I do not own YYH and never even have the hopes to, because that would simply be useless. I don't own it, and don't need to since I occasionally borrow the characters for my fics. However I do own Naomi.

Botan clutched at the note in her hands. She'd gotten it from Koenma, but he didn't have the slightest clue as to what it said. Neither did she. But, Koenma, being the wimp he was, was too frightened to carry out the instructions clearly written on the piece of parchment.

"I challenge the one called Hiei the Jaganshi," read the note, "If he does not bring himself and his party consisting of the Urameshi Team, a troop of demons sent by the high Demon Queen will be dispatched to force him there. If the request is refused twice, I'm afraid out high Queen must take drastic measures to ensure that he is present on the date listed below"

First day of Winter, 6:00 P.M.

Miss Naomi Kono

"Hello?" Botan called in a shaking voice. She gripped the note tighter and pulled her pink kimono closer to her body as darkness seemed to draw around her from every corner. She gulped as light footfalls interuppted the silence of the night.

"You got my note?" came a womans voice, silky and smooth. Botan's throat constricted and with held any words she might have been able to form. She clutched at the note tighter than ever before, wrinkling and smearing any legible words. The woman who had spoken stepped into the street light.

She was tall, with black hair swept up into a bun, red eyes, and pale skin. She wore a black kimono and had a katana at her side, just barely concealed. "So, you must be Botan." she said, examining her. Botan trembled with fear and nausea, but tried her hardest not to betray it to the demon who stood before her. The demon woman narrowed her blood red eyes, causing Botan to look away from the intensity of her gaze.

"Yes," she said. The woman edged closer to her. Botan could sense the demonic energy coursing through the air with each step toward her. The woman was obviously not trying to hide her appearance.

In a flash the demon unsheathed her katana and brought it down on Botan's arm. Botan shrieked as blood squirted all down her sleeve. "I'm Naomi," the demon introduced herself. "I'll be the one running things around here. Do you comply?"

"Who are you?" Botan groaned, her arm becoming numb with pain. "What do you want?"

"That is not important. What is, is that your team, Team Urameshi, must enter in the next tournament, The Tournament of Plagues." she told her. "It is to be held at the same site of the Dark Tournament, Hanging Neck Island." The demon sheathed her sword as quickly as she had revealed it. Botan struggled with effort to stay concious, black dots dancing before her eyes.

"Why should we do anything you say?" she demanded, stumbling.

"If you don't," she said, tightening her grip on the katana. "then I will be forced to take extreme measures. We wouldn't want little Yukina to have...oh, say...a little accident, now would we?" Naomi grinned, knowing she had won the argument.

"You've got some nerve," Botan growled.

Naomi chuckled. "That's so flattering, Miss Botan. Now please, come with me." She stepped toward Botan, her katana flashing again. The last thing Botan saw before she collapsed was the thin and deadly sword gliding at breakneck speed toward her face.

Hiei woke in his tree. Nothing was unusual, the night air was calm, and only the wind stirred the leaves of the tree. So why had he woken from such a deep slumber?

The answer stood below the tree. Hiei looked down to see his old rival Naomi standing, rapping her knuckles on the trunk. "What do you want, Naomi?" he called, not bothering to get up. Naomi would say what she came for without disturbing him.

Hiei scratched the back of his head, an irritating itch annoying him.

Naomi said nothing, just stod in silence and let the nights events play over in her warped demonmind. "I've got Botan," she informed him. "And unless you want her and your koorime sister to take a fall,I suggest you come down here and listen to what I have to say."

Her words causing alarm to ring in his every bone forced him as if by some invisible hand to the ground where Naomi stood, and she filled him in on what had gone on, an evil smirk inching its way across her face the whole time.