Konnichiwa, Sokono here, I just wanted to thank-you for reading in advance!!! Just putting in my disclaimer here, and quote "I do not own and will never own any of the Harry Potter and Yu Yu Hakusho characters, cries even Hiei. Nor do I own the inserts form the fifth book I may put into this story." But the plot is mine, mostly. Like I mention you may be seeing lines right out of the fifth Harry Potter book. That is because I am trying to go with the events in the fifth book as closely as possible. But at chapter thirty-two in HP5 and on, all hell will break lose! For Yu Yu Hakusho the story takes place some time after the Dark Tournament and the incented with Yakumo.
Please enjoy, and Review!!!
KittyDragonPhoenixFox
Chapter Nine
The evening sun filed through the cream curtains lining the western window of the small apartment. Lined around the creamy white walls were lightly hued pieces of future; a small couch sat against the wall with two small glass cabinets on either end with a flourishing basket of flowers on their tops. Across from the couch were two light brown chairs covered with small cream white hued cushions with a small coffee table in between them. Between the two chairs was a doorway that lead to a smaller room that was a step down with a carpet upon the hard wood floor; several pairs of slippers were lined against the wall. Beyond the hard oak door one could hear foot steps and a muffled conversation that was gradually getting louder. There was clicking at the door handle, and the lock turned, and the door slowly opened to allow entry to three people.
"Like I was saying Ms. M. there's nothing to thank me for, I'm just being a friend." A teenaged boy with gelled back black hair was saying sheepishly as he went through the fresh hold sliding off his shoes and slipping on a pair of slippers. He adjusted the two paper bags he was carrying as he stepped aside to allow the other two to enter. "So where's the kitchen Shuichi?"
"Down the hall and to the left." A boy with long red hair and dazzling green eyes said also carrying two brown paper bags. "Do you need any help mother?" He asked the middle aged brown haired women who was leaning heavily on a cane as she locked the front door.
"No, I'm alright Shuichi, you shouldn't worry so much or you'll be worn down like a middle aged man when you're thirty." She said playfully as she walked past her son. "All you need to be concerned about right now is how much fun you and your friends are going to have tonight at the festival."
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay home and –"
"I've already told you I'll be perfectly fine. I'm a fully grown woman and I can look after myself for a couple of hours." They entered the kitchen where the black haired boy was unloading his grocery bags. "Thank you for all your help Yusuke dear."
"No problem Ms. M." Yusuke said smiling as he set down a jug of orange juice down on the counter. "Just glad I could help. Shuichi, where's your room? I could grab your Hakama (1) while you finish putting away the rest of this stuff."
"Through the living room, down the hall, third door on the right." Shuichi said emptying his bags as well. "Here's the mail mother." He handed her a fair thick stack of envelopes.
"Thank you Shuichi," Ms. Minamino said taking the stack and sitting down.
"Mother, are you positive you don't need any help around the apartment tonight? You were just recently released from the hospital."
"I'm fine dear, the doctors wouldn't have released me three weeks ago if they didn't think I couldn't handle myself. There is nothing to worry your self about; there wasn't even that much the doctors had to worry about either." Ms. Minamino said as she flipped through the stack of envelopes in her hand as her son put away their shopping.
"Nothing to worry about?" Shuichi said looking at his mother in disbelief. "Mother, you were caught in a burning house! In gulfed in a cloud of carbon dioxide! You had third degree burns!"
"Yes I know that. Oh that reminds me, Shuichi dear, if you ever run into a burning building again for any reason what so ever, I'll ground you for the rest of your life. Understand?" She smiled at her son who was just staring back at her as if she had just grown a second head.
"Mother….."
"No, I don't want to hear any more on the subject, you are grounded from this apartment for at least five hours. I don't want you anywhere near here until around midnight." She said sternly looking at her son's surprised face. "You've been so stressed these past few months with the fire, the insurance company and looking for a new house. You need to relax and act like the teenager you are."
