Heheheh

Family Resemblance

By: Hikari-Kayko

Rated: T

Genre: Action/Adventure / Family / Romance / Angst

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Hikari: I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!! (maniacal laughter). So yeah, this is the sequel to Concrete Angel I was talking about. New baddies, new friends, new lovers and new conflicts! I'm so excited. You should really read the one shot I wrote called Masako's Letter first though. It would go a long way towards explaining some of the shite in this story. Not to mention I spent a lot of time writing it just right and no one read it! grrr But anyways, I hope you enjoy this one as much as the last one! And PLEAZ!! For the love of all that is sacred in this universe!! REVIEW!!

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Chapter 1

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Yuukito-sama, ruler of the lands in the far west of Makai, perched high on his wing backed chair in the thrown room of his castle, gazing down at his servants and subjects gathered in a circle around the five cloaked visitors. He exchanged a hard glance with his right hand man, or demon rather, Josha. The inu youkai pulled his black lips back in a miniscule snarl and Yuukito nodded at him just as discreetly.

"I was not expecting such a grand appearance from you Masters Majo," Yuukito spoke, his light, whimsical voice echoing effortlessly off the solid stone walls.

"We thought it best to approach one with such power as you with as much openness and respect as possible my lord." One of the hooded figures replied in a cool, amused tone.

"And yet you come before me completely shielded from sight," Yuukito and his compatriot Josha both chuckled deeply.

"A formality my lord," The smallest of the hooded figured spoke in a higher, yet ever clear voice. "Merely a custom which we cling to."

"I am surprised," Yuukito concede, standing from his thrown and descending the stares to stand before the hooded figures. He approached the shortest, the one who had just spoken, and drank in their presence, evaluating everything from their scent to their posture. "What kind of race sends a female with an ambassadorial assembly?" The presiding youkai smirked smugly at the sight of the hooded woman's shoulders tensing with offence.

"Yuukito-sama," Josha suddenly cut in. The dog demon sniffed the air thoroughly, catching a faint scent he had not noticed before now.

"What is it you're keen sense of smell has detected?" Yuukito inquired as the warrior moved in front of his king and searched each of the cloaked strangers' scents.

"I find a trace of a Ningen herb called ta-bacc-o," the foreign word stumbled on his tongue. "The stink of it is unmistakable." He contemplated the strangers for another second before pointing to the smallest of them. The female.

"Her…"

"Shit," The figure hissed as she and her companions ripped off their disguises, weapons at the ready.

"The Reikai Tantei!" Some one in the audience screamed and the subjects began to flee from the room while guards took their place.

"You bet your ass we are!" Yusuke Urameshi donned a cocky smile and pointed his index finger like a gun at the first cluster of soldiers. With a concentrated blast of blue energy, he blew them away. Behind him Kuwabara Kazuma used his rei-sword to cut down more warriors while Kurama lashed at even more with his infamous rose whip.

"I told you smoking would kill you one day!" Kurama shouted over the den of battle to the only female Tantei as Kanbara Rori used her weapons of choice. A small wood framed mirror in her right hand, which she converted into a portal, sucked the soldiers into a realm of oblivion while a feather shaped white-gold sword gleamed in her left. The thick black frames resting over her eyes were unable to mask the exhilaration of battle in their silver depths.

"Maybe, but that's not today!" The angel shouted back transforming with a flash of white light into the iridescent winged tenshi and taking flight, continuing to attack the guards from above.

"Quit talking and start killing fox!" The short tempered fire youkai, Hiei, growled as he took on three more opponents after slaying a dozen before him.

"Always the party pooper Hiei," Yusuke teases as the last few soldiers were disposed of and the Tantei regrouped in front of the thrown where only Yuukito and Josha remained amidst the still bodies scattered over the cold, grey, flagstone.

"Are we takin' this guy in dead or alive?" Kuwabara asked whiping a trickle of blood from a cut on his brow, procured during the short skirmish.

"Koenma said alive, but there could always be a little accident," Yusuke smirked, pointing his spirit gun at the "king" on the raised platform.

"Where's his dog?" Hiei spoke up, his crimson eyes darting around the room for the inu youkai that had been by his master's side only seconds ago.

"Look out!" Kurama shouted as a blunt force bull-dozed Hiei and threw him bodily to the far wall where he skidded to a halt on the rough cut floor. Rori was spared the same only because the inu demon now held her around the shoulders, a small dagger pressed to her throat.

"If you are thinking of saving your female companion think twice," Yuukito laughed smugly, watching his best warrior work. "Josha does not look it, but he is the fastest in these lands. He'll slit her throat long before you reach her."

