The four members of Koenma's spirit detective group stood before his desk.
None of them seemed to be paying much attention to him. He was telling them
about the next case they were going to be working on.
"Hey! Are you listening to me?" Koenma said suddenly. The boys looked up at him innocently.
"Come on, Koenma, you tell us the same thing all the time. Be careful, this and that might happen and whatever else you said," Yusuke said.
"Have you been listening to any of this, Yusuke? Do you even know what your next case is?"
"Yeah, we have to find some demon, right? Who stole something or something like that," Yusuke guessed.
"You have to find a demon who has escaped into the human world, and you have to bring her back here. We're not sure---," Koenma said, but Kuwabara cut him off.
"Her? We're dealing with some demon girl? Does she have some freaky powers or something and she's going to take over the world?" Kuwabara asked.
"We're not sure, but she illegally traveled into the human world. Since that's not allowed, then you have to find her," Koenma said. "You really haven't been listening, have you?"
"No. So do you know what she looks like or anything?" Yusuke said. Koenma sighed and shook his head.
"All we know is that she's got black hair and she's probably..." he looked at them, "She's not that much taller than Hiei..."
"Okay. Is that all you've got to tell us?"
"We don't know anything else about her. She's a nobody, pretty much. No criminal records, no records of ever having any job, no home owners liscense or anything," Koenma said. "She's in or around your city. Good luck."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"This should be easy," Kuwabara said. "I mean, he said she's not even all that strong, is she? Koenma said she doesn't even have any special powers. Why did he need all four of us for this?"
"Because we're a team," Yusuke said, sounding disgusted. They were back on earth, in the city, wandering through the streets. Hiei and Kurama were in the back, occasionally glancing around at people.
"There aren't many people out here. It should be rather easy to find her," Kurama pointed out.
"Yeah," Yusuke muttered. "'Should be' are the key words there."
Hiei was hanging in the back, looking around but not making much effort to search for the girl. He noticed, but didn't give much thought to, a girl wearing all black, standing across the street watching them. There was nothing extremely abnormal about her, nothing demon-ish, so he didn't bother to point her out to the rest of them.
A little way down the street, Yusuke sat down on a bench on the sidewalk.
"This is stupid. All Koenma told us was that she's got black hair and she's taller than Hiei. How much is that to go on? He didn't say she had an demon horns or anything, or any strange powers or extremely high power level. Why do we have to bother with her? Couldn't he have sent some other people? We're supposed to deal with dangerous powerful demons, not little girls!" Yusuke whined.
"Yeah, no kidding. This is crap. I could be doing something a lot more important right now," Kuwabara muttered. They were all quiet for a minute until Yusuke noticed a girl standing nearby staring at them.
"What do you want?" he snapped.
"Your head! Muwahahahahha!!!" the girl said, laughing evilly. The boys stared at her. She stopped laughing and blinked, looking completely normal. "I'm just kidding." She walked off down the street.
"That wasn't... normal," Kurama muttered, watching the girl walk away.
"There's a lot of screwed up people in this city," Yusuke replied.
"Yeah," Kurama agreed.
The guys spent the rest of that day searching for the demon girl. Several times, Hiei spotted the "insane girl," standing across the street watching them. She never talked to them again, she was just... there.
Two days after Koenma had sent them, Yusuke was getting sick of searching. He decided to sit around and wait for her to come to them, which, as Kurama pointed out, most likely wouldn't work, but at this point Yusuke didn't care much. They were all sitting in the park, occupying themselves with various things such as sitting in trees, throwing rocks at squirrels, throwing rocks at Kuwabara, and making new hybrid plants, when Hiei spotted the girl again. He jumped down from his perch in the tree and walked over to Kurama, who was sitting on the ground in the process of crossing a rose and some poisonous plant to make a poisonous rose so his rose whip could have poison tips and be twice s deadly.
"Kurama," Hiei said. Kurama looked up, still holding his two plants. Hiei looked to make sure the girl was still watching. She was, so Hiei continued. "Remember that girl who was on the street the other day?"
"Yes."
"She has been watching us since then," Hiei said.
"Really?"
"Yes. She's over there right now, watching us."
Kurama looked in the direction Hiei had indicated. The girl was standing there, watching them. She looked straight at Kurama, shrugged, then started walking toward them. Kurama and Hiei exchanged looks and waited for the girl to reach them.
"Hello, guys!" she said cheerfully when she reached them.
"Who're you?" Kuwabara said instantly.
"Oh, just your friendly neighborhood stalker," she said, like it was no big deal. She spoke really fast, like she was on a caffiene high, which she was, but we won't go there now. Kuwabara and Yusuke looked freaked out by her extremely fast talking and her casual way of introducing herself as a stalker, while Hiei and Kurama looked completely calm, as usual.