"I wouldn't argue with that Ku…. Shuichi, I would love it if my mom grounded me from the house and ordered me to have fun." Yusuke said carrying a plastic bag with the desired clothing folded in it. "Are you ready to leave now? We still need to run by my place to get my Hakama before we head over to Kuwabara's."
Before Shuichi had the chance to answer his mother spoke for him. "Yes, he's ready to leave now, just make sure to get him home before tomorrow morning." She said smiling as her sixteen year old son pouted.
"That's great! Come on," Yusuke said grabbing his friend's arm and pulling him toward the door.
"Oh, Shuichi wait! You have a letter." Ms. Minamino said chasing the two boys into the living holding out the envelope. "It looks like it got lost in the mail. It's dated back in July. You never told me one of your friends went to America."
"What?" Shuichi said taking the envelope, the address was written in both Japanese and English as was the return address. The red headed teen looked down at it in shock, written down as the return recipient was the name 'Hiei Jaganshi.' Yusuke looked over his friend's shoulder to get a better look at the envelope, but the red head quickly snapped out of his shock and shoved the envelop in his pocket. "Oh, yeah. He left the day before the fire to visit his…. Aunt…… in…. Nevada. I'll read it a little later."
"Alright, come home in one piece, good bye Yusuke."
"Bye Ms. M." Yusuke said as his friend steered him out the door, they remained silent until they were completely out the apartment complex. "Alright Kurama! Let go, you're squeezing my arm so hard you're gonna leave a bruise."
"Oh, sorry Yusuke." Kurama said pulling out the envelope his mother had giving him. "It's just….. The letter is from Hiei."
"WHAT?!" Yusuke yelled causing several people to turn and look at them. He grabbed the envelope and pulled it from Kurama's hands to get a better look at it. "That lousy back stabbing bastard! Why in hell would he send you a letter now? It's kind of late for apologies."
"Calm down Yusuke."
"You know, it's probably some sort of demand or something, like 'give me control of Spirit World or I'll blow up the U.S.' or some kind of crap like that."
"I'm opening it."
"Or he wants us to open a portal to the Demon World for him or he'll kill a bunch of nuns and babies and puppy dogs."
"'Once you figure out what happened, and stop chasing me, I'll come back.'"
"Or, or he wants some other object from the Spirit World and is treating to blow up some elementary school. That bastard!"
"Yusuke, were you listening?"
"Or…… maybe an old folks home."
"Yusuke? Yusuke. YUSUKE WILL YOU QUIT YOU RANTING AND LISTEN TO ME?" The two boys stopped walking at the traffic light, with about twenty people up and down the street looking at them.
"You said something Kurama?" The Spirit Detective of the Human World said looking blankly at his friend as they crossed the street. The reincarnated fox demon sighed.
"Yes, the letter says: Once you figure out what happened, and stop chasing me, I'll come back. Yusuke, you know how I've had the feeling that we've missed something…." He motioned to the letter. "This confirms we've lost a piece of the puzzle."
Yusuke had taken the letter and was looking over the single sentence. "How could we miss anything Kurama?" He said frowning down at paper before giving it back to his friend. "I mean, you said yourself that the fire that nearly killed your mom was exactly like the fire Hiei can create. Keiko, Botan, Yukina and Grandma all said that it was Hiei who had attacked them up at the temple. Hell, he even boasted about nearly killing your mom and throwing Yukina through the freaking wall and chasing the others and hurting them when we caught him breaking into Enma's vault!"
"I know that Yusuke and keep your voice down." The red head said putting the letter back into his pocket. "I admit it is rather… impossible, but after having time to actually think about the situation, I don't think that it was Hiei that really did all those things… There were some things that were off, and several unanswered questions."
"You think? Or you hope?" Yusuke said raising his eyebrows. "I don't want to believe that he could have done all this either but the facts are staring us in the face. Hell I would even take him being insane or being controlled when he did all that crap! But, he seemed rather sane when he was taunting us, and you yourself said that if someone was controlling him he wouldn't be able to move, speak and use his powers as fluently as he did."
