Please read this author's note! It's rather important!

Hey everyone! So, it's…it's sure been a while, huh? Uh… well, so here's the story: I was going along, writing up the rough draft in bits and pieces, mostly during state testing that I finished early. It was a bit of rough going, and my interest in Yuu Yuu Hakusho ebbed and flowed, weaving in and out with other fandoms and other interests and original fiction and school work and blah blah blah. But overall, I remained fairly devoted, reading YYH fanfics and telling myself, "Man, I have got to finish Voleurs."

And then I fell out of the fandom. Completely. Or, more accurately, another fandom usurped the position, murdering my interest in Yuu Yuu Hakusho stone cold dead.

Well. It's been almost two years since I wrote the following portion of chapter (as I said, mostly during state testing, so in little scraps over several days). My writing style has changed…tremendously, and I hope for the better. I have also forgotten a lot of stuff about Yuu Yuu Hakusho. I have little grasp of the characters, the storylines, the fan theories, the common conventions – even my own plan for this story. For that, I offer my deepest apologies. I know people have favorited me. I know I'm even on people's alert lists. I am indescribably flattered and honored that people find this story so enjoyable and worthy of their precious time and attention. Unfortunately, I am no longer pleased with it. It's just not the kind of thing I would normally write, and as I said, I cannot deliver an end to this chapter. It's simply not in me, not in my head anymore. This is not up to my normal standards, especially since it's really just a rough draft and it's old and I can't edit it because I've lost my interest and knowledge in and of the fandom, and any reworking and edits would only make it worse with my ignorance and lack of characterization and whatnot. Yet I feel I owe it to you – my amazing readers, who, if anyone has stuck with it and actually bothers to read the chapter, I will be awestruck and unbelievably grateful, because it's more than I deserve – to make some kind of ending.

So to be clear: This is not really worse writing than my other chapters. It's about on par, I guess. It's just not my style and ability anymore, but if you liked what came before, it's in the same vein. However, this chapter is only partially finished. When I get to the end of my hand-written material, I'll give you the summary I had written up before hand, because I had this loosely planned. I regret that it took me so very long to get this out, and again, I apologize for the inconvenience and the state of this chapter. Yuu Yuu Hakusho just isn't for me any more. I probably won't be starting any more fanfiction, and even finishing my other one (in a fandom that I am still interested in, although it's not the one that pushed out Yuu Yuu Hakusho) is kind of uncertain. I'm working more on original fiction, which likely won't be posted.

So again, thank you to every reader and every reviewer. I adore you all. If you would rip this chapter/story (or, you know, this author's note if you really want to) to shreds, I would immensely appreciate it. But you don't have to. Even a one word review is enough, or no review at all.

Thank you and goodbye.


Disclaimer: Yuu Yuu Hakusho belongs not to me. Nor do any characters contained herein.

Warning: This chapter contains material that some readers may find disagreeable.

Lunarmercury Presents:

Voleurs

Chapter Seven: End

Hiei awoke on cold, hard stone. At first, he had no idea where he was – his initial thoughts were how unlike his small tent this was, or even the somewhat rocky ground he typically slept on outside. He didn't mind so much, though. The stone may have been hard, but the cool smoothness was soothing to his aching, heated flesh. It took him a few moments to reorient himself. Why did he hurt so?

Then his memory started to work. The raid on the bandits, the lack of survivors, his stint with the detectives…

Kurama. Red hair and bright green eyes flashed through his mind. Kurama, who had kept secret his shameful injuries. Kurama, who had tended to him in his poison induced illness. Kurama, who in just one week had managed to befriend him more thoroughly than perhaps any other person.

But this wasn't Kurama's room. Perhaps he had collapsed at the temple? Surely they would have moved him to a futon – but they couldn't, they couldn't get to him, there was a force-shield…

Hiei's eyes snapped open as the last memory flashed into place. Force-shield. Battle. Yukina! He jerked upwards abruptly. What had happened? He knew he had been knocked out, but after that…

"Welcome back."

Hiei's head snapped around. He knew that voice – that cold voice, the voice that had laughed as a pathetic ten-year-old struggled beneath its owner's bulk.

"Impossible…" he breathed, his crimson eyes widening steadily. "You're dead!" His shocked look morphed into a hateful, heated glare. His lips pulled back in a snarl, teeth bared as an ugly look overtook his features.

"Clearly, your information was wrong," the man drawled mockingly. "Though it did seem we died, here we are, safe and sound… all of those important enough to be saved." The last words were spoken with a sneer, and Hiei flinched at their implication.

'Lebia…' he thought mournfully. Lebia was dead, really dead for good – yet here stood his old master. The leader of the bandits, the man who tormented him for all of these years, stood in front of him, whole and uninjured.

