Chapter 1

The crescent moon shone down on the city streets, the crowds growing thinner as evening turned to night. A group of five teens joked loudly as they made their way down the darkened back alleys, confident nothing hiding in the shadows could threaten them.

"They were pathetic," one of the teens boasted, waving his hand dismissively. "Hardly any fight in them at all."

"You say that about everyone, Yoshida," another one said, swiping through the pages on an ipad. He snorted in disgust, turning the device off. "Can you believe this, Takamoto? More apps than I can count and not a single game I like on the whole thing! I'm wiping this as soon as I get home," he said, slipping it into his backpack.

"What did you expect? Preppy students like that have absolutely no taste in games!" Takamoto said, laughing.

"These guys were loaded," the fourth added, thumbing through a stack of yen. He nodded to the shortest member of the group. "The boss sure knows how to pick 'em. I don't know why we didn't start working this turf ages ago!"

"You're right, Niwa!" the second agreed, clapping their boss on the back. "With Matsuda in charge, soon this whole city will be ours!"

"Five pubescent teens plan to take over the city?" a low voice asked from behind. "How utterly terrifying."

The group stopped, spinning around to face the newcomer standing at the head of the alley behind them. The person was standing in the shadows, silhouetted against the light of the street. He was tall with a slight build and long hair, although his voice was definitely masculine.

"Who are you?"

The newcomer ignored the question. "I have no qualms with you gentleman," he stated. "Only with your leader."

"And if the boss don't wanna talk to you?" Yoshida asked.

"I'm afraid I'll have to insist." The teens fell into defensive positions, two pulling out switch blade knives as the stranger stalked towards them.

"I admire your courage," Matsuda spoke up, standing safely behind his four lackeys. "But you've completely wasted the element of surprise. Do you honestly believe you can take on the five of us by yourself?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation as the man leapt forward, a fist to the temple and a knee to the gut bringing down the first two teens before anyone could blink. Yoshida and Niwa both slashed at him with the knives, but he flipped up and over their heads, landing behind them. An elbow to the back of the head brought down Niwa and a powerful kick sent Yoshida into the unyielding brick wall. He crumpled to the ground as the man turned to the leader, seeing him fleeing down the alley.

Matsuda skid around the corner, running for the abandoned warehouse they had been heading to earlier. He reached the door, slamming it behind him and taking a few seconds to catch his breath. Several of the boards had fallen off the upper windows, letting in a few shafts of light from the crescent moon although the majority of the room was still hidden in darkness. Matsuda closed his eyes, visualizing the locations of the various empty crates, pallets, tables and other miscellaneous junk left behind before quietly making his way across the room.

He hadn't quite made it halfway when he heard the door he'd come through open and close behind him. He froze in place, holding completely still and listening. He'd let his pursuer stumble around in the dark until he got close enough and then... The thought trailed off into a vicious grin as he tightened his grip on the broken 2x4 he'd picked up off the ground.

The attack came from behind, silent and precise, and Matsuda was out before he even hit the floor.

It was a moment or two before a small grey imp crawled out of the unconscious teen's mouth, muttering to itself as it took to the air. It screeched as a small wooden dart pierced its leg, pinning it to a crate.

"I warned you," the man stated, his voice low. "This is my territory. You have to play by my rules."

"You can't do this!" the imp shrieked, pulling vainly at the dart. "Humans can't see me! You're cheating!"

"Ordinary humans cannot see you," the man corrected. The imp screeched again as the back end of the dart exploded with growth, forming a cage around him. "But as you can see, I'm far from ordinary."

Just then the door was kicked down, revealing a young man in his early twenties standing behind it. He was about average height with short curly brown hair and dark eyes that darted across the room. "I know you're here, you little creep!" he yelled, holding up his right hand in the shape of a gun as his index finger started glowing. "Why don't you come out and face me?!"

"I see you never miss an opportunity to kick down a door, Taro," the man said, stepping into the light of the rei gun. He was dressed casually in a t-shirt, denim jeans and comfortable running shoes. Tossing his long red hair behind one shoulder, he gave Taro an appraising glance with guarded emerald eyes. "It wasn't even locked, you know," he continued, both face and voice carefully devoid of any emotion.

