"And just who do you think you are?" the leader of the gang asked.

"Just a passerby who thinks you should move along."

Despite the overwhelming dizziness I was feeling, I opened my eyes. To my relief—and surprise, Hiei was standing there, as nonchalant as ever.

"Look at this ankle biter; I'll handle him myself," their leader said. I managed out a chuckle and he looked back at me. "You think somethin's funny, eh?"

"Just the fact that you're a moron whose about to get what's coming to him is all," I said.

He turned around to smack me across the face, but never got the opportunity. I barely blinked and Hiei was standing in front of me, sword drawn with it gently pressed against the boy's shoulder. The color drained from his face and I could hear the rest of his thugs trembling with terror behind me.

"If you ever want to use that arm to touch yourself again, I suggest you step away from her," Hiei said.

"Hey man, just be cool," the boy said, backing away. "I didn't want any trouble."

"Hit the road. You're boring me and the only way I can currently see fit to entertain myself would be to kill you," Hiei said.

The boy immediately took off out of the alley and his companions followed.

I wiped the remaining bit of blood from my mouth and Hiei turned around to me.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," he said.

"I see you're as sympathetic as ever, Hiei," I said. "I missed that about you."

"Are you okay?" he asked, extending his hand out to me.

"Compared to the recent hole I took in my chest I'd say I'm going to make a full recovery," I said taking his hand and getting to my feet. "Thank you."

"I see you still can't use your energy," he said.

"Yeah. A few more days and I should be good to go, if I'm not raped and murdered by deranged high school boys before then," I said.

"Try wearing pants; that might deter them," Hiei said.

I frowned at him. "For starters, this is my school uniform and I have to wear it. Secondly, I shouldn't be attacked just because I have nice legs."

"What else would they attack you for?" Hiei asked.

"Sometimes having a vagina is enough reason," I said. "It could also be my charming personality."

"Can you think of another reason that isn't imaginary?" Hiei asked.

". . . Are you referring to my vagina or my personality?" I asked.

"Well one of them I've seen before and the other I haven't; deduce the truth on your own," he said.

My entire face flooded with humiliation. I really wished that he'd been talking about my personality just now, but remembering seeing him standing there as I flailed to the bathroom floor completely naked, I knew he wasn't.

"And everyone can see through your shirt by the way," he said. Out of reflex, I quickly raised my arms to cover myself. What else was the universe going to throw at me today? "Relax detective—it's more covered up than I'm used to seeing you after all."

I glared at him. "I hate you."

"No you don't," he said. I rolled my eyes. "See you around, Detective."

"Wait—you're just leaving me here?" I asked completely forgetting that he'd just been on my last nerve seconds ago.

"It doesn't look like you're in anymore danger," he said.

"But what if they come back?" I asked.

"I don't think they'll be coming back," Hiei said.

"Well, if not them then somebody else will," I said. "A lot of people here hate me."

"That sounds like your problem everywhere," he said.

"You can be my bodyguard and keep me company," I said.

"That sounds a lot like babysitting to me," he said.

"Come on, I'll pay you back for it," I said.

"And how would you do that?" he asked.

I shrugged, a slight smile crossing my face seeing now that I might get my way. "I don't know. I'm sure you can think of something you want from me."

Hiei smirked. "I can think of a few things actually."

I felt myself blush at the comment, but quickly shook it off. This whole situation was getting to be uncomfortable enough without me blushing. I looked around to get my bearings and then started a bit down the alley to the fire escape on the side of the building.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Just follow me," I said. I jumped up, ignoring the throbbing pain from my injuries, and managed to grab hold of the ladder and pull myself up. "Come on already. I've seen drying paint move faster than you." I raced up the fire escape and when I reached the top of the building, Hiei was already there waiting for me. "You're just a show off."

"You shouldn't just go around insulting people," he said. "Why did you bring me up here?"

I walked over to the ledge of the building, which was about chest high and looked down.

"People watching," I said.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"I don't see any delinquent high school boys up here, do you?" I asked. "I'm just trying to make your life easier, and you know, hide from anyone that Kuwabara and Yusuke have pissed of recently."

Hiei walked over to the ledge with me and looked at the people below.

"Can you feel the difference in the air?" Hiei asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The energy in this town is sickening. The bugs fly to it like a shark to an open wound. Is it a sign of things to come?" Hiei asked. He turned to me. "Or is the danger already here?"

"But what do you care?" I asked.

"I don't," he replied.

I rolled my eyes. "Botan said something was probably up."

"Are you concerned?" Hiei asked.

I shook my head. "After Toguro I'm confident Yusuke can handle anything until I get my powers back. And anyway, you're probably the most dangerous thing in this city right now."

"Oh, really?" he asked.

I nodded. "After seeing what you did in the tournament I wouldn't want to run into you in a dark alley."

"Except for today?" he asked.

I laughed. "Let me rephrase, I wouldn't want to run into you in a dark alley and be on your bad side."

"You're always on my bad side, Detective," he said.

"Oh, I see. There are degrees to your bad side then," I said. "I must be on the good side of your bad side."

"Something like that," he said.

Part of my brain had seen this coming, and the other part that was probably suffering from a concussion because of my recent head injury was taken by surprise.

I was kissing Hiei again. It happened out of instinct just like it had the first time, but this time round something felt different. I didn't feel as anxious as I did before. I could almost say that it felt comfortable. Everything about this kiss was different. Our bodies were pressed close together, his hand was resting on the side of my face and it all just felt right.

But then something weird happened. I felt the most gentle of vibrations from down below. Instantly I was back on high anxiety mode. Why did I feel vibrations in my pants? Sure, I couldn't recall ever having been kissed like this before, but was that any reason for my body to take a jump off the deep end?