"Well I'll fix the mistake!" Hiei hissed. He gave no warning before he attacked – but the man who stood in front of him was the one thief at his former home he had never been able to best. In his weakened, injured state, he didn't stand a chance.

Hiei fell painfully to the ground, having been literally knocked out of the air.

"So little time away, and already you've forgotten your place," Hiei's "master" said, affecting a scolding air. "I think perhaps you should relearn it…"

"You stay away from me!" Hiei said, panicked. Already, he had scrambled into a crouch. Maybe he couldn't stop what was going to happen, but he was going to fight.

"How enjoyable," the master smirked to himself. "It has been so long since someone put up a proper fight, and you always were so good at it."

Hiei shuddered and braced himself.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yukina tried again to get up from her chair. She was again unsuccessful.

"Please!" she pleaded, red eyes wide. "Please, I really want to help!"

"Absolutely not!" Kuwabara insisted firmly. "I, Kuwabara Kazuma, will fix this for Yukina-san! Don't worry about anything!"

Yukina sighed to herself and decided to give up. She wasn't going to succeed, and she was a little woozy from getting knocked out.

Kurama, of course, noticed the sigh. "Yukina-san, are you feeling better now?"

"Oh! Yes, much better, thank you," she assured him. "I just…I'm so worried about Hiei-san. He was ever so kind to me, and the thought that he might be hurt…" Her eyes shone brightly with unshed tears.

"Don't worry, Yukina-san," Kurama said, trying to placate the Koorime before Kuwabara murdered him for making her cry. "We'll find him and bring him back, I promise."

She sniffled a bit, then nodded. "I'm going to go lay out my healing supplies," she murmured softly, hurrying out into the hallway.

It was short work gathering the cloth and salves and various other supplies, but she allowed her mind to wander, extending the task. Placing the supplies around the futon she made up for Hiei, she handled each object with care, her hands lingering on the bottles and packages. At length, after she sat there limply staring into space, she reached into a kimono sleeve and pulled out a hiruseki. It was a birth-gem, hanging from a severed string. She had found it lying next to her upon waking, and so had immediately picked it up, thinking it was hers and that she would have to repair it. However, it didn't take long for her to realize that her hiruseki necklace was still intact, the gem resting on her chest like always. At first, she couldn't fathom where it had come from, but after some pondering, it hit her.

Hiei.

Hiei, the mysterious new guest who was so nice to her… Well, perhaps he didn't know she was his sister, or perhaps he thought that she would accept passing help from him, but never a brother – not when he had been her friends' enemy.

But Kurama had said that he was forced into it, and he was so terribly sweet… her hand tightened around the gem. She would return it and get the truth. Her brother was not escaping her now.

Mind made up, she set to work repairing the damaged necklace.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Botan-san," Kurama said politely. "What brings you here?"

"Koenma-sama has a message for you," Botan informed them in her normal, chipper voice. She extended her hand, a small disc flat on her palm. It gave a small whir, Koenma's image floating above it.

"This mission is an incredibly serious one," he began in his odd, quasi-toddler voice.

"Aren't they always?" Yuusuke muttered sarcastically. Kurama could have sworn he saw the recording glare in Yuusuke's general direction.

"As you are no doubt aware, the survivor you brought back from your previous mission has been kidnapped."

Yuusuke opened his mouth, to make another sarcastic comment, but Kurama held up a hand, forestalling him.

"It has already been several hours since this happened, most of them dedicated to taking down the kekkai surrounding the temple. In this time, we have managed to locate the enemy's new base of operations. Your mission is to break in there and rescue Hiei. It is short notice, but he has been helping us plan. As such, he knows everything. It is imperative that we retrieve him before they learn our plans from him. Botan will open a portal and deposit you near the base. I would recommend stealth."

Without so much as a word of good-bye, the image shut off, leaving the tantei to gape.

"I believe I should go alone," were the first soft words spoken. Their heads snapped to Kurama.

"What?" Yuusuke cried. "No way! That's way too dangerous!"

"You heard Koenma, Yuusuke!" Kurama snapped. "This requires stealth. I am a master thief. I can rescue him without anyone ever knowing I was there."

Yuusuke scowled, but Kurama continued on before he could speak.

"Furthermore," he continued, his voice calm, "I will be taking one of the pocket communicators with me. If there is a problem, I will contact you." He turned to Botan. "Shall we go?"

And with that, he strode off, leaving Botan to scurry after him and Yuusuke to stand there for a few seconds, stunned, before following, ranting about how it was too dangerous. Kuwabara, taking offense at being left out, decided that he wanted to accompany them – after all, it was a mission and he was a tantei…

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Just over an hour later, Kurama crept towards the castle alone. He had left Kuwabara and Yuusuke still yelling (at each other, in fact; the two always manage to fight about something).