"You're kidding, right?" Yusuke said.
"No."
"You aren't?"
"Aren't what?"
"Kidding."
"About what?"
They all got sweatdrops, then the girl burst out laughing.
"Yes, I'm kidding. Geez, you shouldn't take people so seriously!" she said, laughing.
"Why have you been following us?" Hiei asked.
"She's been following us?" Kuwabara asked stupidly.
"Yes, I've been following you. At least somebody noticed me. Anyway, with my extra sensory hearing, I've been able to listen in on every word you've said, even though I was clear across the street," the girl said happily.
"That's illegal, isn't it?" Yusuke said.
"I don't know. Is it?"
"You could be arrested for stalking us," Kurama said.
"Yes, well I wasn't stalking, I was following. I never had any plans of harming any of you, really, and I doubt I could harm any of you. You're freaky people," she said, looking at them curiously.
"Not as freaky as you," Kuwabara muttered.
"Yes, I'm quite freaky, I know that, and I'm proud of it," she replied, smiling.
"What's your problem? Why have you been following us?" Hiei asked again.
"Come on, shorty! Lighten up!" the girl said. Hiei rolled his eyes. All three of them, although they couldn't see his Jagan.
"Don't call me shorty. I get enough of that from him!" Hiei said, jabbing Kuwabara in the chest.
"Hey!" Kuwabara yelped.
"Well fine then, little twit..."
"You're too cheerful for Hiei. Anyway, you still haven't told us why you were following us," Kurama said.
"Too cheerful my shoe... I was following you because I wanted to." She got three annoyed people glaring at her (Kuwabara was too stupid to be confused and too confused to be annoyed). "Fine, I was following you because you're searching for the demon girl that escaped from Makai a few days ago."
"How do you know about that?" Yusuke asked.
"Extra sensory hearing, remember? I heard you guys talking about m-- er... her, every day," the girl said.
"Come to think of it, you fit her description pretty well," Kurama noticed.
"Do I really? Wow, some freaky coincidence there, huh?"
"But you can't be a demon. There's nothing inhuman about you, other than your unnatural cheerfullness and your so-called extra sensory hearing," Yusuke said. "But Botan's extremely cheeful, so I guess that's not all that strange..."
"Botan's not human, Yusuke," Kurama reminded him.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."
"Yes, well, I'm cheerful. Big deal. Are you gonna make it a big deal? No? Good, I'm glad," she said. "Well, unless you have something important to say, I must be going. Gotta get busy."
"You're not going anywhere, lady," Yusuke said. "What do you know about the girl who escaped Makai?"
"Not much."
"You said you were following us because we were looking for her."
"Yeah, I said that."
"Why are you suddenly not so cheerful?"
"No reason."
"I bet you know a lot about her."
"Not really."
"Come to think of it, you really do fit her description."
"That's already been pointed out."
"I know that."
"Then why did you say it again?"
"Because--- Hey! I'm the one asking questions!!!"
"Are you really?"
"Shut up!"
"Give me one good reason."
"Why should I?"
"Because I told you to."
"I don't even know your name! Why should I listen to you?"
"Because I told you to do something, and it's impolite to displease a lady."
"You're too rude to be a proper lady! Why should I care if I'm nice to you?"
"You just should."
"What the heck kind of reason is that?"
"A good one."
By this point, all of Yusuke's friends had multiple sweatdrops and were staring at their friend and the girl like they were nuts. With good reason. The two were having a completely pointless argument. Of course they'd think they were nuts.
"Yusuke?"
"Hm?"
"Could you stop arguing with that girl? You've gotten completely off the subject you started on. You wanted to know what she knew about the demon girl," Kurama said.
"Oh yeah. What do you know about the demon girl?" Yusuke snapped, pointing his finger right in the girl's face. She blinked, staring at his finger and in the process going completely cross-eyed.
"You're creepin' me out," Kuwabara said. "Urameshi, why don't you just leave the girl alone. She's nobody important. She's got nothing freaky about her, other than being freaky..."
"That made no sense," the girl pointed out. "Okay, well, I must be going."
"I said you're not going anywhere!" Yusuke said, grabbing her by the back of the shirt as she turned.
"Ow, hey! Hands off, mister!" she snapped.
"What's your name?" Yusuke asked.
"You know... I don't really remember."
"Huh?"
"My name."
"How can you not remember your name?"
"I don't know."
"What's your name?"
"Shadow."
"You said you didn't remember!"
"I lied."
"Don't lie!"
"I just did."
"About huh?"
"I don't know."
