the second chapter is now out, enjoy!


Chapter two: Inner Thoughts

It always started with him, a man with eyes the color of hot coals, and me standing there staring as he laughed over the body of a dead engineer. All of the shadows on the inside of the metal danced around him like souls must have danced around the devil. The jump I made, one I barley remember now, gripping the handle so hard my knuckles popped as something screeched and tore around us. And the man, his skin ripped apart too, his jaw elongated and fur covered his body. Howling he turned eyes to me and-

"Damn it Kuwabara, you used up all the god damn hot water!"

"Shut up Urameshi, no I did not!"

Eyes cracked open to the early morning light I stared at the ceiling and groaned running a hand over my face. Honestly I wasn't sure if I should be glad I had woken up or not…

Sitting up I let the covers crumple into my lap and reached over to my bag opening it. Well if there was no more hot water I wasn't showering. Cold showers were just… gross. Slipping from bed I pulled on jeans and a blue shirt with black sleeves. Slipping a belt on through my jeans I stuffed my uniform back in my small bag and threw it over my shoulder.

On my way out I grabbed the glowing red pendent and slipped the chain back over my head and tucked it under my shirt. Instantly the mental link reappeared and the bat demon greeted me good morning. When my reply was sluggish as I ran a brush through my hair he spoke up.

"That dream again?"

"It's always that dream, it will never go away," I answered before heading out of the room. When I opened the door I saw the Spirit Detective and his orange hair friend duking it out like typical boys.

Kuronue didn't reply to my statement and just hung out back in my mind. I didn't normally hide my pendent, not even at school, but with Kurama so close, unless I was using it, it was better not to draw attention.

Passing the two boys silently I headed to the room where we were had agreed to meet when we were ready to go. On my way, I dug out a granola bar from my bag and ate it as I walked down the spiral staircase; one of many staircases I was sure was in this ridiculous house.

As expected, the other four boys were waiting patiently in the room. Kaito raised an eyebrow when I entered looking a bit ticked as I gnawed on my breakfast.

"Rude awakening?" I glowered at him before sitting down on the couch. "Ah. I see."

Kurama smiled at me but that did little to improve my tired grumpy mood. Honestly, how early was it? Swallowing, I rubbed at my eye. "Where's Genkai?" It looked like the redhead was about to answer till a rather loud crash accompanied by a lot of yelling informed us all that someone had just broken up the brawl upstairs. "Oh, there she is."

The three human boys laughed a bit while Kurama rubbed his neck looking a bit bewildered by the whole thing. Honestly I hardly ever saw that look on his face, the closest I got to that was the uncomfortable how-to-be-nice-when-I-want-them-to-go-away look when girls at our school approached him in groups. Of course I found the whole thing hysterical, as did Kuronue. Still I did feel a bit bad for him…maybe.

Minutes later both rowdy boys came into the room, sporting some light bruising followed by a satisfied looking Physic.

"All right slackers, let's get a move on. We need to get the situation under control before we're up to our necks in lower class demons." She placed her arms behind her back before looking directly at me. I was alert in moments ready for my orders. "That demonic partner of yours, I want you to use that power we talked about over in the location where the hole is supposed to be. Kurama, Kaito and Kuwabara go with her, you'll be meeting Botan there. Once your done surveying the area, start looking for any signs in the city. The rest of you idiots are with me. We're going to start looking straight off the bat. Got that?"

I nodded my head, ignoring her badgering tone as Yusuke did the opposite. "Hey grandma, you think you can lay off the comments, we're not stupid."

"Huh, could have fooled me," the older women grunted back before walking towards the door. "Come on we don't have all day. "

We all filed out of the oddly shaped house and after a quick train ride to the city where the tunnel was forming our groups split off and my group started towards the location of our target. From what we'd been told it was on the outskirts of the city so I wouldn't have to worry about people snooping around and wondering why I was doing what I was doing.

It took no more then two minutes of our silent trek for me to want to take the headphones from my bag and put them on. I hated silence like this, ones that felt too heavy with worry and tension. I wanted nothing more then to break it.

I'd just about reason with myself to take them out when Kurama cleared his throat and I looked to my side where he was walking a few feet from me. I'd always found his eyes rather intense and the fact that he was staring at me made me a bit squeamish and nervous.

