A/N: A derelict warehouse stands alone in a small rural town. Every once in a while, cars meander by it on the pothole riddled road, the drivers of said vehicles wondering just what happened to the old building for it to be in this condition. In truth the warehouse had once been a proud, family owned business. It was a packing house for fresh vegetables such as green beans, edamame, and sugar snap peas. Until the family lost their money in the 1929 stock market crash. The building then changed hands over the decades (In the late 90's it had been converted into a meth kitchen.), until finally it ended up in the hands of the small town. It had then been auctioned of to the highest bidder at the very reasonable price of $5,000. The party that now owned the property was putting it to very good use.

A series of light steps echoed of the side of the dilapidated warehouse and bounced back to their origin: a resident of the town on her way to a meeting. The girl was only slightly above average when it came to her height at 5'6". Her age could have been anywhere from sixteen to twenty-one, depending on who you asked. A shock of blue caught the light of the setting sun and the offending locks of hair were brushed back by the girl's fingers as she shielded her eyes. A bright green flyer was reflected in the yellow lenses of her glasses. She looked up at the warehouse, wondering if the shady building was really the right place. A sigh escaped her full lips and fogged the glasses that shielded her chocolate eyes from the glaring celestial body in her peripheral vision.

She pulled open the rusty, metal door and stepped though the threshold, into the welcoming, warm glow of the surprisingly homey space. She reveled in the atmosphere as she made her way over to the small circle of folding chairs. The people already seated gazed at her in a sort of understanding as the girl marveled at what had been done with the interior. They had had the same reaction when they first saw the well-loved building. The leader of the close-knit group motioned for the girl to take a seat next to him. She cautiously slid into the rickety chair and the meeting began.

The group leader then said, "I'd like for us to give a grand welcome to our new member. Please introduce yourself miss."

The girl then spoke for what seemed like the first time in years. "My name is Kannari," A short pause as she tried to remember what slogan her flyer had printed on it. "And... I'm a Perpetually Irregular Updater."


Spirit Mirror - Chapter 7

An Explanation

"So," I said, one silvery eyebrow raised. "You're expecting me to believe that you four are the detectives for the 'Spirit World'."

"Yes," Kurama inserted into the pause I had left.

"Which is run by a toddler."

"Yeah," Yusuke begrudgingly agreed.

"And you've saved the world from certain doom..." I counted on my fingers as I recalled the events of their story. "Seven times?"

"YES!"

"Okay then," What reason do I have not to believe them, given what's happened to me? "There's one thing I don't get though."

"What?!" Yusuke asked, exasperated.

"What the hell happened to me?"

"Maybe your powers have some sort of adverse effect." Kurama suggested.

"You guys are still on about the lame set of powers in that folder?" I asked, bewildered. "If I'm supposed to be from 'The Netherworld,' how come I've never heard of it until breakfast?!"

"Beats the hell outta me." Helpful Yusuke. Very helpful. "You'd probably be better off asking Botan or Hinageshi."

"And where would I find either of them?" I inquired.

"Spirit World for Botan and Kazane Shrine for Hinageshi."

"Like I know how to get there?" I asked, starting to lose my temper. Normally, I pride myself in being a relatively calm person, but the vagueness of this situation would get on anyone's nerves.

"Botan has told me a little about your situation, Miss Rei." Kurama offered. I mean, it was kind of ironic, considering I wasn't really a "miss" at the moment. Yes, you read right. No, I didn't stutter. I've a simple question for you: What gender is Hiei? Yeah... anyway: "From what I understand, your specific skill set is from the bloodlines of the Three Demon Gods. Specifically, Majari."

"From what I've understood, any demon that calls itself a god or saint is most definitely not," I said, recalling the details of the Four Saint Beasts escapade(as told by Yusuke and Kurama).

"Quite right," Kurama agreed with a dark look. "His own powers centered on mirroring his opponents' techniques. He only had to see them in action to make them his own. Yours seem to differ and therefore require a different stimulus to activate them."

During Kurama's mini-monologue, I had looked over at my unfinished, and now cold, breakfast with a pang of remorse. That was a good omelette. What a waste.

"...And since it seems to cause you an immense amount of pain, I recommend you not come into physical contact with any of us." No shit, Sherlock.

"Wait," I said, in what I can only assume to be Hiei's voice. "Why hasn't this ever happened before now? My parents have hugged me plenty of times and I never ended looking too much like either of them."

"Maybe it has to deal with whether the person in question harbored any spiritual energy.*" Kurama theorized. To me, it seemed like the ginger was taking a blindfolded shot-in-the-dark, but who am I to judge? "If that is the trigger, then it's no wonder you've never had any past experiences. The human race, as a whole has never been very spiritually aware."