"This is pointless. She's not telling us anything," Hiei said.
"Wow, somebody finally figured me out!" Shadow said happily. She jumped over and stood in front of Hiei. "You got yourself a brain! Those two don't seem to." She pointed at Yusuke and Kuwabara. "Especially that big ugly one."
"Hey!"
"And you," she said, looking up at Kurama. "You haven't said two words since I got here, but I know from spying--- er, following you, that you're smart. Why do they call you fox boy anyway? You don't look like a fox." She walked in circles around Kurama, looking him over before stopping in front of him again. "You haven't got fox ears, or a fluffy tail... You look completely human."
"Yes. I'm in my human form right now," Kurama said.
"Hmmm. You've got two forms? Can I see your fox form?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm overly violent and cruel in that form, and Youko would end up killing you for being too cheerful," Kurama said.
"Youko? Who's that?"
"Me."
"You're Kurama."
"You know my name? Oh yeah, you've been listening in on us for a few days. Well Youko is my name in my fox form."
"That's cool."
"Why do you say that?"
"No reason, really. Just for something to say."
"Oh. You're strange."
"I know. And I don't even have to try."
"Good for you."
"Is it?"
"I don't know."
"Wow, something you don't know! That amazing."
"Whatever."
"That too."
"Look here, Shadow or whatever your name is," Yusuke interrupted, much to Kurama's relief. "You are really making no sense to any of us, all you're doing is either annoying us or freaking us out."
"Or both," Hiei said under his breath.
"Or both," Yusuke added. "But anyway, as I was saying, if you don't have a point, just leave us alone."
"Okay!" Shadow said. She spun around and walked away, whistling some overly happy tune, extremely loud and way off-key.
"That was... strange," Kurama muttered.
"Yeah, no kidding."
Kurama glanced down and realized he was still holding his rose and his poisonous flowering plant. He sat down and started trying to cross them again, acting like nothing had happened.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After that extremely strange meeting, Yusuke and his friends all went home (Hiei went off into the forest to sleep in a tree. Why does he sleep in trees?). Yusuke told them all to meet in the park the next day at noon (How does Hiei tell time? He doesn't have a watch...).
So, the next day, a little bit before noon, Kurama walked into the park. He was sitting on a bench when he noticed Shadow. She was sitting on the other side of the park in a tree with a little bundle of fur in her arms. She noticed Kurama and waved, and he walked over and stood under her.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Sitting."
"Yes, I can tell."
"And holding a baby fox."
"Really?"
"Yes." She poked the litle bundle of fur in her arms and it moved, then it opened its eyes, which, surprisingly, were a brilliant shade of blue, and looked around. "It's a grey fox, so it's okay that I'm in a tree."
"I suppose so."
A moment later, Hiei walked into the park. When he saw Shadow, he was beside Kurama in an instant.
"What is she doing here?" Hiei asked.
"I don't know. She found a fox pup, and she's sitting in a tree holding it," Kurama answered, looking down at Hiei.
"You're really annoying, girl, you know that?" Hiei accused.
"Yes, that's my life goal."
"Well you've accomplished it at an early age. How old are you?"
"Fourteen." Shadow jumped out of the tree and landed neatly between Hiei and Kurama. "How old are you?"
"That's irrelivant," Hiei said.
"How about you, Kurama?"
"Fifteen. Well actually over a thousand."
"What?"
"Youko is over a thousand. This human body is fifteen."
"Okay then, that makes sense I guess," Shadow said, looking slightly confused.
Suddenly out of no where, Koenma appeared in his teenaged form. He looked extremely excited.
"That's her!" Koenma said. "She's right under your noses and you didn't even realize it! How is that? You're supposed to be demons! Demons can detect other demons, can't they? If Kuwabara can, you definetely can! Why didn't you notice her?"
Kurama and Hiei looked slightly confused. Shadow just stood calmly and stroked the fox pup in her arms.
"You're Koenma, aren't you?" she said.
"Yes I am. And you are the escaped demon girl, aren't you?" Koenma said.
"Do I look like a demon to you?"
"Well, you've got red eyes." Shadow blinked. "And you somehow managed to hide from all my demon detecting devices, and three very competent spirit detectives," Koenma said. He looked like he would continue, but Shadow interrupted.
"Three?"
"Kuwabara's not competent," Hiei said under his breath to her.
"Oh yeah."
"Koenma?" Yusuke said, running up behind him. Shadow had been hidden by Koenma, but the second Yusuke noticed her, he freaked out. "You?! What are you doing here? You're not important! You're stalking us, aren't you? Why do you have a fur ball in your arms? What are you doing here?"