"If you don't mind me asking Izumi, what was Genkai talking about when she mentioned 'power'?" I found everyone's eyes on me at that point and after a moment of consideration I figure it wouldn't do any harm to tell them.

"The demon that I'm soul bound to, he's-"

"Wait, wait just a second you mean your partner really is a guy?" Kuwabara interrupted me. I nodded my head a bit put off by the look on his face. "Doesn't that get awkward and stuff? You know if he see everything and you… well…" He trailed off but I figured out what he was talking about pretty quickly and tried not to turn to red with embarrassment as I ran a hand through my hair. I didn't dare look at the other two people in the group. I was afraid I'd blush even redder if it did.

"He - well, I suppose it was at first, but after three years, well, I don't really care any more I guess." I shrugged my shoulders and the boy scratched his head before turning back around and continuing to walk, I hadn't realized we had stopped moving with his outburst and followed him.

"I still think it would have been nice if they had paired you with girl…" It was sweet of him, in weird way, for him to be concerned about my privacy. Most guys would have thought my partner was lucky. At that thought I grimaced when I heard Kuronue snicker in my head.

"Its not something that easy Kuwabara. As far as we know with the little information we have on people like me, every match up had been boy-girl, no single gender partnering." I explained and I heard him grunt and saw him nodded his head, embarrassed. I smiled slightly; it was human nature to look before you leap some times. Teenage boys were no exception.

"That's a very interesting anomaly." I glanced over to the redhead, who had a thoughtful look on his face. "How many of your kind have been paired, do you know?"

"Including me? Five. Much like the Spirit Detective job, mine is fairly new in nature too, they had no idea it was even possible 'till the first case happened when a human came into contact with an artifact in spirit world holding a demon." Kurama nodded his head again but said nothing so I got myself back on track. "Any way, as I was saying my partner is a demon skilled and versed in the way of illusions and darkness. In a lot of ways he's kind of like a demon witch or warlock." Even more so if you went by the tale that warlocks were vampires. Kuronue sent me the mental impression of a glower and I smirked.

"I did not suck people's blood, thank you." He huffed.

"Don't most demons eat humans though?" My inquiry seemed to annoy him even more.

"Eating them is different then sucking them dry. Besides I normally would go for the kidneys first an-"

"Ew, stop right there! I don't need an in depth plan of how you ate."

As he laughed in my head I fought at the sensation to throw up and swallow hard. Needing a distraction to keep myself from visualizing Kuronue's lunch I kept explaining. "Because he's a master of illusion, he has the ability to see through them as well. So if the tunnel is being cloaked or hidden, I'll be able to tell once I activate the power. "

"It must be useful in your line of work," Kaito said evenly and I nodded my head. After all, who better then a shadow demon for the work of a spy?

We fell back in silence again; this time a more fitting one, one centered on our job, around our mission, not it's faults. It was about a trek of five minutes after our conversation that the field came into view. No one was around the area as expected given the location and the time of day. The only thing keeping the yellowing grass company was a worn out shed with a few rusted looking tools propped up against it.

The group of us stopped near the shed and I barely got my thoughts collected when Botan came bounding out from the other side, oar still in hand.

"There you guys are! I was just about to come looking for you." I rolled my eyes at the blue haired grim reaper. I still remember the day I met her as clear as a bell. I'd been expecting some skeleton in a long black robe with a scythe, not a blue haired girl in a kimono with an oar. It my option she belong on a cheerleading squad.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Kurama said smiling "We got a bit side tracked with Izumi's interesting knowledge." Awesome, just go and blame it on me will you? I sighed looking up at the sky, knowing Botan was giving me a knowing look. I'd probably get scolded later for sharing too much information. Honestly, keeping secrets from the people trying to help you never felt right to me.

"Don't worry about it Kurama, we're not on that tight of a clock." She lifted her oar and it disappeared along with the Kimono leaving her in normal looking clothes. She looked to me cheerful as ever and I rolled my eyes before sighing. Time to get to work.

I placed my hand on Kuronue's pendant hidden under my shirt and closed my eyes focusing for only a moment. Such minor use of his power didn't take much, not even words; I was only aware of it working because the pendant glowed red and felt warm under my hand.

