author's notes: This chapter would've been written much, much faster if my sister had actually told me about Tokyo-Disney as I requested, instead of just how boring, crowded, and overpriced the place was. Bad sister!

It was very hard to grow anything in the concrete wasteland that was Ishiyama. But the groundskeeper/janitor, Kurama, somehow managed. A few blades of green grass barely poked through a crack in the cement, and Kurama gave them a boost of energy. He figured that anything that had the tenacity to grow around here deserved all the help it could get. There were also a few wayward stunted trees that were all twisted and gnarly, as if it was physically painful to be present so close to the school. Kurama also gave these some bursts of his demonic energy, which only made the trees grow more twisted and malevolent, just as the woods in the Makai so often did. Oh well – at least the poor trees were trying.

Kurama did his best to keep the bushes neat and clean, but they were often victims to the rampaging roughhousing of the students during their schoolyard fights. They often tripped and tore through the bushes, breaking off limbs and uprooting the more tender plants. But boys (and girls) would be boys (even the girls), so Kurama would merely sigh and make the needed repairs.

Most of the students avoided Kurama. It was easy enough to do – he was soft-spoken and calm, which should have stuck out like a sore thumb in a place like Ishiyama, but Kurama somehow managed to blend in the background. He was unassuming and nonthreatening as he hid beneath the wide-brimmed straw hat and didn't interfere with students' activities. He often went unnoticed as he worked his way across the campus, cleaning up one patch of foul graffiti followed by patching up a set of holes made by someone's fist, head, or other thrown body part. Kurama didn't challenge the students, and the students didn't challenge him.

There's a lot of notches to be made in one's belt, but to beat up the gardener? That would just be pathetic. Really.

"Pssst. Kurama."

Kurama didn't look up from the rose bush he was coaxing into minding better. He had pulled his hair up in to a sloppy ponytail because the roses sometimes liked to snag at his hair. So far, they had also snagged eight different unsuspecting students with suddenly vicious thorns upon instantly-long branches. Probably out of vengeance for all the times that said unsuspecting students decided they couldn't wait to reach the urinals before answering the distressing call of nature. "You know you're not supposed to be smoking on school grounds, Yuusuke."

"Fuck that. If you guys wanted the school nurse to be better behaved, you wouldn't have picked me. Besides, I'd've made a better home economical instructor than Kuwabara. Seriously – when was the last time any of us actually saw him balancing his own checkbook without using his fingers for adding and subtracting? I'm the one who cooks in and runs his own ramen restaurant, and very successfully at that."

Kurama sighed and buried his face in his hands. "Yuusuke. Being the school nurse gives you greater access and freedom to move around inside the campus, which is what you need, detective. Besides, you lost the required two out of three rounds of rock paper scissors."

Yuusuke grumbled something under his breath that sounded like, "My detective status was retired, you asshole." Kurama decided that he wouldn't even dignify that with any acknowledgement. "And I still don't know why I couldn't infiltrate as one of the students."

That really didn't deserve the dignity of a response, either, but the look of incredulous disdain that Kurama gave Yuusuke was viscerally satisfying.

"What?" Yuusuke asked defensively. "It's not like I graduated high school last time. Just thought it would be nice to have that chance again, you know? Anyway, I came to tell you about Botan running off with that Hilda chick."

Kurama looked at Yuusuke again. He was leaning against the newly-repaired brick wall that someone had crashed through, a lit cigarette dangling from his lips and his arms crossed in front of him. Yuusuke refused to own up to anything regarding the damaged wall, but the roses had happily tattled already to Kurama. Kurama had to silently agree that Yuusuke would've been his second-to-last choice for a nurse (Hiei was definitely last in that regard). "On a demerit mission?" Kurama asked carefully as he brushed away red hairs clinging to his dirty face.

"Yeah. Botan called me to find out where Hilda was hanging out this morning. Hilda is apparently going to be babysitting Shura while Yomi, Binky Breath, and Mukuro continue to come up with more red tape."

"It's a good program and you know it. And I trust Yomi's decisions – he wouldn't be my representative if I didn't."

"That wasn't why I'm telling you, Kurama. Apparently, Hilda will be acting as a babysitter for Shura so he can go to Tokyo-Disney with Toukan and Hideo-chan."

"Nothing wrong with that. The boy will enjoy the human amusement park rides."

