Chapter 4

The first thing Kurama saw upon entering the kitchen the next morning was Yusuke glaring into the fridge. The Spirit Detective glanced at the demon, then pointed a finger angrily at the fridge's contents. "I don't know who Koenma thinks we are, but I know I'm not eating any of the crap he stocked this with."

Kurama looked inside to see container after container of raw squid cramming the shelves. "Oh my."

Yusuke straightened up and slammed the door. "Damn toddler. Hey, you know what this means? We're going shopping. At least he gave us money." He jogged into the living room, sat down on the couch and began pulling on his sneakers. Kurama looked down at his own feet to see that he hadn't removed his shoes the night before. Unconsciously saving time whenever I can, I suppose.

He looked back up at Yusuke, who watched him apprehensively. "So…any more problems from our silver-haired friend last night?"

Kurama shook his head. "No. As useful as my demon form might be or thinks he might be, I'd rather not have him running around in the Human World." He turned and went back to his room to get his jacket. And I'm not at all sure what the interaction between him and our quarry would be like. I think he might get a little distracted…

"So would you."

Kurama's hand froze in a fist, clenched around the arm of his jacket. He wasn't quite sure which side of him had spoken that aloud…

Thankfully, Yusuke was a bit better with maps than Kurama, so they were able to find their way to the grocery store in a decent amount of time. As they walked through the automatic door, Yusuke whistled. "This place is HUGE. Do they really need this much food?"

Kurama shrugged, his thoughts drifting to the previous night. I've encountered a good number of female fighters, but most definitely NEVER one with a power like that. It's very disabling. Very.

Yusuke's muttered question cut through his musings. "What're ya thinking about?"

"We can't deny, Yusuke, that if you or I had faced her alone last night, she would've killed us easily."

Yusuke absorbed this grim aspect, then spoke confidently. "Okay, so now we know. And our plan of action the next time we fight her is avoid eye contact. How hard can that be?"

"You never know what could happen in the heat of battle."

"Well, we'll just have to be careful." Kurama glanced at him. Does he hear the uncertainty in his own voice?

"I am wondering about one thing, though. They've only seen her at night, right? My question is…where is she hiding during the day?" Yusuke turned and headed down the aisle, calling over his shoulder. "I'm going to get some cottage cheese. You want anything from Dairy?"

"Vanilla yogurt, if they have any."

Yusuke snickered. "So the great Yoko Kurama likes vanilla yogurt."

Kurama smiled. "And the great Yusuke Urameshi likes cottage cheese."

"Hey, you learn something new every day. I'll see ya back here."

Kurama idly perused the shelves of crackers before him. Lost in thoughts far from snack food, he didn't hear the pattering of small feet approaching. A mass suddenly collided with his legs. He staggered and looked down in confusion to see a small girl blinking up at him dazedly. Her face began to contort into the all-too-familiar prelude to a tantrum. Uh oh. Before he could decide on an action, a girl ran up to him and crouched in front of the toddler.

"Lily! You need to watch where you're running!" The brunette swept the tiny blonde into her arms and straightened up. "I'm so sorry- oh!"

Kurama was stunned to see it was Kate, his navigator from the previous day. She seemed just as surprised to see him. After a moment of silence, she gave him an awkward smile. "Hi, Shuichi."

"Hello, Kate."

There was another pregnant pause before she cleared her throat significantly. "Um, did everything work out with that apartment?"

"Yes…well, barely. We had to pay an extra late-move-in fee that I'm pretty sure the owner made up on the spot, but it wasn't a problem."

"Well, at least you didn't lose it. Those apartments go fast. How did you score one?"

"Truthfully, I couldn't tell you."

The little girl squirmed in Kate's arms. "Lily, settle down! I'm sorry about this mini-whirlwind. She's particularly unstoppable today." The toddler stared wide-eyed at Kurama, then buried her face in the older girl's shoulder. Kate spoke quietly into Lily's ear. "Lily, this is Shuichi, a nice guy I met yesterday. Shuichi, my little sister Lillian." The little girl made a face, and Kate laughed. "She hates her full name."

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Lily." Lily peeked at him. Kate grinned. "I guess she can't resist a gentleman."

The girl reached out and began to stroke his hair curiously. Kurama blinked in surprise. "Of course, it might just be the hair." Kate watched him amusedly. "You mind?"

"Not at all." The girl gazed wide-eyed at him, and he smiled at her. She has brown eyes. Just like Avi. "She reminds me of my stepsister, actually."

"Really? What's her name?"

"Avi." He remembered the way she had cried when he had left her room to enter the portal in his own. The sooner this mission is over, the sooner I can get back to her.

"Well, it's weird that she reminds you of your stepsister, because guess what Lily is to me?"

Lily waved her hand in the air excitedly. "I know! I know! Stepsister. And Jill is my other mommy."

Kate laughed and bounced the girl on her hip. "That's right, Lily." She squeezed the girl affectionately and nuzzled her cheek. Kurama noticed that the girl wore a skirt and blouse instead of jeans and a t-shirt like the day before, and her curly brown hair was twisted up at the back of her head. His first unbidden thought was that the look suited her quite well. "You look very nice, by the way. What's the occasion?"

Kate's expression quickly darkened. "Thanks. We were just at a wake, actually. My mom sent us to pick up some extra stuff for the reception." She smiled with an effort at Lily. "Sorry to end this happy meeting, but why don't you go pick out your two favorite cereals and I'll meet you there in a few minutes?" Lily nodded, and Kate let her down. She beamed and waved at Kurama as she scampered off. "Bye, Seechi!"

Kate smiled faintly, then turned back to Kurama, lowering her voice. "It was for my friend Mary's boyfriend Jesse. They found him dead outside his apartment building last week. And remember Mark from yesterday?"