When I opened my eyes, I was staring at all of my team mates, who besides Botan looked a bit startled, Kuwabara even let out a small surprised sound. If I hadn't been looking I would have missed the slight eye widening of the redhead.

I couldn't blame them from the startled looks. I'd been pretty surprised when I'd first seen my eyes changed from their warm brown with green rings in it, to a vivid indigo blue that glowed like fire.

The color change was what they saw; what I saw was different. Everything got sharper and more intense, and now all of their auras were showing like bright colors around their bodies. Except, Kuwabara didn't have one. I'd overheard him talking about his loss in spirit energy, and this confirmed it. But how did one even lose such a thing? That was a bit disconcerting.

My eyes slowly traced over the auras that were there, ones I'd seen before, ones I hadn't. Botan's was lavender, a color I saw a lot in spirit world. I'd determined it must have been because she was neither dead nor alive and her age was unknown. Kaito's was an icy blue, not unexpected; most spirit energy that came from humans was some shade of blue, sometimes green.

Kurama though, given his… history, was an interesting one. He was a human, in a way, but he was also a demon. He wasn't a half demon either. Kuronue had explained it to me once. He was human with a demon's soul there giving him demonic energy. Most demons gave off bright colors in the red to orange range. Kurama though, his aura was silver.

I couldn't help but wonder if it was because he had been a demon with silver hair or if it was because of his age. Several myths said that spirit foxes turn silver when they turn one thousand years old. How many tails they have counted for each hundred years, or was that for how powerful they were?

Whatever the reason the color was different. I guess it went along with the person.

"Focus, Izumi."

"…Right" I sighed as I turned toward the direction of where the tunnel was supposed to be. I knew what I would see if there was something masking it; it would look like a silhouette, a glow that outlines what ever the magic was covering. The first time I had seen it, I had though someone had been very creative with glow sticks.

I scoured the area closely, looking for any signs, and colors that didn't belong and found nothing. It was just a normal field, nothing in the area at all.

"There's nothing here," I informed them. "No barrier, no spells, no illusions, it's a normal field. That really only leaves one option…"

"Yes, if the tunnel is not forming up here then its under our feet." I nodded at the redhead.

"My thoughts exactly." Kaito agreed.

"Well that's great and all, but what now?" I ran a hand through my hair before looking to Kuwabara to explain, but I didn't get to, because as my eyes shifted they caught sight of a blue aura leaking out from behind the shed.

Kurama must have sensed it too because at the same time my head whipped around and I took a step in the direction, he had already bolted around the building to investigate. I was on his heels, the others behind me. I could see the tension in his shoulders as I stopped beside him, he was looking around the area and as I looked as well, I found nothing. Only trace amounts of greenish blue aura.

As the others feel in behind us I heard Kuwabara ask what was wrong but let Kurama answer. "Someone was watching us, likely they still are."

"Shit how did they sneak up one us like that?" My mind was racing and for a moment I turned inward to try and find some clarity with Kuronue.

"Hmm, that's hard to say, though it seems possible that their energy really only shows up when their using their 'territories.' You all had your backs to him and you were focused elsewhere so you couldn't see his energy. Out of sight, out of mind I suppose."

"That's just dandy." When I refocused myself to my surroundings, the boys all looked a bit startled. Well okay, Kurama just looked amused, again, and Botan was fighting back laughter. For a moment I looked at them bewildered before I remembered what had just happened and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, forgot where I was." Like so many times before the conversation had leaked out of my mouth rather than staying in my mind. Not only that but it hadn't been Japanese either.

"What did you just say?" Kuwabara asked and I rubbed the back of my head looking to the side.

"My English grumbling is not important. Kurama's right, there was someone just here. There are traces of physic energy in this spot." It was best to get us back on topic. If we were being followed now was not the time to play Twenty Questions. "We need to inform Koenma of our findings, so he can get someone working on it."

"Agreed." Kurama gave the area one last glace. "We should find Yusuke and the others. It's better to deal with this as a group."

I closed my eyes for a moment, letting Kuronue's power slip from my eyes. Instead of completely letting go of it though I tapped into a smaller percentage of it. With in moments my hearing and spirit awareness sharpened. If we were getting into trouble I needed every edge I could get. Opening my eyes again I dug into the pocket of my jeans and pulled out my slim black communicator.

"Alright, let's get going." With that I flipped it open and started in on my report.