"Yusuke! Shut up!" Koenma snapped. "She's the demon you've been looking for, idiot!"
"I am not!"
"She is?"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!" Koenma yelled.
"Now that I think about it, you don't seem quite human," Yusuke said.
"Well fine! If I'm an escaped demon, what are you going to do with me? I can't do any harm here! Are you going to take me to prison?"
"Maybe."
"That's stupid."
"Maybe."
"Make up your mind. What are you gonna do, huh? These guys couldn't even tell I was a demon! Hiei is the only one who noticed me following them!"
"That makes you more dangerous! You can't even be detected!"
"Probably because I'm not a demon!"
"Yes you are!"
"I'm half demon!"
"Well you still illegally left Makai!"
"What's wrong with that? If I'm not going to do any damage, I can just stay here, can't I?"
"Hmm. You can if I assign you a guard."
"A guard?"
"Somebody stronger than you who can watch you twenty-four hours a day and who won't go and feel bad for you and protect you if you do something wrong! And they have to be able to fit in here and make you and themself inconspicuous."
"Well who the hell can fit all those requirements?!" Shadow snapped.
"There's two people I know who can," Koenma said. Shadow looked curious.
"Who would they be?" she asked.
"There's Youko, and there's Hiei," Koenma said.
"Youko can't," Kurama said. "The ears and the tail. He wouldn't be inconspicuous."
Koenma's eyes rested on Hiei.
"Me, right?" Hiei said miserably.
"Why can't I? I'm stronger, I'm inconspicuous, I---" Yusuke said.
"You might feel bad for her, and you can't watch her 24/7. Hiei can better than anyone with his Jagan," Koenma said.
"What's a Jagan?" Shadow asked.
Hiei's Jagan glowed faintly purple behind his headband.
"Ew, your forehead glows!" Shadow said. She reached out to poke his head, but he caught her hand.
"Nobody touches me," he said coldly. He pulled off his headband to show her the Jagan. "If I'm assigned to watch you twenty four hours a day, I can, with this, and you won't even know."
"Ew, you mean you could watch me in the shower and I wouldn't know?!"
Yusuke snorted, Kurama looked surprised, and Hiei looked extremely annoyed.
"I'm not a pervert," Hiei said.
"Oh, that's very good to know. What else can you do with that eye?"
"That's none of your business."
"Can you let go of my wrist now?" Shadow said. "I can't feel my hand."
Hiei looked at her wrist, which he still had very firmly in his grip, and let go. Shadow started shaking her hand around limply to get the circulation flowing again.
"So Koenma, if three-eyes here watches me, I can stay in the human world?"
Hiei looked annoyed at the insult, but he ignored her and occupied himself by carefully placing his headband back over his Jagan eye.
"Yes you can," Koenma said.
"Yay!" Shadow said happily, hugging Hiei with one arm, careful to keep a good hold on the fox puppy, then dancing away from the extremely freaked- out looking Hiei and hugging Kurama, then she did some more dancing before finally calming down a bit, then she gave the fox puppy a big hug.
"What's so great about staying in the human world?" Hiei muttered to Kurama. Kurama shrugged.
"Maybe she's got some enemies in the Makai," Kurama answered. Shadow was too happy to pay any attention to them.
"Thank you, Koenma!" she said.
"What, I don't get a hug?" Koenma asked.
"No."
"How fair is that?"
"I don't know. Well, I better be off. If I'm going to live here, I better have somewhere to live. I don't want to sleep in trees. Like somebody I know. Ahem. Anyway, Kurama, you can have this fox puppy. Being a fox yourself, you two should get along great. If not, let Hiei take her back to the forest or whatever, since he seems to live in the forest... Bye bye!" Shadow said, handing the fox to Kurama and dancing away.
"She's strange," Koenma said. "Well, I better go. Hiei, I expect a report from you at least once a week until we can trust her." With that said, Koenma vanished.
The three of them were still recovering from being thoroughly freaked out by Shadow when Kuwabara came running down the path to them.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late! What'd I miss?"
Anime fall down.
"What? Why is everybody so freaked out? I just came about five minutes late, that's it. What'd I miss? Where did that fox come from?" Kuwabara asked, suddenly noticing the little fox cuddled in Kurama's arms.
"Shadow gave her to me," Kurama said.
"Shadow? Who's that, your girlfriend?"
Sweatdrops.
"Shadow. You know, that girl who's been following us? Duh?! She is definitely not my girlfriend," Kurama said.
"Somebody explain to that fool what happened so he can stop flooding us with his stupidity. I have a... job... to do," Hiei said with disgust before vanishing.
"What's going on you guys?" Kuwabara asked again.
