Chapter Two

Hiei—! The voice came unexpectedly and died out even faster as a memory of indigo, a soft spoken voice, and elegantly tied hair crossed Hiei's mind.

What the hell? Where did that come from? It sounded a hell of a lot like the moron.

Two sensations hit Hiei at once, like taking one of Yusuke's heavy-handed punches straight in the gut: pain and loss. He grunted at the unfamiliar sensation, oblivious as to where it came from. A vague sense of detachment told Hiei that the pain wasn't his but for some reason the feeling of loss penetrated straight into his heart and decided to take up residence there. He'd be damned if he knew why.

"What is it Hiei?" Mukuro asked and Hiei realized he had stopped his sword mid-swing. He absently wondered why she didn't capitalize on his weakness—they were sparring after all—but he couldn't shake the damn weight on his heart long enough to really care.

"I'm not sure." He finally said, sliding his katana back into its sheath. "I have somewhere I need to be. We'll continue this later."

Mukuro watched him closely, her visible eye narrowing just slightly as she tried to read him. At long last she nodded, stroking his shoulder with the backs of her fingers in a rare gesture of compassion and support. He touched her hand briefly and left the training hall. Something was wrong. He just didn't know what. Or why.

The beeping of his communicator—why was he even carrying it in the first place?—caught Hiei's attention and he reached into his pocked to pull it out. He hated the device with a passion, not only because it gave Yusuke and that moron the ability to contact him whenever they wanted, but also because it was powder pink and most decidedly a compact in shape and design. Just holding it was embarrassing as hell, but when he woke up that morning Hiei felt the inexplicable urge to call the moron. Not that he would. Hell no. But the sense of wrongness he felt upon waking up, a feeling that continued on even now, compelled him to at least carry it.

Flipping open the infernal devise—while mentally swearing to destroy Koenma for making it so – so – that—Hiei found himself face to face with Kurama's worried green eyes.

"What do you want fox? You're disturbing my training." That was a lie of course, but Kurama didn't need to know that.

"Hiei," Kurama said, his voice low and almost pained. "Did you feel that?"

Hiei stiffened, a vague sense of horror creeping up his spine. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I thought as much," Kurama said and Hiei instantly knew that the fox had seen through his lie. The worried red head glanced over his shoulder and Hiei suddenly remembered that Kurama was training with Yusuke that day. "Yusuke felt it as well. We wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Of course I'm fine," Hiei said blandly while valiantly fighting off his panic. If the cause wasn't Kurama and it wasn't Yusuke then there was only one other person it could come from. As loath as he was to admit it, there was a bond between the four former detectives. Something stronger than blood that tied them together and made them share thoughts, experiences—feelings, Hiei thought begrudgingly.

"Kuwabara isn't answering his communicator so Yusuke and I are headed to Ningenkai." Kurama said, breaking Hiei from his thoughts. "Will you come?"

"Hn." Hiei said as he closed the compact and stuffed it back into his pocket. He didn't bother to grab his cloak before he sprinted from Mukuro's fortress and headed in the direction of the nearest portal.

XXXXXXXX

Yukina hummed happily as she carefully molded balls of mochi. Kazuma was coming to visit after school and she wanted him to enjoy some snacks with his tea. He was working so hard lately to protect Ningenkai all on his own that Yukina always tried her best to make sure he could relax when he came to the temple. It was the least she could do.

After four years of knowing him, Yukina was finally understood the boisterous teen. She didn't at first, too naïve to the ways of men and women to see his words and actions for what they were. But the more she learned about the world, the more she began to recognize and make sense of Kazuma's actions. Recognize and reciprocate. He didn't know it yet, mostly because he wasn't ready to, but Yukina was very much in love with him. She loved him even before she knew what love was.

Kazuma was the spring to her endless winter. The beauty and life that promised the warmth of the summer to come. The summer of their life together. Thankfully it wouldn't be too much longer before she could make her feelings known. Kazuma was graduating from high school in two weeks. That graduation was the invisible line that, once crossed, made a boy became a man. And according to the books she borrowed from Keiko, it was the love of a true man that never died. Waiting for Kazuma to become a man was very hard for Yukina, but if it meant he would never stop loving her, then the wait was certainly worth it.

Setting the last of the mochi balls into the bamboo steamer, Yukina replaced the lid and shook out her hands to cool them from the steam's heat. Hopefully they would be done just as Kazuma arrived. It wouldn't be good for her to serve him cold food after all. Still humming, Yukina brushed the remaining flour off her hands and decided she should go change. Her pale pink dress was smudged with flour and bean paste and she was sure there was some on her face as well. And while she knew Kazuma wouldn't mind, he told her once that she looked cute that way, she still wanted to look her best for him.