"I know that Yusuke. It's preposterous to think this with the evidence that there is that he turned against us, but my instincts are telling me we still don't know the full story." Kurama sighed as they entered the apartment complex in which Yusuke lived. "He talked like Hiei, walked like Hiei, acted like Hiei, fought like Hiei, used Hiei's powers… There is absolutely nothing that points to it not being Hiei. Except for a few little things…"
"A few little things don't stand a chance against all the other crap we got against him." Yusuke said bitterly, not liking how his friend was trying to convince himself that they hadn't been horrible betrayed by another close friend. Granted he wanted him to be right, but everything was looking to be against him.
"Yusuke," Kurama said in a warning. "One of the things that just didn't seem right to me was his scent. Hiei's natural scent is as particular to him as the scent of roses is to me. But I don't remember ever smelling his particular blend of burnt pine with the underlying of a sort of lilac scent. Not until we chased him out of the Spirit World into the Human World. Or in the fire, no matter what he burns that scent always lingers lightly in the air."
"Kurama, we were angry and we were trying kill him, his scent would have been the last thing on your mind. You probably blocked it out while you trying rip his arm off. And you were more concerned about your mother at the time to sniff out different scents." Yusuke looked over at his friend as they walked up the stairs to his floor. The fox demon's head was bent towards the ground his eyes not really seeing his feet.
"You have a point, the scent could have been there the entire time and I just didn't notice." He said nodding his head. "But, he got away from us, he could have escaped easily to the Human World and we could have lost all track of him, then why would he come back around to us and try to talk to us? Especially after admitting to everything he has done, and try to play stupid with us?"
"Maybe he wanted to mess with out heads?" Yusuke supported as they stopped in front of his apartment and he pulled out his key to unlock the door.
"When he knew full well that we wouldn't listen, and that we were aiming to kill? It should be in his survival instincts to not mess with anyone in the rage we were in. And why would he send me this letter as well? It doesn't add up."
"Maybe he really wanted to mess with our heads? He'd know you'd read to deeply in what ever he does, he might be trying to through you off." Yusuke added as they entered the building. The sound of the evening news drifted over to them from the living room.
"Back already Yusuke?" Atsuko Urameshi asked from the living room couch as the two boys passed her.
"Just need to grab my outfit, Keiko and the others want this to be as 'traditional' as they can make it seeing as it's Yukina's first festival." Yusuke said without even pausing as he went to the back of the apartment to grab his out Hakama.
"Fine, just try to be home by midnight alright?" She said watching her son move out of sight waving his hand as a sign that he heard her. She turned her head to until she saw Kurama standing by the wall holding his own Hakama in a plastic bag. "Hey there Shuichi, how's your mom?"
"She's doing much better, thank you for asking." Kurama said politely.
"That's good, you know, our old place caught on fire too, it was one of those freak fires nearly two years ago. A little after Yusuke car accident, he told you about that right?"
"Yes, he did."
"Yeah, he was in the apartment at the time, Keiko came running and dragged his unconscious body out the door." Atsuko smiled to herself as her son came back in the room carrying his own plastic bag. "You know it's kind of sad that she'll risk her life in burning building to save him, but his lousy carcass can't even mange to tell her three simple words."
"Keiko knows fully well how I feel about her, and there's no room for you to be butting in. Come on Ku – Shuichi, they're probably wondering where we are." Yusuke said grumpily passing his mother who smacked him over the head.
"What? No 'good bye mom, see you in a couple of hours'?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, sheesh." The black haired teen rubbed his head as he glared at his emerald eyed friend who had started to chuckle at his pain. "Shut up."
"Now what do you say?" Atsuko cooed from her seat on the couch.
"Bye mom, see you in a couple of hours." Yusuke said sarcastically still rubbing his head as he walked over to the door.