It took a while, but Yusuke and Kurama finally managed to get the story of what happened with Shadow through Kuwabara's thick skull.
"Hey! Are you listening to me?" Koenma said suddenly. The boys looked up at him innocently.
"Come on, Koenma, you tell us the same thing all the time. Be careful, this and that might happen and whatever else you said," Yusuke said.
"Have you been listening to any of this, Yusuke? Do you even know what your next case is?"
"Yeah, we have to find some demon, right? Who stole something or something like that," Yusuke guessed.
"You have to find a demon who has escaped into the human world, and you have to bring her back here. We're not sure---," Koenma said, but Kuwabara cut him off.
"Her? We're dealing with some demon girl? Does she have some freaky powers or something and she's going to take over the world?" Kuwabara asked.
"We're not sure, but she illegally traveled into the human world. Since that's not allowed, then you have to find her," Koenma said. "You really haven't been listening, have you?"
"No. So do you know what she looks like or anything?" Yusuke said. Koenma sighed and shook his head.
"All we know is that she's got black hair and she's probably..." he looked at them, "She's not that much taller than Hiei..."
"Okay. Is that all you've got to tell us?"
"We don't know anything else about her. She's a nobody, pretty much. No criminal records, no records of ever having any job, no home owners liscense or anything," Koenma said. "She's in or around your city. Good luck."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"This should be easy," Kuwabara said. "I mean, he said she's not even all that strong, is she? Koenma said she doesn't even have any special powers. Why did he need all four of us for this?"
"Because we're a team," Yusuke said, sounding disgusted. They were back on earth, in the city, wandering through the streets. Hiei and Kurama were in the back, occasionally glancing around at people.
"There aren't many people out here. It should be rather easy to find her," Kurama pointed out.
"Yeah," Yusuke muttered. "'Should be' are the key words there."
Hiei was hanging in the back, looking around but not making much effort to search for the girl. He noticed, but didn't give much thought to, a girl wearing all black, standing across the street watching them. There was nothing extremely abnormal about her, nothing demon-ish, so he didn't bother to point her out to the rest of them.
A little way down the street, Yusuke sat down on a bench on the sidewalk.
"This is stupid. All Koenma told us was that she's got black hair and she's taller than Hiei. How much is that to go on? He didn't say she had an demon horns or anything, or any strange powers or extremely high power level. Why do we have to bother with her? Couldn't he have sent some other people? We're supposed to deal with dangerous powerful demons, not little girls!" Yusuke whined.
"Yeah, no kidding. This is crap. I could be doing something a lot more important right now," Kuwabara muttered. They were all quiet for a minute until Yusuke noticed a girl standing nearby staring at them.
"What do you want?" he snapped.
"Your head! Muwahahahahha!!!" the girl said, laughing evilly. The boys stared at her. She stopped laughing and blinked, looking completely normal. "I'm just kidding." She walked off down the street.
"That wasn't... normal," Kurama muttered, watching the girl walk away.
"There's a lot of screwed up people in this city," Yusuke replied.
"Yeah," Kurama agreed.
The guys spent the rest of that day searching for the demon girl. Several times, Hiei spotted the "insane girl," standing across the street watching them. She never talked to them again, she was just... there.
Two days after Koenma had sent them, Yusuke was getting sick of searching. He decided to sit around and wait for her to come to them, which, as Kurama pointed out, most likely wouldn't work, but at this point Yusuke didn't care much. They were all sitting in the park, occupying themselves with various things such as sitting in trees, throwing rocks at squirrels, throwing rocks at Kuwabara, and making new hybrid plants, when Hiei spotted the girl again. He jumped down from his perch in the tree and walked over to Kurama, who was sitting on the ground in the process of crossing a rose and some poisonous plant to make a poisonous rose so his rose whip could have poison tips and be twice s deadly.
"Kurama," Hiei said. Kurama looked up, still holding his two plants. Hiei looked to make sure the girl was still watching. She was, so Hiei continued. "Remember that girl who was on the street the other day?"
"Yes."
"She has been watching us since then," Hiei said.
"Really?"
"Yes. She's over there right now, watching us."
Kurama looked in the direction Hiei had indicated. The girl was standing there, watching them. She looked straight at Kurama, shrugged, then started walking toward them. Kurama and Hiei exchanged looks and waited for the girl to reach them.
"Hello, guys!" she said cheerfully when she reached them.
"Who're you?" Kuwabara said instantly.
"Oh, just your friendly neighborhood stalker," she said, like it was no big deal. She spoke really fast, like she was on a caffiene high, which she was, but we won't go there now. Kuwabara and Yusuke looked freaked out by her extremely fast talking and her casual way of introducing herself as a stalker, while Hiei and Kurama looked completely calm, as usual.