"Yes, I do."

She opened her mouth to speak, but faltered and nothing came out. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. "They…found his brother John's body in an alleyway late last night."

Kurama's heart sank. "What time?"

"Um, I don't know exactly. I think around midnight."

If we had only found her an hour earlier…but then, would we have been able to handle her any better than we did at 1 AM? "How did he die?"

She swallowed hard and averted her eyes. He said quietly, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be asking-"

"He'd been stabbed to death. Well, kind of half stabbed, half slashed. There was blood everywhere. I couldn't believe it when I heard. And…I keep thinking about last night." She bit her bottom lip. "Saying he could go to hell and all that. Ironic, huh?"

"Kate."

She looked up abruptly at him, then just as abruptly averted her eyes. "So, I feel like a terrible human being, but what can you do?" She shook her head bewilderedly. "Two deaths in a week. And actually, John was the third this month. All killed the same way. The police are convinced it's a serial job. The thing is, Shuichi, we don't have those around here. Aggressive drunken teenagers maybe, as you've seen, but there's never been anything like this. It's scary. Sorry if I'm freaking you out, but they've all been teenage guys, and you just got here and probably don't know, so I thought you should."

She paused, then her next words came out in a rush, as if she had been holding them in for a while. "Listen, I was SO rude yesterday, saying that after you…I'm really sorry. I didn't know what to say. I guess…well, frankly, I guess I'm just not used to someone like you."

Curiosity got the best of him. "Someone like me?"

"Yeah. You're…well, for one thing, it was nice to talk to you yesterday. It's kind of been a difficult week for me socially, Mark knows a lot of people around here and they're taking a while to decide where their loyalties lie. I mean, you listened to me talk about benches. Who does that?"

Caught off guard, he stammered, "I-it was very interesting-"

She held up a hand. "Heh, please, you don't have to lie. Anyway, you did that, and then you stood up for me after knowing me for maybe ten minutes. I would never have expected any of my friends to step in front of a drunken attack for me, much less a complete stranger." She smiled suddenly. "Almost-complete stranger, excuse me. Ten minutes has to count for something. Anyway, it's good to know chivalry's not dead. And now I'm babbling. Sorry, I'll stop." She became serious again. "Wait. One more thing. I know it isn't important now, what with John and all," she smirked slightly, "and you have absolutely no reason to believe me or even care, but it really was a lie. I did not cheat on him. Paul, I mean."

"No, you didn't."

She did a slight double take. "Um, just curious, why do you think that?"

"I can nearly always tell when someone isn't telling the truth."

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh, really? What's your secret?"

"Look at me and say it again."

"Well…all right." She locked eyes with him. "I did not cheat, Shuichi."

He searched her eyes carefully, but he discerned no trace of deceit. And as he stared into them, he couldn't help but notice they were quite a lovely shade of blue. Somewhere between that of the ocean and the sky.

Kurama then noticed another shade: that of the deep red color creeping into her cheeks. She's blushing. He broke eye contact, glancing at the crackers lining the shelves beside them. Why?

"So? What's the verdict?"

He looked back at her, and was strangely relieved to see her blush quickly fading. "Not guilty."

Her tone was mildly sarcastic, but her smile was grateful. "Well, it's nice to know someone believes me. Too bad you're only here for a week." She cocked her head slightly to one side, making her next statement softly, almost to herself, as she looked at him. "Huh. What a depressing thought."

A silence followed that Kurama impulsively felt he should break, somehow. But before he could, Kate coughed and looked around. "Tell your friend Yusuke about the killer, too. Is he here with you?"

"He's in Dairy. Thank you for telling me, I'll let him know."

"Good. The less people lying in the streets dead, the better." She fought an emerging yawn, lost the battle and stifled it with her hand. "God, am I tired…sorry for complaining, but I've been going to bed at nine and sleeping straight through to eight every day and most mornings I feel like I maybe got in twenty minutes." She searched the aisle behind him. "Okay, where is she?" She sighed in exasperation. "I tell her to stay in one place…I'm sorry, I need to go find her and get home. My mom's expecting us pretty soon." She was hit by another yawn. "So-o-orry! Oh, wow."

"Kate?" He reached out and touched her arm. "Listen. A killer could change their type of target at any time." Her eyes flickered to his hand on her arm. He withdrew it quickly and put it in his pocket. "So…please, be careful."

She nodded. "Um, I will. Hey, speaking of being careful, you haven't run into Mark again, have you?"

"No, I haven't."

She seemed relieved. "Good. Well, just try to keep that up. Thanks again for yesterday." She shrugged as she backed down the aisle. "Until the next time I or Lily runs into you, I guess. And…I really hope one of us does before you leave."

"Me too." He felt a surge of something like guilt. What am I saying? What am I doing?

"Goodbye."

"See you." She waved, turned and went around the corner. He stood looking after her.

Pathetic. The voice was sardonic, mocking. What was it you said to me? "Don't get attached, Yoko." Heh.

What are you talking about?

You know exactly what I'm talking about.

Kurama's insides twisted uneasily. Stop it.

All right, Shuichi. One more word and I'll leave.

And what would that be?

Hypocrite.

Kurama bit back an angry growl. Bastard.

"Hey!" Yusuke appeared next to him holding a small tub of cottage cheese and five yogurts. "Five for four dollars. A bargain, I guess." Yusuke regarded Kurama for a second. That's a look I've seen before. Like last night. He then followed the fox's gaze down the aisle to the corner. "Um, problem?"

Kurama blinked and looked at Yusuke. "Ah yes. Yogurt. Thank you." He took the cartons from the Spirit Detective and walked away. Yusuke followed, feeling a bit out of the loop. He glanced back at the corner. I definitely missed something.