"Hey wait, you got mail Yusuke." Atsuko said grabbing an envelope from the table in front of her and handing it to Yusuke.
"Kay," Yusuke said grabbing it and shoving it into his coat pocket as he left the apartment with Kurama and headed off to Kuwabara's house.
After about twenty minutes of walking and bus ridding they finally reach their distention. As they headed up the walk to the front door they heard shouting, two angry voices in deep verbal combat. Yusuke was the one to push the doorbell, the yelling did not cease but the sound of foot steps could be heard coming to the door.
"Ah, Yusuke-san, Kurama-san! Good evening!" Yukina said smiling as she opened the door to let the two inside. "Everyone is in the Living Room."
"SHIZURU!!! Watch where you're putting those pins!!!" Kuwabara's voice could be heard yelling from down the hall.
"Shizuru-san is fixing Kazuma's Hakuma; one of the side seams came undone." Yukina said sweetly as two boys took off their shoes and put on slippers. "Oh, Kurama, Kazuma received a letter earlier today he wanted to talk to you about. He seemed rather upset when he got it."
"Really? Do you know who it was from?"
"Sorry, I don't."
"YOU'RE DOING THAT ON PURPOSE AREN'T YOU?!"
"SHUT UP AND HOLD STILL! IT'S YOUR OWN FAULT FOR WAITING UNTILL TODAY TO TELL ME YOUR RIP IT!"
"THERE'S STILL ISN'T ANY REASON WHY YOU SHOULD BE JABBING ME WITH THOSE NEEDLES!"
"WHO EVER SAID I WAS DOING IT BY ACCIDENT?"
"Could you tone it down a bit so we don't lose our hearing?" Yusuke said rubbing his ear as they entered the room. Kuwabara was standing on a chair with his arms up wearing his deep blue and striped Hakama with Shizuru to his left with a sewing kit.
"Oh, hey Yusuke, hey Kurama." The orange haired teen said when he noticed them.
"There, I'm done, take it off before you rip it again." Shizuru said with one last stab of her needle into her little brother's leg who gave a shout.
"Oh, Kazuma, are you alright?" Yukina asked going over to the boy as he pulled off his outfit to reveal a white t-shirt and blue jeans underneath it.
"I'm alright my sweet," Kuwabara said getting all mushy as he clasped Yukina's hands in his. "Having you near me is all I need to heal from any ailment, my love."
"Um… that's nice, but are you sure you're alright? You seem rather warm."
"Come here lover boy," Shizuru said grabbing her love sick brother by the ear and pulling him away from the Koorime. "Since you ripped your Hakuma and made me fix it, you're going to make me some tea. And you better not mess it up." She dragged him off to the kitchen, passing the two leaving it with a tray of cups and cookies.
"Look who finally decided to show up Keiko. I guess being late is better then never." Botan said playfully as she put her tray down on the table and sitting down with Keiko.
"Just be happy we decided to show up." Yusuke said plopping down on the love seat across from them and grabbed one of the baked goods.
"It was my fault that we were late." Kurama said sitting down as well. "My mother needed help getting groceries up to the apartment from the car."
"Oh, Kurama-san, how is your mother? Is she doing any better?" Yukina asked pouring tea for everyone before sitting down.
"Yes, she is doing much better, thank you for asking." Kurama said.
"It's just so horrible. I just don't understand why Hiei-san would do the things that he did." She looked down at the tea cup in her hands; the room was over powered by a dismal tenseness. "He was always so nice me."
"Yeah, well of course he would have been nice to you." Yusuke said savagely, he stared down at his half eaten cookie before throwing it back down on the table. "The least the bastard could do was being civil with his own little sister!" This statement was met with a very stunned silence in which Yukina dropped her cup. Breaking china filled the air as Yusuke came back to his senses. "I didn't say that."
"H….he's….. Hiei-san?" Yukina was looking at Yusuke stunned at this piece of information. Kurama sighed deeply before promptly smacking Yusuke across the back of his head.