"You're kidding, right?" Yusuke said.
"No."
"You aren't?"
"Aren't what?"
"Kidding."
"About what?"
They all got sweatdrops, then the girl burst out laughing.
"Yes, I'm kidding. Geez, you shouldn't take people so seriously!" she said, laughing.
"Why have you been following us?" Hiei asked.
"She's been following us?" Kuwabara asked stupidly.
"Yes, I've been following you. At least somebody noticed me. Anyway, with my extra sensory hearing, I've been able to listen in on every word you've said, even though I was clear across the street," the girl said happily.
"That's illegal, isn't it?" Yusuke said.
"I don't know. Is it?"
"You could be arrested for stalking us," Kurama said.
"Yes, well I wasn't stalking, I was following. I never had any plans of harming any of you, really, and I doubt I could harm any of you. You're freaky people," she said, looking at them curiously.
"Not as freaky as you," Kuwabara muttered.
"Yes, I'm quite freaky, I know that, and I'm proud of it," she replied, smiling.
"What's your problem? Why have you been following us?" Hiei asked again.
"Come on, shorty! Lighten up!" the girl said. Hiei rolled his eyes. All three of them, although they couldn't see his Jagan.
"Don't call me shorty. I get enough of that from him!" Hiei said, jabbing Kuwabara in the chest.
"Hey!" Kuwabara yelped.
"Well fine then, little twit..."
"You're too cheerful for Hiei. Anyway, you still haven't told us why you were following us," Kurama said.
"Too cheerful my shoe... I was following you because I wanted to." She got three annoyed people glaring at her (Kuwabara was too stupid to be confused and too confused to be annoyed). "Fine, I was following you because you're searching for the demon girl that escaped from Makai a few days ago."
"How do you know about that?" Yusuke asked.
"Extra sensory hearing, remember? I heard you guys talking about m-- er... her, every day," the girl said.
"Come to think of it, you fit her description pretty well," Kurama noticed.
"Do I really? Wow, some freaky coincidence there, huh?"
"But you can't be a demon. There's nothing inhuman about you, other than your unnatural cheerfullness and your so-called extra sensory hearing," Yusuke said. "But Botan's extremely cheeful, so I guess that's not all that strange..."
"Botan's not human, Yusuke," Kurama reminded him.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."
"Yes, well, I'm cheerful. Big deal. Are you gonna make it a big deal? No? Good, I'm glad," she said. "Well, unless you have something important to say, I must be going. Gotta get busy."
"You're not going anywhere, lady," Yusuke said. "What do you know about the girl who escaped Makai?"
"Not much."
"You said you were following us because we were looking for her."
"Yeah, I said that."
"Why are you suddenly not so cheerful?"
"No reason."
"I bet you know a lot about her."
"Not really."
"Come to think of it, you really do fit her description."
"That's already been pointed out."
"I know that."
"Then why did you say it again?"
"Because--- Hey! I'm the one asking questions!!!"
"Are you really?"
"Shut up!"
"Give me one good reason."
"Why should I?"
"Because I told you to."
"I don't even know your name! Why should I listen to you?"
"Because I told you to do something, and it's impolite to displease a lady."
"You're too rude to be a proper lady! Why should I care if I'm nice to you?"
"You just should."
"What the heck kind of reason is that?"
"A good one."
By this point, all of Yusuke's friends had multiple sweatdrops and were staring at their friend and the girl like they were nuts. With good reason. The two were having a completely pointless argument. Of course they'd think they were nuts.
"Yusuke?"
"Hm?"
"Could you stop arguing with that girl? You've gotten completely off the subject you started on. You wanted to know what she knew about the demon girl," Kurama said.
"Oh yeah. What do you know about the demon girl?" Yusuke snapped, pointing his finger right in the girl's face. She blinked, staring at his finger and in the process going completely cross-eyed.
"You're creepin' me out," Kuwabara said. "Urameshi, why don't you just leave the girl alone. She's nobody important. She's got nothing freaky about her, other than being freaky..."
"That made no sense," the girl pointed out. "Okay, well, I must be going."
"I said you're not going anywhere!" Yusuke said, grabbing her by the back of the shirt as she turned.
"Ow, hey! Hands off, mister!" she snapped.
"What's your name?" Yusuke asked.
"You know... I don't really remember."
"Huh?"
"My name."
"How can you not remember your name?"
"I don't know."
"What's your name?"
"Shadow."
"You said you didn't remember!"
"I lied."
"Don't lie!"
"I just did."
"About huh?"
"I don't know."
"This is pointless. She's not telling us anything," Hiei said.