(Don't worry all you aspiring psychics; I'm sure he didn't mean it.)

"How can I be part of a demon bloodline if both my parent's are human?" I cursed myself for using the present tense.

"Maybe you were adopted," Yusuke chime in, still seated in a backwards chair at the breakfast bar. "I mean, the only reason I'm a demon is because of a demon ancestor who decided to wait to rear his ugly head until the second time I died."

I sigh and shift my weight from one foot to the other, impatiently waiting for a real answer to my question. Somehow, I've been too stupid to think up one myself. I look down at my nails and find that they've sharpened into a short set of claws. Huh, fancy that.

"I'm confused on something though," Yusuke continued. "Why are all the colors reversed?"

"Dunno," I answered at the same time Kurama decided to explain. He talked over me dammit. I hate that.

"Well I assume it has to be attributed to the properties of a mirror; one of them being that they do tend to reverse things." At least he talked over me with a sarcastic comment. A smart three-year-old could have grasped the irony in that statement before Yusuke did. If I knew Kurama had a sense of humor, I could have revised my opinion of him earlier. I chuckle a bit at the thought of a three-year-old Yusuke.

"Wow, never thought I'd hear that again," Male in question said, Kurama's comment completely going over his head. "I've only heard Hiei laugh the one time, when we fought Sensui. It's weird hearing it now."

"Come on," I said, not buying it. "He must have at least had an evil chuckle when he was a generic villain type."

"Nope, I think I got one 'ha' during the whole fight. The rest of the time, he just yapped." Yusuke told me nostalgically. "That's actually what let me get the drop on 'im."

"His absence of laughter probably has more to do with the brutality of his childhood. Back then, his only solace was the knowledge that his sister was alive and well." Kurama added.

"Oh yeah," I asked. "Who is his sister anyway?"

A sudden sequence of thumps caught my attention as they barreled down the halls. I cringe as the noise gets louder, and therefore, closer.

"YUKINA!" Kuwabara bursts into the room and practically skips over to the kitchen, where Yukina has just started on a batch of scrambled eggs. He all but knocked the whisk out of her small hands when he took them into his own. His eyes seemed to sparkle as he looked up at her and said, "I missed you every second I was asleep. I hope you missed me too, my love."

"Of course, Kazuma," She answered his nonsensical statement.

Oh, first name basis, I thought with a smirk. Somehow, don't ask me why, that caught Kuwabara's gaze and, apparently, he was confused about my presence. Or more accurately, my appearance.

"I knew Hiei had a sister, but why didn't anyone tell me he had a brother too?!" Kuwabara whine in his gravelly voice as he makes his way over to me. I look at Yusuke and Kurama, putting as much fear into my eyes as possible. Hopefully one of them can remedy the situation before I say or do something stupid.

Hopefully.

"Hiei doesn't have any brothers, Kuwabara," Yusuke says right off the bat. I guess we're going with the truth then? "It's Rei."

"You can't fool me," The fool laughed. "You've kept his sister from me, but you can't keep his brother away too. We need to get to him before Hiei corrupts him!"

"It truly is Miss Rei, Kuwabara," Kurama cuts in. Kuwabara was dangerously close to me now. As he closed the final meter between us, Kurama intercepted him. Which would have been great and all. If he didn't accidentally bump me, that is.

"God...dammit...Kurama, " I said as a wave of excruciating pain washed over me. I struggled to keep my footing as I change. That's the best word I have for it: change. I could feel most of the individual changes now on the second go around(Gee, thanks man.).

My scalp started to itch and I could only assume my hair was the first thing to forget its original DNA sequence. I felt like I had the worst sinus cold in the four worlds as my facial features followed suit. The worst (and I mean the absolute worst)feeling though, is what came last. I felt like I was being stretched out on a rack(medieval torture devices and such) when my body did a few years of growing in the span of a couple seconds. My bones cracked and my joints popped as they attempted to build Kurama's physique. I found myself breathing heavily by the end of the process, but also a little prideful for having kept my footing(and not crying out, but you know). Yay. Can you feel my enthusiasm?

I opened my new eyes and found the world around me painted in muted colors. Until I blink away my temporary color blindness, that is.

"So... not Hiei's brother?" Kuwabara was the first to speak.

"No," I said in Kurama's steady voice. Speaking of which: I shifted my gaze only to find him gawking at me. "Earth to Kurama?"

"Oh, ah, yes, of course," The red-head sputtered, regaining his composure.

"Kurama," Yusuke said seriously, looking up at his friend. "Never dye your hair green."