The vibrations returned again just as quickly as they came they disappeared. What was wrong with me?

That's when I came to a realization. I quickly broke the kiss and shuffled through the pleats on my skirt until I found my pocket and phone my ringing cellphone.

I glanced at the caller ID and felt a wave of guilt flood over me.

I answered it quickly.

"Keiko," I said.

"Where are you? I've been waiting for almost an hour here," she said. "Are you okay? You didn't run into trouble did you? I've been getting calls-."

"I'm sorry. I'm almost there. I'll explain when I get there," I said.

"All right," she said.

I hung up my phone, now starting to feel the familiar sting of embarrassment like I had before. I looked up at Hiei who seemed completely complacent as usual. How was he so calm? How did he feel absolutely nothing after this? He made me want to slam my head into a wall.

"I have to go see Keiko. . . I'll see you around," I said. He gave me a nod. I waited for him to say something, but I knew that was moot. So walked back over to the fire escape.

888

When I arrived at Keiko's house, I came in through the back to avoid seeing her parents out front. I was still a mess and covered in blood from my altercation with the thugs in the alley and showing up covered in blood would result in an unnecessary phone call to my parents which would only make my dad crazy.

I ran up to her room and went inside. She turned from sitting at her desk and dropped her jaw when she saw me.

"What happened to you? What happened to your face? It's all cut up and bleeding," she said

"It's a long story," I said closing her door. I was walking here from Karakura Town and some idiots from Denison got the jump on me," I said.

"So you still can't use your energy then?" she asked. I shook my head. "Well how'd you manage to get away then?"

"Believe it or not, Hiei showed up and saved my ass—he then mocked me for it, but it definitely would've been worse if he hadn't shown up," I said.

"Oh, my god. Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. The good news is those losers from Denison will probably tell everyone that I've got a bodyguard with a sword watching my back," I said. "You have a change of clothes?"

"Yeah," she said going to her closet. "I'm in between laundry right now so you'll have to wear a skirt." I sighed. "I know you hate wearing them outside of school, but it's better than what you've got on right now."

Keiko sat out a denim skirt and a long sleeved blue t-shirt for me to put on.

"So what happened? Trunks, Kuwabara, and Kurama all called looking for you," Keiko said as I changed. "They all sounded pretty worried."

"Rightly so, obviously," I said.

"Don't they know where you are?" Keiko asked.

"No. Trunks was supposed to pick me up after school but Botan came by and sent me on some Spirit Detective business after school where I had to go meet up with one of my classmates. You called me while I was at his house and I walked here from there," I said. "Of course, I got my ass beat along the way. . ."

"Well at least you know Hiei is looking out for you," she said.

I sighed. If only she knew.

"Wow, you're covered in bruises," she said as I pulled the shirt on. "Do you need anything?"

"No. I'll be fine. It hurts, but I've had worse obviously. It's starting to just feel numb anyway," I said. "So what did you say Yusuke did?"

"Oh, right—so we get out of school and these three random guys show up and they want to fight Yusuke. Kuwabara and I just tell him it isn't worth it but my boyfriend is an idiot and he's bored so he ditched us," she explained.

"Sounds like him," I said. "I'd like to know where he was when I was getting jumped, and by a bunch of guys who only hate me because I'm his friend at that."

888

I spent the rest of the afternoon with Keiko, telling her about Ichigo and the Soul Society, recalling my first day of school in Karakura Town and listening to her explain to me how proud Rei was that I'd gotten kicked out of school.

We ate dinner and it started getting late. Not wanting a repeat of what happened earlier in the day, I took out my phone and prepared to call Trunks, but I saw that I had almost 30 missed calls from Kuwabara, Kurama, Trunks, and my aunt, Shiori, after leaving it in my book bag while I hung out with Keiko.

"You should've called them. They're probably worried about you," Keiko said. "You should've told them you were here."

"It's weird," I said scrolling through my missed calls. "Your boyfriend didn't call me."

"Why would he? If anyone thinks you can take care of yourself it's Yusuke, right?" she asked.

"Yes, and since I've been being babysat for the past month I appreciate that, but if I disappeared off the face of the planet and the smartest person in my family can't find me what's the most logical thing that he would do?" I asked.

"Call Yusuke to see if he knows where you are," she said.

"They called you," I said.

"But that was right after school," she said.

"Right, and you called me and told me everyone was looking for me, so why didn't Yusuke? I've been gone for hours. Even he would be concerned at this point," I said.

"That is weird," Keiko said. She grabbed her phone from her desk and called Yusuke. ". . . Straight to voicemail. They probably couldn't reach him after he ran off to fight those kids. You don't think he's in trouble too, do you?"

I scoffed. "You watched him fight in the same tournament I did, right? He probably just went to the arcade and never charged his phone."

"Well, you'd better call them and tell them you're fine before they send out a search party," she said.

I did as Keiko instructed and called Kurama.

"Where are you? We have been trying to reach you all evening!" he shouted.

"Sorry I'm just with Keiko," I said. "Botan sent me on an errand after school so I-."

"You can explain it to me later. At the moment your assistance is required. You need to come to the park immediately," he said.

"What for?" I asked.

"I'll explain it to you when you're not around Keiko. I feel there's no reason to alarm her just yet," Kurama said.

I sighed. That meant that something had happened to Yusuke and now we had to go rescue him. I was really in no position to deal with this right now.

"I'll be there in five minutes," I said. I hung up my phone. "Apparently my Spirit Detective services are needed."

"Be careful," she said.

"Don't worry. There's no reason to be worried about me," I said.

It was her idiot boyfriend that we needed to keep a tighter leash on.