"Oh that's it!" Rori growled, her body glowing with unimaginably white light. "I am so tired…" She reached her fist forward then brought her elbow back into her captive's solar plexus drawing a grunt of pain, "Of you people…" She turned once he'd released her and planted a high kick to the bottom of his jaw, drawing blood. "Thinking the female…" Josha stared, stunned, as the little angel launched herself into the air and twisted, delivering a round house kick to his temple, "Needs SAVING!" She finished her tirade with a huff, standing over the now prone form of the dog demon. They stared at her, a little taken aback by her exuberant reaction before someone broke the ringing silence.

Kurama asked the only opposing youkai left standing, "Any more smug comments?"

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It had been ten years since Koenma first met Yusuke Urameshi. It had been nearly seven since he'd relieved the young man of his post as Spirit Detective. Unfortunately for him, King Enma had not seen fit to replace the Reikai Tantei with a new team (do to the disastrous mistakes made in choosing the last one) and so they were still called upon for special missions that could not be carried out by normal operatives of Spirit World.

Koenma had the privilege of watching the detective and his friends grow from a group of miss-matched adolescents into friends (lovers even on some accounts) and adults.

"Here ya go binky breath!" The object of Koenma's reverie announced their presence by tossing a bound and gagged youkai on his office floor. The Reikai prince nearly fell out of his chair with surprise before a scowl darkened his face. Unfortunately in those ten years the teenagers hadn't grown much in maturity.

"Yusuke!" Koenma shouted, taken aback by the prone and some what mangled body on his marble floor. "I told you not to bring criminals into my office!" The prince scorned, signaling for two ogres to collect the incapacitated fugitive and take him to the prisons.

"Yeah, well, the dungeons are so far away. We didn't feel like walking," He smirked contemptuously as his team mates gathered in the office.

"No broken bones or severe blood lose I trust?" Koenma asked surveying the usual scrapes and bruises accompanying their returns.

"No. Just some wounded pride," Kurama tried to say with a straight face. Koenma raised an eyebrow at them as all the men pointed to Rori who was standing a little to one side, her arms folded, looking out the window with a vicious glare.

"I see. Well, good job team. Yuukito will be tried and punished for his crimes. Another bad guy locked away thanks to you." Koenma smiled a little too happily for the conversation topic.

"So… who are these Majo people that we were posing for and what did Yuukito want with them anyways?" Kuwabara asked distractedly as he slowly shuffled out of arms reach of the fuming angel. Everyone seemed to be eyeing the woman uneasily as she produced a lighter and a pack of cigarettes from a deep pocket and proceeded to light up. Kurama opened his mouth, no doubt to make some comment on the fact that this was exactly why they had had such a problem with Yuukito. He had the good sense to quite while he was ahead though after the mint haired female gave him a glare that would cause a heart attack in a lesser being.

"Uh… We're still not sure." Koenma answered slowly, more than a little confused. "We have our best historians working on it; I'll let you know as soon as they find anything," The demi-god assured them all.

"Sure you will, now can we go?" Rori snipped out, her white feathered wings fidgeting with annoyance. Koenma inclined his head in a slight bow and she turned on her heal, marching from the room, a fine whisp of smoke following in her wake.

"What happened?" Koenma asked when the woman was out of ear shot. Yusuke and Kuwabara sniggered behind their hands while Kurama fought his own urge to laugh.

"Just a little blow to her feminine pride; nothing to worry about," The fox answered.

"Nothing for you anyways," Hiei grumbled turning to follow his mate before some poor unsuspecting spirit met his untimely end.

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Not wanting to wait for a ferry girl to show up and take her back, Rori used her mirror to open her own portal back to Genkai's temple. She appeared just inside the front gates and made her way into the building.

Genkai finally passed away three years ago (it had been a sort of running joke that the old hag would out live them all), leaving the temple and its surrounding lands in the gang's care. It was lonely most nights as Rori was the only permanent resident in the vast temple. Hiei was usually around, though he preferred not to be in doors most of the time and Yukina lived with Kuwabara and their daughter now. Kurama was staying in the room across from Rori's for the time being as he was currently in search of a house of his own, but spent much of his time at work or his mother's house. At the moment though Rori was rather glad she was alone.

"Stupid son of a…" She slammed the shoji doors back and entered the living area of the temple. "Whose idea was it to call it mankind anyways?" She continued to grumble and grouse about the presumptuousness of the male populations of all three worlds as she made her way to the last bedroom on the left of the upstairs hallway. She stripped out of her dirty, battle worn cloths leaving them to clutter the floor and futon bed and grabbed a towel.

Holding it carelessly over her self as no one was around the angel exited the bedroom and entered the bathroom through the end door too her right. She slammed the door shut and locked it, dropping her towel and stepping into the shower. She had just turned on the water when a frigid breeze brushed against her bare back.

