once I see someone pretty. I'll do my best to be a good boy." His grin widens again as he crosses his heart with a single finger. Grimm pats the wolf next to him gently on the head, seeming to give it a silent order as he douses his cigarette and steps into the house, ducking slightly under the doorframe, at Kurama's invitation. "Pardon the intrusion."
As they make their way downstairs, Grimm's face lights up as he addresses @askjinthewindmaster's mention of meeting his wolf. He seems entirely unphased by the tension in the air. "Ah, you've seen Neoma before? Isn't she just the prettiest girl?" His tone makes him sound like a proud father. "I can't say I'm surprised you've seen her, though. She and I have been travelling together for a few hundred years. Our wandering takes us all over the place. Started a hotel chain some time ago just so that we would have a reliable place to rest our heads from time to time."
Moving out of the way to let Grimm through, Jin stays close to Kurama while keeping a close eye on their visitor. Grimm's winds are as placid as his tone, with no malicious undercurrent as far as Jin can tell. It still irks him that Grimm dodges important questions again—first about how he evaded Kurama's plants, then giving an obtuse answer about the wolf—Neoma. Grimm’s penchant for evasion isn’t warming Jin up to him any, and Jin knows a thing or two about evasion himself, but he prefers to use his in a fight. When it comes to truth-telling, he prefers to be forthright, which is just one more reason Grimm is rubbing him the wrong way.
"She'd be hard-pressed t'make it to the island so easy, lest she had company on the ferry," Jin counters, keeping his tone equally light. "Don't s'pose she would'a been able t'make it on the boat without one more human-like with 'er."
Even as Jin needles Grimm with his hardly veiled questioning, he recognizes genuine affection in the way the air lifts around the well-dressed leviathan when he talks about his canine companion. In Jin's experience, anyone with a true bond with another living being wasn't all bad. Didn't make Grimm any less dangerous though, so he's not about to go letting down his guard, especially now that they're descending the stairs into the basement where Touya is currently laying defenseless.
Once at the foot of the stairs, Jin moves ahead of Grimm to the chest freezer, as much to act as a barrier between the stranger and Yukina, as to reassure himself that Touya still breathes.
He lifts his eyes to @ask-youkokurama, conveying all his worry and suspicion wordlessly. Can we trust 'im?
Kurama recognizes the way @ask-grimmwolf deflects direct questions, being a master of it himself. Now he can say that he knows how his friends and foes feel being on the other side of it, and he doesn't like it. The odd thing is that Grimm doesn't seem to necessarily be doing it intentionally. He can't quite put his finger on it, but their strange guest may have depths to him that they couldn't even hope to scratch the surface of. It's not often that Kurama feels out of his element, which only makes him more uneasy.
At the bottom of the stairs, Kurama watches as Jin strides over to stand between Grimm and Touya, shoulders tense. He understands why and it's easy enough to interpret the look Jin gives him when they lock eyes. It had been obvious to Kurama from the line of questioning that Jin suspects Grimm of poisoning Touya, but there are too many unknown variables for Kurama to jump to any conclusions.
Whether or not they truly can trust this man is unclear and Kurama lets out a heavy sigh before giving Jin a troubled expression. What other choice do we have?
Grimm finds himself amused by the two demons he's in company with, fully aware of what the taller one is trying to do. 'Jin', Hiyuri had said his name is. He isn't guilty, though, and has nothing to hide, which only makes him want to toy with them for a bit longer. "A ferry? To an island? Which island did you see her on?" He tilts his head towards @askjinthewindmaster with a teasing grin, "Regardless of the island, there is more than one way to cross the water."
Reaching into his vest pocket, he pulls out a hard-shell case and extracts a hand-rolled cigarette. He doesn't light it, but pops it into his mouth to let it hang there. Turning slightly to look over his shoulder, he addresses Kurama. "You've been rather quiet since I came inside. I take it you've been observing me? Trying to get a read on me?" Grimm lets out a good-natured chuckle, "Fine by me. Let me know what you think you figure out. I'm always curious about how others perceive me."