"Still not the point. Clowns, Kurama. There's going to be clowns there."

Kurama quietly rocked back on his heels. He regarded the roses – they looked a little fuller, since they had agreed that they did feel somewhat naked without more leaves. He slowly removed his battered and filthy gardening gloves before picking up his trowel and standing. "I shall be taking the remainder of the day off from work," he said as he walked past Yuusuke.

"There, see, I knew you'd appreciate the gravity of the situation that Botan didn't."

oOoOoOoOo

In the time that Hilda had been in the Ningenkai, she hadn't visited Tokyo-Disney. It wasn't something that had interested her, especially if Oga and Baby Be'el weren't inclined to visit. Hilda despised crowds of demons; she hated crowds of stinking, ignorant humans even more. Even though school was still largely in session, there were still a lot of people at the amusement park, especially the tourists.

"I want cotton candy," Shura said, tugging at her ribbons. Hilda refrained from smacking him. The boy had taken the liberty of addressing her chest – Hilda could forgive that, since it was naturally where his eyelevel was – but he also had the utter audacity to not keep his hands to himself. He touched and poked at everything: displays, his companions, food, other people, garbage, even dead things (a rat, choked on a peanut, it appeared). Hilda had only spent an hour with the children, but was already much more appreciative that Baby Be'el was such a quiet, demure baby who was thankfully not a tactile learner

"Nachos sound better," Hideo said firmly. Hilda was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was surrounded by children of S Class demons – or who were themselves already S Class, in the case of Shura. She hadn't sensed his power with the limiter when surrounded by Mukuro and Yomi, but now that they were away from such powerhouses and surrounded by wimpy humans, Hilda could feel the void where his power should be.

It was a very large void. She could swear it winked at her when she turned her attention on it.

She also felt something strained and off about Tousan, as if he wasn't so much a watered-down version of demon, but that he was a jumble of differences vying for attention all at once. When riding the teacups and he had leaned against Hilda, she sensed fire and demon. As he vomited the remains of his hotdog after the teacup ride, she sensed ice and human (humans were disgusting creatures with far too many leaks, Hilda was certain). Now, while looking rather green in the face as his companions demanded more food, she sensed light and other.

Even though she was the daughter of Urameshi Yuusuke – and was herself a direct descendant of the Mozaku – Urameshi Hideo felt all-human to Hilda, at least physically and spiritually. It didn't mean that Hideo was normal, though. In fact, Hideo was more demonic in nature than the actual demon boys, a picture-perfect Mozaku. She had no problem using elbows, knees, and the steel-toed combat boots to move through the crowd, much to the dismay of the gentle Toukan and the jealousy of I-promised-to-behave Shura. Hideo even bit someone's arm when the stranger carelessly reached across in front of her nose.

Hilda felt proud of Hideo. Perhaps it was the scrappy young girl hidden so deep within Hilda's personal psyche that appreciated seeing a fellow scrappy young girl.

Then again, Hilda considered as Tousan borrowed her water bottle without asking to rinse out his mouth, it was more likely due to how Hilda was herself barely restrained from killing (or biting) someone.

"Come on!" Hideo declared, tugging at Tousan's shirttails. "Let's go show Shura Toontown!" She turned to Shura. "It's really awesome," she said. "They've got live cosplay."

"And mild rides," Tousan said with a relieved smile as he followed the tugging. He offered Hilda back her water bottle, but she refused with a shake of head and hand.

"We can come back to these rides though, right?" Shura asked. "Because so far the rides have been the best part."

"Toontown is also really great," Hideo said. "There's all kinds of little stores, and food vendors. Like nachos. They have the best nachos." Her voice dropped into a whisper. "Plus, the costumes are really great. My favorite is Roger Rabbit."

Shura looked thoughtful for a moment, and then he cast a sideways glance at Tousan. "Very well. It would all give us the opportunity to recuperate."

Hilda sighed, and told herself that a fifty credit mission was clearly going to have its ups and downs. And she kept telling herself that an hour later, even after she dragged her charges to the top of the Ferris wheel to escape the Youki fire burning Toontown to the ground.

Nonetheless, she secretly cheered as Hideo punched Shura so hard that the boy nearly toppled off his perch. "You killed Roger Rabbit!" Hideo screamed with a vicious shake of her fist.