"You know it's rude to walk in on someone in the shower Hiei," Rori growled, not needing to turn to know it was her mate sitting on the open window sill on the wall behind her.

"I've seen it all before onna," Hiei smirked, watching as she scrubbed the dirt and grim acquired from the Makai with enough force to turn her porcelain colored skin red. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm pissed off! I thought that was obvious," Rori nearly shouted, turning to glare at him. Hiei might have been fazed by the burning silver gaze had there not been streams of white soap suds trailing down her face and neck from the mass of lathered mint atop her head.

"Why?" The fire youkai asked his mate simply.

Rori blinked, taken aback by the question. She stared a moment longer before turning back to the streaming water. She finished rinsing then turned off the tap. With a flicker of concentration she transformed back into her human form, her wings disappearing and her skin turning back into a tanned crème.

"I… don't know." She finally answered grabbing the towel she'd brought in and wrapping her petite form in it. "I guess I took it a little personally didn't I?" Hiei raised an eyebrow and Rori could hear his amused voice in her head.

"A little?"

She rolled her eyes and left, reentering their bedroom with the kajihenge close behind. Rori pulled on a cami and a pair of soft track pants, still slightly glaring at the floor as she did.

"Ah!" She exclaimed as she felt a pair of strong hands snake around her waist and pull her up. "Hiei, what the hell…" Her voice died as she felt his red hot lips on her neck, pressed firmly against the scare that bound him to her.

"I don't like it when you're angry onna," His deep baritone whisper turned her resolve to ash as she relaxed into his hold. She turned around, still in his grasp and looked up into his crimson depths.

"I'm sorry," She conceded, the last of her anger finally ebbing away. "I just can't help feeling on edge for some reason. Ever since Koenma told us about these Majo I've had the nagging feeling something is going to…" The angel stopped mid sentence, inhaling sharply.

"What?" Hiei asked confusedly. He watched his mate stare off into nothing before the silence was broken again.

"I don't know. I…" There was a rustling of the paper doors from down stares and both of them froze. Rori hadn't noticed Kurama's aura any where near them and even now as she searched for it she could not find it. She did, however, find a stranger's presence.

With out a word she left the room. She crept down the hall, Hiei following her intently, and descended the stairs. Rori peered around the corner at the end of the flight and spotted the disturbance.

"Can we help you?" She asked walking out into the front room to meet the intruder. It was a woman, around eighteen years old; youkai by the feel of her aura, with long midnight black hair pulled into a braid that hung over her left shoulder. She was taller than both of them, maybe 5'5" or so with pail olive tented skin.

The woman turned to face them and her dark blue eyes glittered in the soft lamp light around them. She wore all black with a thick white belt around her hips and a beaded chain that wrapped around her left wrist innumerable times.

Several scares covered her hands, face and what was visible of her arms, the worst of which resided just beneath her nose on the left side, slanting downward over her lips, disrupting the pale pink skin with a corded white line.

"Yes," The woman answered in an expertly refined soprano voice. "I'm looking for an old friend of mine. I was told he was staying her at the moment?"

"Maybe," Rori asked warily. The young woman's ki was disturbing for some reason and Rori felt a shiver of distrust run down her spine as goose bumps spread over her entire body. "Who is it you're looking for?"

"I don't know…" The woman stopped short as the shoji doors slid open behind her and three men entered the room.

Yusuke and Kuwabara were laughing and joking as usual and Kurama trailed behind, listening with a contented smile to their antics. All three halted abruptly upon spotting the new-comer, but the girl did not seem deterred.

"Hello there, Stranger." The blue eyed woman greeted with a twinkling smile and every one turned to see that it was Kurama she was looking at. The kitsune just stared in shock as a piece of his past he'd never quite understood waltzed back in to his life again.

"Ch…chibi-onna?"

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Hikari: I know we all love required reading, but if you didn't read Masako's Letter, you might be a little confused. Just a bit!

(Big sigh) Ahhhh… it feels so good to be writing again. I haven't done diddly- SQUAT in the last few months cuz' I was running around with my girls for our last free summer then I was doing all the freshmen orientation CRAP!

Now I've got a semester of college under my belt and everything's finally settling down! HUZZAH! LOL. I'm so glad college is nothing like High School. If it was I probably would have shot my self. But yeah, so if I update few and far between its because I'm stuck in a book somewhere or fighting the librarians because I don't HAVE thirty cents to pay for those print outs. -.-; (I'm so 'po' I can't even afford the 'R'), but have patience. I LOVE this story, and it WILL be finished! So have fun and remember:

REVIEW GURSHDAMNIT!!

HIKARi