"Kurama?" Taro asked, surprise flashing across his features. It was quickly replaced with irritation. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Your job, apparently," Kurama stated, revealing the struggling imp still pinned to the crate. "Detective."

"Now, that's not fair, Kurama," a woman said, peeking her head around Taro. She had light blue hair pulled up into a high ponytail and was dressed in a pink kimono. "We only just got the lead on where Jiaki was hiding!" She paused, thinking. "How did you get here so fast, anyway?"

"My information network seems to be better than Koenma's," Kurama stated matter-of-fact. "Especially in this city."

"Or, perhaps you had some 'inside information?'" Taro asked suspiciously.

"Knock it off, Taro," Botan said.

"He's a demon," Taro hissed.

Botan closed her eyes, exhaling sharply through her nose. She seemed to be trying very hard to hold her tongue. "We've done about all we can do here," she said at last. "Taro, why don't you head on home and I'll take this little guy back to Reikai." She stepped past Taro, moving towards Kurama.

"Think about it, Botan," Taro insisted, his rei gun still trained on the redhead. "We've been trying to find this thing for two weeks. Now, when we finally get a lead, this pretty-boy demon somehow magically appears and apprehends the culprit before we even get here?" His eyes flicked to hers. "Surely that must sound suspicious, even to you."

Botan stopped. "Kurama didn't have anything to do with this," she stated firmly, folding her arms and turning so she was standing between the spirit detective and the demon. "And I'm not going to let you harass him just because you don't like him!"

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you actually believe his story about having a 'better information network' than the Reikai?!"

"Actually, I do," Botan informed him primly. "Especially considering this is where his m-" She stopped abruptly, remembering Taro didn't know about Kurama's human family. She cleared her throat. "Anyway, how exactly Kurama found Jiaki aside, Koenma-sama gave you orders to leave Kurama alone," she reminded Taro. "And, Koenma-sama doesn't take disobedience lightly."

Taro's lip curled as he finally lowered his rei gun, allowing the blue glow to fade to nothing. "Fine. I work the early shift tomorrow and I've wasted enough time on this wild goose chase, anyway," he said, turning and leaving without a backward glance.

Botan shook her head, turning back to Kurama. "I'm sorry about that," she apologized. "I keep telling him that you're alright, but..."

"I doubt you'll be able to change his mind. He's young and inexperienced. That in and of itself may be a problem in the coming days," Kurama stated. "This isn't an ideal time to be training a new Spirit Detective, but I suppose there's no help for that. I don't know what Koenma told him, but Taro needs to learn that he's not the strongest one around. Not even close."

"I know," Botan sighed. "Without the new ruler of Makai's support for keeping the more dangerous demons out of Ningenkai, we had to put the Kekkai barrier back up. The last couple months have been pretty quiet, so he hasn't had any good cases to really cut his teeth on. Unfortunately, I doubt it'll be long before some of the stronger demons manage to find ways through. I just hope he'll be ready when the time comes."

"With any luck, Taro will have found some allies by then. Else, I fear you'll be training yet another spirit detective all too soon."

Botan nodded soberly. "If only he wasn't so stubborn about it! Usui didn't like demons either, but at least he was mature enough to act professional!"

Kurama refrained from commenting. The way he saw it, the only difference between them was one plotted his demise openly while the other did so in secret. A paranoid point of view, he knew, but one that had saved his life on more than one occasion. Instead, he shrank the wooden cage and dart back to a seed, catching the imp before it could escape. "Your prisoner," he said, handing the small demon to Botan.

"Thank you. You know, this little guy was the first demon Yuusuke ever caught."

Kurama raised an eyebrow. "I was under the impression that Gouki was the first."

"Well, Gouki was the first of Yuusuke's official cases," Botan amended. "He didn't hang around long enough for me to give him the details about Jiaki. Come to think of it, Koenma didn't actually appoint him as Spirit Detective until after Yuusuke had already caught this guy- completely by accident of course." She laughed fondly at the memory. "I can't believe it's already been twenty years," she said, shaking her head.