"Wow, somebody finally figured me out!" Shadow said happily. She jumped over and stood in front of Hiei. "You got yourself a brain! Those two don't seem to." She pointed at Yusuke and Kuwabara. "Especially that big ugly one."
"Hey!"
"And you," she said, looking up at Kurama. "You haven't said two words since I got here, but I know from spying--- er, following you, that you're smart. Why do they call you fox boy anyway? You don't look like a fox." She walked in circles around Kurama, looking him over before stopping in front of him again. "You haven't got fox ears, or a fluffy tail... You look completely human."
"Yes. I'm in my human form right now," Kurama said.
"Hmmm. You've got two forms? Can I see your fox form?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm overly violent and cruel in that form, and Youko would end up killing you for being too cheerful," Kurama said.
"Youko? Who's that?"
"Me."
"You're Kurama."
"You know my name? Oh yeah, you've been listening in on us for a few days. Well Youko is my name in my fox form."
"That's cool."
"Why do you say that?"
"No reason, really. Just for something to say."
"Oh. You're strange."
"I know. And I don't even have to try."
"Good for you."
"Is it?"
"I don't know."
"Wow, something you don't know! That amazing."
"Whatever."
"That too."
"Look here, Shadow or whatever your name is," Yusuke interrupted, much to Kurama's relief. "You are really making no sense to any of us, all you're doing is either annoying us or freaking us out."
"Or both," Hiei said under his breath.
"Or both," Yusuke added. "But anyway, as I was saying, if you don't have a point, just leave us alone."
"Okay!" Shadow said. She spun around and walked away, whistling some overly happy tune, extremely loud and way off-key.
"That was... strange," Kurama muttered.
"Yeah, no kidding."
Kurama glanced down and realized he was still holding his rose and his poisonous flowering plant. He sat down and started trying to cross them again, acting like nothing had happened.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After that extremely strange meeting, Yusuke and his friends all went home (Hiei went off into the forest to sleep in a tree. Why does he sleep in trees?). Yusuke told them all to meet in the park the next day at noon (How does Hiei tell time? He doesn't have a watch...).
So, the next day, a little bit before noon, Kurama walked into the park. He was sitting on a bench when he noticed Shadow. She was sitting on the other side of the park in a tree with a little bundle of fur in her arms. She noticed Kurama and waved, and he walked over and stood under her.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Sitting."
"Yes, I can tell."
"And holding a baby fox."
"Really?"
"Yes." She poked the litle bundle of fur in her arms and it moved, then it opened its eyes, which, surprisingly, were a brilliant shade of blue, and looked around. "It's a grey fox, so it's okay that I'm in a tree."
"I suppose so."
A moment later, Hiei walked into the park. When he saw Shadow, he was beside Kurama in an instant.
"What is she doing here?" Hiei asked.
"I don't know. She found a fox pup, and she's sitting in a tree holding it," Kurama answered, looking down at Hiei.
"You're really annoying, girl, you know that?" Hiei accused.
"Yes, that's my life goal."
"Well you've accomplished it at an early age. How old are you?"
"Fourteen." Shadow jumped out of the tree and landed neatly between Hiei and Kurama. "How old are you?"
"That's irrelivant," Hiei said.
"How about you, Kurama?"
"Fifteen. Well actually over a thousand."
"What?"
"Youko is over a thousand. This human body is fifteen."
"Okay then, that makes sense I guess," Shadow said, looking slightly confused.
Suddenly out of no where, Koenma appeared in his teenaged form. He looked extremely excited.
"That's her!" Koenma said. "She's right under your noses and you didn't even realize it! How is that? You're supposed to be demons! Demons can detect other demons, can't they? If Kuwabara can, you definetely can! Why didn't you notice her?"
Kurama and Hiei looked slightly confused. Shadow just stood calmly and stroked the fox pup in her arms.
"You're Koenma, aren't you?" she said.
"Yes I am. And you are the escaped demon girl, aren't you?" Koenma said.
"Do I look like a demon to you?"
"Well, you've got red eyes." Shadow blinked. "And you somehow managed to hide from all my demon detecting devices, and three very competent spirit detectives," Koenma said. He looked like he would continue, but Shadow interrupted.
"Three?"
"Kuwabara's not competent," Hiei said under his breath to her.
"Oh yeah."
"Koenma?" Yusuke said, running up behind him. Shadow had been hidden by Koenma, but the second Yusuke noticed her, he freaked out. "You?! What are you doing here? You're not important! You're stalking us, aren't you? Why do you have a fur ball in your arms? What are you doing here?"
"Yusuke! Shut up!" Koenma snapped. "She's the demon you've been looking for, idiot!"
"I am not!"