I looked for the basis of his argument for that uncharacteristically somber statement and found emerald tresses laying softly on my broadened shoulders. "You just had to be a ginger, didn't you?"

"I'm not even sure where my hair color came from," Kurama answered. "As far as I know, nobody on either side of my human family has ever had this color."

"I guess there's a lot we don't know about our families," I laughed, resting a hand on the shoulder or the demon in front of me. I quickly drew back before I realized... nothing happened. I poked him a couple times to make sure that I'm not hallucinating, but - sure enough - I'm not. "Loophole!"

"It would seem so," Kurama said, grabbing my hand to drive the point home (or stop my onslaught of pokes; you can decide which is more plausible). "Upon closer examination, I feel a miniscule amount of my spirit energy missing."

"My fault?" I asked, scratching the back of my head. "Huh, sorry I guess?"

"It's such a small amount that no one would notice it unless they were looking."

"Ah," I said, shifting in my now very uncomfortable clothing. "Hey, Kurama, I get the feeling you wear a bigger size than I do."

"I suppose I should grab you something of mine to wear then?" He said more than asked, not missing a beat. Then he added pointedly: "Miss Rei."

Asshole. I take back my revised opinion.

Yusuke and Kuwabara had burst into an almost nervous laughter while I stood there, fuming. I wanted Kurama to go back to being supposedly unhumorous. I watched the man walk out the door and heard his light steps as he traversed the network of hallways. The feeling of multiple pairs of eyes fixated on me only seemed to mount in the silent room.

"So, Prisoner," Yusuke finally broke the golden barrier. "What would happen if you touched Kuwabara?"

"Shut up." I snapped at the detective. My clothes were too tight, my everything was sore, and I just wanted my body back. "The last thing I want is to be a walking pile of muscle, no offense Kuwabara."

"Somehow, Kurama doesn't seem all that threatening anymore," Yusuke laughed. "It's a good thing you didn't mirror Youko."

"Oh really," I mused, remembering the story they told me of their Dark Tournament. These guys were a regular hero team, given how many time they'd saved the Human World's ass. Would you look at that? Now I'm starting to use their terminology.

My mind wouldn't stop analyzing the situation I was in, I realized. It almost felt like someone else had their hands in my brain and was controlling which synapses fire and when. Honestly, it made me wonder what else could possibly happen. "I have the most useless set of powers."

"You can say that again," Yusuke practically agreed with me.

"Miss Rei?" Kurama called as he entered the room, a bundle of clothes tucked under his arm. The fuchsia color of the fabric made me wonder where he had found them. "This is my old school uniform; it should suffice for now."

"Thanks," I said as I took the outfit from him. "I'll be back."

I practically sprinted down the corridor to my "cell," sliding the door shut once I was safely inside. I drew the curtains over the window before peeling off the much-too-tight clothing.

This is just too weird, I thought as I redressed myself in what looked like the Meioh High School uniform. My now green locks stood out even more against the pinkish jumpsuit. Suddenly though, it occurred to me: Kurama had longer hair than I did. I realize it was kind of a petty thing to brood over, but, when a guy looked more feminine than you did, the action kind of justified itself.

Sort of.

I stood, facing the futon I had failed to put away this morning. Debating whether I should have shown my face- or rather, Kurama's face- again, I felt a headache begin to pulsate behind my eyes. It didn't stop there though. I started to feel woozy, so I gripped the windowsill for balance. I stayed like that for a minute, breathing heavily until the feeling passed. I then pushed myself upwards, back onto my feet again. Just as I was about to turn to go though, the feeling slammed into me, full-force, and I found myself falling towards the welcoming fold of the futon. I plummeted into unconsciousness seconds later.

Great.


2nd A/N: Hey, look at that! 2000+ word count! Yay!

I think.

Any who, the little story-type-thing in the first note was kind of another apology. A huge "sorry" goes to those I've kept waiting. To those that are just now starting this awful excuse for a fan fiction, get used to waiting(sorry).

Yes the warehouse was a real place in my town, and yes, it was a meth kitchen at one point.

Don't do drugs children. I hear they're bad for you.

After a few more chapters, I'll start explaining some of the relevant things in earlier chapters that you might not have picked up on. What can I say? I'm a jerk with a large vocabulary.

This chapter was 8 3/4 pages on college rule paper. Yes, I write out everything before I type it. It gives me something to look back on that's tangible. That I can edit little mistakes like tense errors when I transfer it over. That, and I don't actually start writing the next chapter until I receive a few reviews on the previous one. It let's me know what I need to elaborate on. Hence the title of this particular chapter.

So, yeah... I'll be seeing you not too soon,

Kannari23