"NO! I just…. um…."
"You idiot! And he was worried I would tell her?!" Botan yelled across the table at the stupefied teen that was looking back and forth from Kurama and Botan for help.
"Who was afraid you would tell who what?" Kuwabara asked coming back into the room with Shizuru behind him sipping her tea and going back to a cigarette. He noticed the petrified Yukina staring down at the remains of her cup. "Yukina? What's wrong my sweet?" He said swooping down beside her.
"H-Hiei-san…" She said still in shock.
"What? What about the runt? What did he do now? Did he send you a letter too?" Kuwabara said now taking the offense. "Did he threaten you? Don't worry my sweet, I, your night in shiny armor shall protect you!"
"Letter? What do you mean by that Kuwabara?" Kurama asked his attention diverted to the teen, but no one seemed to hear him.
"Ah, who spilt the beans?" Shizuru said looking around the room, from Botan's and Kurama's worried faces, to Yusuke's horrified one, to Keiko's angry one and to Yukina's shocked expression. "Let me guess, it was Yusuke, wasn't it?"
"You knew about it too?" Keiko said shocked looking up at the older women.
"Yeah, they watched the tape here."
"Tape?" Yukina said looking up at her, the muttering Kuwabara was emitting stopped as he looked around the room and saw that he missed something. It was Yusuke who explained.
"Yeah, well you see Yukina, Koenma sent me a tape to explain the mission of rescuing you."
"Yeah I remember that." Kuwabara said looking around the room, confused with the different expressions. "He told us the location, showed us pictures and told us about the tears and how we were to save the sweet and innocent Yukina. But what that's got anything to do with the runt?"
"Oh Kazuma, you were in here." Yukina said turning to the human teen.
"Don't tell him, it'll kill em." Yusuke said suddenly.
"Hiei is Yukina's brother." Shizuru said puffing on her cancer stick as she sat down. "Congratulations, you're the last to know." Her brother's face sank into one of complete and total horror.
"WHAT?! HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!"
"It was on the end of the tape, you ran off before Koenma mentioned it." Botan said sighing. "I'm really sorry Yukina, we wanted to tell you. But Hiei made us swear that we wouldn't tell you."
'Or rather threaten to kill us if we did.' Four members of this little group thought simultaneously.
"So you all knew? Before we even met?" Yukina asked quickly taken aback by this new piece of information.
"I DIDN'T!" Kuwabara squealed in his shock.
"I didn't either." Keiko said gently to Yukina before turning to Yusuke and smacking him over the head. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you Keiko. Can you ever forgive me? I know, even though I had a temperamental, homicidal, sadistic, psychotic, mind reading, fire demon threatening to slice me into little bits and feeding me to low level demons if I ever told a soul his secret, I should have told you." Yusuke said sarcastically rolling his eyes.
Keiko glared at him before attending to her demon friend who was crying with Botan's help. "Oh come on Yukina, it's not that bad. At least you know who his is now."
"No, that's not it," Yukina said looking up to her smiling. "These are tears of happiness. I had always hoped my brother would be someone with a strong spirit and to have a lot of self confidences, I wished he would be like Hiei-san, I'm just so happy." She wiped away her unshed tears and started to pick up her fallen hiruseki stones. "I can't wait until I see him again."
The little group exchanged worried looks before looking back to the little Koorime girl who was glowing with happiness.
"Um, Yukina, you are aware with his current crimes to the Spirit World, when he's caught he'll be lucky to get out of prison in the next thousand years or so." Botan said gently patting the girls arm.
"What? Oh, there's nothing to worry about, he didn't do it, any of it." Yukina said putting her tears into an empty cup and started to pick the broken pieces of her original cup.
"Um, Yukina, I know you want to believe that he didn't do it, but you know as well as I do that it was Hiei who had attacked us." Keiko said gentle gesturing to her wrapped up arm. "He threw you through a wall, it's lucky that you weren't hurt to badly."