"She is?"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!" Koenma yelled.
"Now that I think about it, you don't seem quite human," Yusuke said.
"Well fine! If I'm an escaped demon, what are you going to do with me? I can't do any harm here! Are you going to take me to prison?"
"Maybe."
"That's stupid."
"Maybe."
"Make up your mind. What are you gonna do, huh? These guys couldn't even tell I was a demon! Hiei is the only one who noticed me following them!"
"That makes you more dangerous! You can't even be detected!"
"Probably because I'm not a demon!"
"Yes you are!"
"I'm half demon!"
"Well you still illegally left Makai!"
"What's wrong with that? If I'm not going to do any damage, I can just stay here, can't I?"
"Hmm. You can if I assign you a guard."
"A guard?"
"Somebody stronger than you who can watch you twenty-four hours a day and who won't go and feel bad for you and protect you if you do something wrong! And they have to be able to fit in here and make you and themself inconspicuous."
"Well who the hell can fit all those requirements?!" Shadow snapped.
"There's two people I know who can," Koenma said. Shadow looked curious.
"Who would they be?" she asked.
"There's Youko, and there's Hiei," Koenma said.
"Youko can't," Kurama said. "The ears and the tail. He wouldn't be inconspicuous."
Koenma's eyes rested on Hiei.
"Me, right?" Hiei said miserably.
"Why can't I? I'm stronger, I'm inconspicuous, I---" Yusuke said.
"You might feel bad for her, and you can't watch her 24/7. Hiei can better than anyone with his Jagan," Koenma said.
"What's a Jagan?" Shadow asked.
Hiei's Jagan glowed faintly purple behind his headband.
"Ew, your forehead glows!" Shadow said. She reached out to poke his head, but he caught her hand.
"Nobody touches me," he said coldly. He pulled off his headband to show her the Jagan. "If I'm assigned to watch you twenty four hours a day, I can, with this, and you won't even know."
"Ew, you mean you could watch me in the shower and I wouldn't know?!"
Yusuke snorted, Kurama looked surprised, and Hiei looked extremely annoyed.
"I'm not a pervert," Hiei said.
"Oh, that's very good to know. What else can you do with that eye?"
"That's none of your business."
"Can you let go of my wrist now?" Shadow said. "I can't feel my hand."
Hiei looked at her wrist, which he still had very firmly in his grip, and let go. Shadow started shaking her hand around limply to get the circulation flowing again.
"So Koenma, if three-eyes here watches me, I can stay in the human world?"
Hiei looked annoyed at the insult, but he ignored her and occupied himself by carefully placing his headband back over his Jagan eye.
"Yes you can," Koenma said.
"Yay!" Shadow said happily, hugging Hiei with one arm, careful to keep a good hold on the fox puppy, then dancing away from the extremely freaked- out looking Hiei and hugging Kurama, then she did some more dancing before finally calming down a bit, then she gave the fox puppy a big hug.
"What's so great about staying in the human world?" Hiei muttered to Kurama. Kurama shrugged.
"Maybe she's got some enemies in the Makai," Kurama answered. Shadow was too happy to pay any attention to them.
"Thank you, Koenma!" she said.
"What, I don't get a hug?" Koenma asked.
"No."
"How fair is that?"
"I don't know. Well, I better be off. If I'm going to live here, I better have somewhere to live. I don't want to sleep in trees. Like somebody I know. Ahem. Anyway, Kurama, you can have this fox puppy. Being a fox yourself, you two should get along great. If not, let Hiei take her back to the forest or whatever, since he seems to live in the forest... Bye bye!" Shadow said, handing the fox to Kurama and dancing away.
"She's strange," Koenma said. "Well, I better go. Hiei, I expect a report from you at least once a week until we can trust her." With that said, Koenma vanished.
The three of them were still recovering from being thoroughly freaked out by Shadow when Kuwabara came running down the path to them.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late! What'd I miss?"
Anime fall down.
"What? Why is everybody so freaked out? I just came about five minutes late, that's it. What'd I miss? Where did that fox come from?" Kuwabara asked, suddenly noticing the little fox cuddled in Kurama's arms.
"Shadow gave her to me," Kurama said.
"Shadow? Who's that, your girlfriend?"
Sweatdrops.
"Shadow. You know, that girl who's been following us? Duh?! She is definitely not my girlfriend," Kurama said.
"Somebody explain to that fool what happened so he can stop flooding us with his stupidity. I have a... job... to do," Hiei said with disgust before vanishing.
"What's going on you guys?" Kuwabara asked again.
It took a while, but Yusuke and Kurama finally managed to get the story of what happened with Shadow through Kuwabara's thick skull.