"Time has a way of slipping by unnoticed," Kurama stated sagely. "And, speaking of time, the hour is late and I should be heading home," he said, turning to go. "Good night, Botan."

"Kurama, wait!" Botan said, grabbing his arm. "There's been some suspicious activity recently that I think you should know about."

Kurama raised an eyebrow, waiting.

"It's...well...something has been going around killing the demons still in the city," she said hesitantly.

"I was aware," Kurama stated. "I thought Taro might have had a hand in the killings. I assume that is not the case?"

Botan shook her head. "He doesn't like demons, but he can't just go around killing them arbitrarily and he knows it. These are demons that have been living peacefully with humans for years, like you. They've never done anything the least bit threatening and a few have even gone out of their way to protect the humans around them at times. And we have absolutely no leads." She squeezed his arm. "Please be careful. They might try going after you next."

Kurama nodded, acknowledging the warning before exiting the warehouse and heading home.

It was really late by the time he made it back to the house, quietly unlocking the door and stepping inside. His eyes narrowed when he saw light from the kitchen spilling out into the hallway. He scented the air, searching for anything unfamiliar while extending his senses to all the plants located at the doors and windows around the house. None of his plants had been disturbed, nor could he smell any unknown persons inside. He slipped off his shoes, leaving them in the genkan and quietly moving toward the kitchen. He cautiously peered in the doorway, sighing softly as the tension drained from him.

An older man was sitting at the small table in the kitchen, finishing off a plate of leftovers. His short, graying hair was a bit mussed from sleep and he had a dark blue robe pulled over his pajamas. He jumped as Kurama stepped into the room, a bit startled by his sudden appearance. "Oh, Shuichi! I didn't hear you come down."

"I was trying not to wake anyone, father," Kurama stated apologetically.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about that. Shiori's always been a rather heavy sleeper," Kazuya stated. He paused, noticing his step-son's clothing. "Are you going out at this hour?"

Kurama shook his head. "I just got back, actually. I had a really late delivery."

Kazuya blinked, glancing at the clock. "It's almost one in the morning!"

Kurama shrugged. "She works night shift," he lied easily. "The client wanted it delivered during her lunch break."

"You know the other shops in town only deliver from eight to five," Kazuya pointed out.

"More business for me," Kurama replied, smiling. "Besides, I charge extra for the odd hours."

Kazuya returned the smile, shaking his head. "Just don't overdo it," he said, carrying his plate over to the sink. "Staying out all night long wasn't a big deal when you were in your twenties, but it won't be too long before you just can't do things like that anymore."

"And yet here you are," Kurama countered. "I believe you have to be to work in, what, six hours?"

"Ugh, don't remind me," Kazuya groaned.

"Trouble sleeping?" Kurama guessed.

Kazuya was silent for a moment before nodding. "I realized today that I forgot our anniversary last week," he said. "Shiori didn't say anything because I wasn't feeling well. The next few days it was obvious I had forgotten and...well, you know how she is. We usually just go out for dinner, but..." He shook his head. "I want to get her a present to make up for it, but she's a hard woman to buy for. Lately she's been hinting that she wants to take another trip somewhere, which wouldn't normally be a problem except o-bon is next week. And, I'd like to get her something a bit more tangible to apologize."

Kurama blinked in surprise. He had also forgotten about their anniversary and the up-coming holiday. While the former wasn't really a big issue (for him), the latter could put a bit of a kink in his plans. He needed to find out more about the demon killings and soon. "What about jewelry?" he suggested.

"I'd considered a ring, but Shiori only really wears her wedding band," Kazuya stated.

"I was actually thinking of a necklace, and maybe a pair of earrings to match," Kurama said. "A flower or heart, something along those lines."

Kazuya considered a moment before nodding slowly. "Yes, I think that could work. She wears necklaces fairly often. There's even a jewelry shop near my work." He thought about it a moment more before nodding again, this time more decisively. "I can stop by today, after I get off."

Kurama smiled. "Well, I'm heading to bed," he said, moving back out into the hall.

"Sounds like an excellent idea," Kazuya agreed, turning off the light and following the redhead up the stairs.

. . .

To Be Continued

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