Yukina was just checking the temperature on the stove to make sure it was perfect when there was a sudden tightening around her right pinky followed by an abrupt and audible snap. Her red eyes darted to her hand and found the ever-present red string that was there, tying her to Kazuma since he saved her from Tarukane, was broken. Horror clenched Yukina's stomach as her eyes went wide, starring disbelieving at the severed end of the now limp thread.

Kazuma . . .

"No." She said brokenly. "Please . . . please no . . ." Tears welled in her eyes and she didn't even try to fight them. She couldn't feel him anymore. That constant warmth in the back of her mind, the steady pulse of the string around her pinky, both were gone. Kazuma was . . . gone . . .

"No! Kazuma!" Yukina dropped to her knees as priceless gems burst from her eyes only to tumble across the floor, forgotten. "Kazuma! Kazumaaaa!"

Bringing her hand to her stomach, Yukina gathered up the broken string and held it close to her abdomen as she wailed, desperately clinging to the last bit of Kazuma that she had left.

XXXXXXXXX

Shizuru was washing the dishes when she sensed it. A sudden emptiness, like her life had lost any and all meaning to it. The plate she was holding slipped through her fingers and shattered on the tile floor but she barely noticed. Horror coursed through her veins like liquid fire as she clenched her face in her hands.

"No." She said. "No, no, no. It's not possible. It isn't. It can't be. Not Kazuma. Not my brother. Never. No!"

She was trembling like mad and her knees gave out beneath her as she dropped to the floor, completely disregarding the shattered glass. Her knees would have been cut to ribbons at the very least if warm, familiar arms hadn't grasped her elbows from behind and kept her from falling.

"Shizuru!" Koenma said and she looked back at him in dazed surprise. "Shizuru snap out of it! Shizuru!"

"Ko . . .enma?" She said, not entirely sure if he was really there or just a figment of her imagination. "But why—?"

"I don't have time to explain," Koenma said frantically as he pulled her upright and turned her to face him. "Where's your brother Shizuru? Where's Kuwabara?"

"I-I—"

He was asking for Kazuma? Why was he even in her house? What was going on and why did she feel so completely empty? The place in her heart that always held a part of her brother . . .that place . . .that emptiness . . .

"Shizuru!"

"I don't know!" Shizuru wailed. "I can't feel him! He's gone! He's gone!" Tears welled up in her eyes as she clung to Koenma's robe as tightly as she could. "Where is he? What have you done to him? I know this is your fault, you bastard! You sent him on another one of your damn cases and now he's—my little brother is—"

"Damn it Shizuru!" Koenma said, shaking her. "We don't know that for sure, but my intelligence can't find him! I need your help; you're the only one that can tell me where he is before it's too late!"

"This is your fault—!"

"I didn't send him anywhere Shizuru!" Koenma thundered and he finally broke through Shizuru's panic, though he couldn't completely dispel it. "He wasn't supposed to die today! There wasn't any reason that he should have died today, do you understand me? Something is happening beyond my control and Kuwabara has been sucked into it! Now tell me where he is or it really will be too late!"

"He—he was on his way home from school . . ." Shizuru said blandly, her eyes boring into Koenma's own golden brown, searching desperately for a lifeline to cling too. When she thought Kazuma died four years ago she could only handle the pain because she didn't lose her grip on his soul. She could still feel him there in her heart and that was the only think that kept her sane. But now even that was gone. She couldn't feel him at all, and she couldn't find even the slightest trace of his presence anywhere. Shizuru was breaking apart from the inside out, and right now only Koenma's strong presence was keeping her from going to pieces. Her grip tightened on his sleeves.

"Koenma . . . Koenma please." Shizuru begged brokenly, tears leaking silently from her eyes. "He's my little brother. He's all I have left . . ."

Koenma pulled her tight against his chest and let her cry as he rested his chin on her hair. "We'll find him Shizuru. I won't let it end like this. Now tell me, what route does he take on his way home?"

Shizuru had no idea how she found her voice to answer.


Kaliea: Okay, for all of you who may be wondering, I do not hate Kuwabara. I actually rather love him. He's a wonderful character and, I believe, the heart of the spirit detectives. He's kind of like their conscience. It's his job to rein them in when things get really bad, to remind them that they're actually the good guys. In that way he holds them together and stops them from becoming those dark and evil creatures that they fight against. So part of what I want to do is explore who Kurama, Hiei and Yusuke would become with Kuwabara gone. Of course, they first have to get over their shock, which will probably take a few chapters, but eventually I think they'll start to darken without Kuwabara's light to keep them grounded. I guess we'll find out together, huh? Don't forget to review!