A twenty-two year adult stood on the doorstep of a large house. She rapped on the door with her knuckles ten times. Then she relaxed the hand by her side. Her dark gray eyes bored into the wooden door. She started to impatiently tap her foot after only a minute. Soon she was gratified to hear the sound of footsteps as someone walked towards the door to open it.

The door opened slowly and an older woman, probably in her fifties, peered out at the young woman. She pushed a few strands of black hair out of her face.

"May I help you?" She asked politely. The younger female nodded her head, long brown locks shaking violently with the small action.

"Yes, I need to speak with your son."

The older woman smiled, "Which one?"

The woman paused to think, "Oh...Shuuichi."

She smiled even more, "Again, which one?"

The younger one paused before snickering. She raised a slightly robust hand to her mouth before speaking. "The one with long red hair and green eyes." She had forgotten that the one she had come to see had a younger brother with the same name.

The smile was instantly wiped from the older woman's face. "You wouldn't be one of those girls that stalk him, would you?"

A head was shook a little before gray eyes were lifted to the blue sky littered with clouds. A head tilted with the motion and a sigh was heard. "No. Stalking guys, no matter who they are, isn't worth an ounce of effort. It's creepy to boot as well. Just tell him Zaira needs to talk to him and it's important."

The older woman nodded before allowing Nuema entrance to the first room. She slipped off her shoes and sat down in a chair to wait. The black haired woman walked to a staircase and went up. Nuema heard a door open and the sound of voices talking.

A young man fitting Nuema's earlier description looked up at his mom. He hadn't bothered to leave yet, since he didn't have a real job. Still, he remained rather secluded from the rest of the family. So his green eyes portrayed only the questioning of his mother's presence when she walked in.

"Shuuichi dear, there's a young lady in the front room to see you." Almost immediately a hand shot up to rub his forehead, "she says her name is Zaira and it's important."

The hand went down as quickly as it had gone up. He stood from his desk's chair and raised a thin red eyebrow, "Are you sure that the name was Zaira?"

"Yes, quite." She paused and looked at his face, "Is she a friend, dear?" Normally when young ladies showed up at the front door her son had her send them away. This was the first time he had ever cared about one, or reacted to their name.

He nodded, "Yes. Thank you, mother." Kurama had brushed past her before a word could have been said to stop him. He went down the stairs and into the room Nuema was waiting for him in. He paused to look at her, she looked up at him after a moment. She stood and walked over.

"Hey. I need to talk to you outside...your brother's been listening from the other room since I walked in, and this can't be heard by anyone but you."

A young boy bit his lip and looked into the room, grinning sheepishly. "Oh, hey, bro."

Kurama shook his head at his younger brother, "Shuuichi, I thought I said you needed to stop eavesdropping." He nodded at Nuema, "Yes, alright." The two walked out the back door and into the forest that took over the entire back yard. After a safe distance they stopped.

Nuema looked up at Kurama and looked to the right. "Koenma has a mission for all of us. I know he said that there were no more mandatory group missions...but he says it's really urgent. I was supposed to tell you and Shiei to be at the old clearing in the park by tomorrow morning immediately after sunrise. I need to find Shiei now. You were easy enough." She turned to leave the part human but she was stooped by his calling her name.

"Nuema." She peered over her shoulder at him. Her raised eyebrow asked her question without her needing to say a word. "Do you have any idea what it is?"

"No. Oh, could you tell Hiei to be there as well? Botan said she didn't want to search for him." Without another word Nuema left the clearing. Kurama stood there a moment before following her. He escorted her towards the front door. She leaned against a wall to wait for him.

He reached towards his coat by instinct, thought better of it and just slipped his shoes on. His mother spoke up from where she had been watching him, "Shuuichi are you going somewhere?"

"Something of importance has come up, mother. I'll be back later."

A wave of memories, his disappearing for days on end rushed upon her, "How much later?"

"Tomorrow or the day after that."

Without a word the two left the house and quickly departed. By the next morning they were walking into a clearing, two shorter demons with them. One male and one female. They both had red eyes, the female with a darker crimson, and mostly black hair. They came into the clearing and saw a man, looking to be twenty. Next to him was a grim reaper wearing a pink kimono that had bright blue hair and looked sixteen.

"Hey you four." She said walking cheerfully up to them, "Glad you could make it."

"Why did you call us here?"

"Oh, right. Sorry about that. Ever since that whole demon world incident Koenma didn't really want to give you any missions and since most of you have other important things to attend to, he did say he wasn't going to give you anything new that was mandatory."

"Tell us something we don't already know."

"Well, here's the deal. There's a new demon."

"Always is." Nuema said rolling her eyes, "So, what far-out goal do we stop this time?"

"This is serious, Nuema. He's threatened to turn everyone in human world into mindless slaves."

"Why the hell do I care?"

"Because, Hiei, that includes you, since you're still stuck in human world. And you too Shiei. He also says then he'll open a portal to demon world and let all the S-Class demons into human world. Then he wants to start a war with the Spirit World."

"Badly concocted plan, as normal. I think they're getting stupider. So, has he at least got the power to back up his claims?" Yusuke said.

"Maybe, we don't really know. But we do know that he has hundreds of A-Class demons at his call and brought them into human world using some strange devices to mask their energy. If we don't agree to his terms he will use them to help carry out that plan."

"Half-life coward. What are the terms?" Kurama muttered and then inquired.

"That we stand idly by and give him the elemental stones."

Nuema slapped her forehead, "This is an all-time low for bad guy stupidity. All we do is go in, bust some heads, kill some demons and kill him. There are so many potential leaks in that plan it's not funny, and it's so risky that it can't possibly work."

"Killing some demons is more intelligent then his having none." Kurama told her.

"Geesh, you made me call off my date for this?" Yusuke said, "I was hoping it would be more of a challenge. Let's go kill this idiot. Lead the way, Botan."

"Oh, there are only a few ways into his castle that only one person can take, and they all need to be taken in order to get to him."

"Ooooh, that's why you needed all of us. I was wondering about that. Let's go then."