. . . means watchfulness.
"Curiosity often leads to trouble."
Hiei knew immediately when Kurama landed below the branches around him.
The sword wielder had found a perfect spot, on the top of a tallest tree overlooking a forest valley. Although, he was forced to stay in the Tokyo region of the human realm, he'd manage to find some sweet isolation.
"I suppose you've sensed it, too?" Kurama asked.
"Yes. I'm guessing it's some human psychic, or an overly ambitious demon. Nothing interesting."
"That's what I heard. But the Spirit World has already assigned Yusuke to explore it."
"They would." Hiei jumped to the ground where Kurama stood.
Hiei smirked.
As was their custom, they spared: Hiei, the first to attack, lunged with his sword, and Kurama dodged, drawing out his rose whip. It was a dear pastime of theirs.
For a moment, they stared, each contemplating the other.
"You needn't worry," Hiei finally spoke. He replaced and adjusted his sword, then went again to his tree top. "I'm not interested in human affairs. Psychic or otherwise. Let them wage their pathetic battles. It's the Spirit World's job to interfere in private business."
He read over Kurama's thoughts, and the half-human was wondering whether Hiei would take to challenge of at least testing the supposed assassin.
Hiei sent the telepathic message, "Besides, it's not like she could pose a threat, anyway. There's no fun in that."
Keiko invited Saika to eat lunch with her. She hadn't noticed it before, but the girl was stranger than she thought.
Walking down the hallway together towards the roof, Keiko initiated a conversation.
"So, Saika, have you finished the assigned reading yet?"
"Yes," Saika spoke with her breathy voice. Like speaking exhausted her, or she was perpetually afraid of something.
"Do you like reading?"
"I guess so."
"Have you read anything good lately?"
"Not really."
"How about any movies?"
"No. . ."
Keiko made a comically distressed face, though Saika saw it.
"Are you okay?"
"Uh- yeah, yeah! I'm fine. Fine." "Yusuke, you better thank me for this!"
Saika felt bad for not trying. Finally, someone was reaching out to her and she was rejecting it. She closed her eyes and dipped briefly into Keiko's mind. At the same time, she fell onto the floor over her ankles.
"Are you okay?" Keiko kneeled down beside her. For once, Saika had color in her face as she pulled her flipped skirt back over her behind.
"Yeah." She stood and they went back up the final stairs. "So, do you like kids?"
"Oh, yeah! I like to volunteer at the day care downtown." Keiko tossed her hair in her way and became unintentionally animated.
"That's so kind of you. Do you want to go into child care?" Saika asked, expectant.
"Yeah! I want to be a teacher. It's funny that you ask that. I just applied for a summer mentorship at a childrens' camp."
"Really?" Saika smiled as the two went to the outdoor roof, but instead of seeing a group of giggly, sweet smelling girls, she saw Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, and a mysterious blue-haired girl.
"So, do you like haunted houses?" Yusuke asked, antagonizing Saika however he could.
"Not specifically," she replied to her plum onigiri.
Five teens sat with bento boxes on the school roof, and though Saika thought that she could enjoy the dull roar of someone else's conversation, Yusuke was intent on engaging her in talk of the occult.
"What about television psychics?" he interrogated her, decidedly set on finishing the mission quickly. "What do you think of psychics?"
Botan, his supposed off campus friend, threw a black bean at his forehead.
"So, Saika, do you have any hobbies?" Botan asked with a sheepish smile, obviously trying to ease the situation.
But she went ignored, because Kuwabara and Saika were locked in a stare-down, one looking determined and the other, expressionless.
Silence fell on all of them as they watched the two watch each other.
Suddenly, Saika's face distorted, as if her lunch disagreed with her. She spun her head around, looking at the door's window, just as it shattered.
There was a stunned silence, and Saika spun back around.
"Did- did you guys see that?" she sputtered.
"I don't know, what did you see?" Yusuke folded his arms.
"It looked like someone shot the glass." Saika stared at him, with convincingly wide eyes.
"From this direction? There's no one over here," Yusuke argued.
"Look at the direction the glass fell in," Saika alleged.
"Did you hear a gun shot?"
"Maybe someone threw a rock."
"We would have seen it."
"Well, I don't know what it was." Saika was unusually animated.
"No one said that you did."
The rooftop became uncomfortably quiet again.
"I ought to go," Saika stood, only to be followed by Yusuke.
"No, you don't!"
"Let her go, Yusuke," Kuwabara demanded as he stood, still warily eyeing Saika.
Without picking up her lunch, Saika was gone. The broken glass crunched beneath her feet and the door down the hall could be heard slamming behind her.
Conveniently, the bell rang just after.
"Definitely a psychic," Kuwabara confirmed as he walked away from the school with Yusuke that after noon. Earlier that day, Yusuke told him about his mission. "I can't believe I let her near my cat."
"I was trying hard to sense some energy from her at first. It was weird. I wasn't getting anything at all, and even average humans have some of that, if they have a soul. But she was like nothing. Then it started up, like a fire, and she just had to put it somewhere. Like some kinda hot potato she had to throw. Obviously, she was trying to hide her energy. With my prying skills, she wasn't doing a good job of it."
"So what? She's just like any other psychic then?" Yusuke thought back to Genkai's challenge, when it didn't seem like human psychics posed a big threat.
"Not really. I mean, I don't know. . . When she let her power out, it was overflowing. I've never felt anything like it."
Yusuke thought a moment, then exclaimed, "I think we oughta get some experts on this case!"
Somewhere in the world, Shuichi sneezed as his mother offered him a tissue, and a tree-top shadow clenched his throat in self control.