In all honesty, it didn't look like it would be a very difficult job – just the sort of thing he would like to dust off his skills. However…

However, he would much rather be dusting off his skills by retrieving a gem than a friend.

Taking a deep breath, Kurama ran through a checklist one last time, before scaling the wall. Dropping lightly into the courtyard where the soldiers practiced, he stole along unseen. He chose an unlocked window, then crept inside, plants informing him of the lack of guards in that particular stretch of hallway.

Cautiously, Kurama searched room after room. He had started out where he thought the prisoners were kept, but Hiei was nowhere to be found. Eliminating one wing, he moved on to the other. Halfway down the third hall, a door swung open to reveal a tiny room holding only a small, naked form sprawled on the floor.

"Hiei," Kurama breathed, rushing to his friend's side. The petite frame was torn and bruised, body covered in blood and face covered in pain. Gently, he draped his coat over his friend. Kurama started to lift Hiei up, so as to better wrap the coat around him, when Hiei's eyes fluttered open. His gaze immediately landed on Kurama and he simply stared for a moment, uncomprehending.

"Ku…" he rasped out, before a coughing fit overtook him. Blood trickled from the edge of his mouth, and Kurama's concern for the hi-youkai – already high – skyrocketed.

"Shhh," he soothed. "Don't talk. I'm here to take you home, and we'll get you all healed up before coming back and killing them all – for real this time." He had finished wrapping Hiei in the coat by this time, but one thin arm stole its way out of the confines. Hiei clutched at Kurama, burying his face in his shirt and trembling. Kurama rocked him and soothed him the best he could, before murmuring, "We have to go." He felt Hiei's nod, but the small demon made no motion or movement. Gently, Kurama scooped him in his arms and spirited him away to the temple.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yukina stared down at the sleeping figure in the futon. Her hand gently stroked the spiked, black and white hair. Her tears had stopped falling about fifteen minutes after she finished healing Hiei, but every so often, she would sniffle, or the remnants of a sob would wash through her. In her free hand, Yukina clutched her twin's tear gem, vowing silently to give it back as soon as he woke.

Of course, given that she inwardly re-affirmed that vow every five minutes, it was no surprise that Hiei should happen to stir right after that thought. It was also no surprise – to Yukina, at least – that her nerve threatened to fail her as her twin's matching eyes blinked open. Noticing him looking around with a confused air, she softly informed him, "You're at Genkai's temple."

His eyes immediately snapped to her, and while she was not pleased to see the fear they contained, she was pleased that the fear dissipated immediately upon seeing her. She smiled kindly at him before saying, "I have something to return to you." She withdrew the necklace, then slipped it about his neck.

"Yukina," he started, a tone she couldn't quite place in his voice. "Yukina, I–"

She cut him off. Yes, she did know the tone – fear and anxiety and hope, all of the emotions currently roiling in her stomach. Removing the finger she had placed on his lips, her smile widened a bit.

"It's okay," she told him. "You've been through a lot, you don't have to say anything."

"No, it's–" he cut himself off this time, shaking his head, before starting again, more quietly. "I didn't know how long I could stay." He lifted his previously downcast eyes up to meet hers. "I just, I didn't want to get your hopes up. I didn't want to give you a brother, only to have him be one you didn't want – or one you did want, and then have to leave."

Unable to say anything through her tears, Yukina simply wrapped her arms around her brother in a hug, and Hiei returned it as best he could.


Summary: Hiei stays with Kurama for a couple more weeks as he heals. They grow yet closer, and Hiei works on coming to terms with the trauma he suffered and healing his mental and emotional injuries as well as his physical. The group then reconvenes to plan how to infiltrate and kill the master. They eventually succeed, in glorious Spirit Detective fashion, meaning not at all according to plan and with a lot of explosions and improvising. Yuusuke and Kuwabara become separated from Kurama and Hiei. We follow the latter group, who meet up with Hiei's old master (who is, after all, not the master of the entire plot – they've been answering to another group with its own ruler). After an arduous battle and a near-mental breakdown (coupled with some not entirely sane attacks) from Hiei, they succeed in dealing him a messy and painful death. They then meet up with Yuusuke and Kuwabara, who have defeated the big bad at serious risk to life and limb. The day is saved, they all return to human world, everybody's happy.

In the end, Hiei flits between worlds, enjoying his freedom – a long time in coming – in the demon world, while visiting Kurama and staying in the temple with Yukina during his frequent visits to human world. It's implied that, were the detectives to be called again to deal with burgeoning apocalypses and whatnot, Hiei would be part of that group.

Happily ever after.

Until the next adventure.