"I know that I said it was Hiei-san, he looked like him and the voice was the same, but it wasn't him, I know that now. If he is my brother then it couldn't have been, the emotions don't match up." She looked around the room and seeing the puzzled expressions she continued on. "Oh, well um. You see, since I was really little I always…. Um how do I say this…um, I guess you would say I had something like a second set of feelings. At times, no matter how happy I was I would feel really angry or very sad, mostly lonely. I would cry and not know why. One day I told my aunt, Rui-san, about these weird feelings that I was having, she brushed it off saying it was just my imagination.
"Some time after that in the middle of the night I felt so angry…" She looked down at her feet. "I did some things I couldn't control. The next day after apologizing to everyone Rui-san took me in another room and we talked. I explained to her the best I could about these feelings, it was then that she told me I had a brother. She said that it was possible that while we were in my mother's womb our energies could have crossed and made some kind of bond."
"That's possible, most often during the development of demon twins they can from physic bonds, like being able to hear the others thoughts or feel what the other is feeling." Kurama said thoughtfully looking at Yukina with a slight frown.
"Wait a second, Hiei said that you two were half siblings, same father different mothers." Yusuke said looking back and forth from Yukina and Kurama.
Yukina blinked at him slightly confused. "Well, we are half siblings but we're also twins. Despite what he told you, we have the same mother. My mother seemed to have gotten pregnant by a fire demon, Hiei-san's father, during her asexual pregnancy with me." (2)
"Asexual?" Yusuke asked looking at her dumbfounded. "You mean Koorime's don't need to…. Um….. need men to… have babies?"
"No we don't. My kind actually thinks the male race are horrible evil creatures, that's why it is a sin to lay with one, and that's why my brother was thrown from the island and why my mother was ostracized in the village." She looked down at her hands sadly. "That could have been why Hiei-san lied, those with Koorime blood are often not treated very kindly, he might have been trying to hide his heritage for his own safety." The two girls on either side of her hugged her tightly.
"Well that's interesting." Yusuke said rubbing the back of his neck. 'I wonder if Hiei's tears turn into hiruseki gems as well.' He thought looking at the little girl in front of him. "But, how does that whole being able to feel emotions thing prove that he didn't do it?"
"Oh," Yukina said looking up from her hands. "Well at the time we were attacked by the Hiei-san look alike, my other set of feelings, my brother's feelings, were rather annoyed." She frowned slight. "There was something agitating him, like a fly that keeps going around your head or a stain that won't come out, or a piece of food that you can't get off the counter." She closed her eyes and titled her head slightly as she tried to remember the events of two and a half months before hand. "The look on our attacker's face wasn't that innocent annoyed feeling I was getting. It was scary."
"So it's possible that it wasn't Hiei who did all that crap?" Yusuke looked around the room to find Kurama's hopeful face.
"That could be what he meant in the letter." The fox said nodding his head. "Kuwabara what did you mean when you referred to a letter earlier?" He asked just remembering what the teen had said.
"On the table, under the TV guide." Kuwabara muttered from his hunched depress position behind the couch.
Kurama moved the objects on the coffee table and found the torn envelope with a letter crammed into it, the writing and addresses on the front was the same as the one the fox demon had received earlier that day. He pulled out the letter with everyone in the room watching him. "'Once you figure out what happened, and stop chasing me, I'll come back.'"
"It's the same as the one you got today." Yusuke said looking over the red heads shoulder. "He must have really wanted us to get the message."
"Yusuke, have you looked at the letter your mother gave you yet?" Kurama asked the leader of their little group.
"Oh, um…" He pulled it out of his pocket and smoothed out the crinkles it had gotten form its unceremonious departure on his knee.
"He must have really wanted us to get the message." Shizuru said looking at the writing on the envelope before Yusuke opened it and read the message out loud. "He must have been desperate to send all three of you the same letter."
"Is it just me, or is anyone else starting to feel like dirt?" Yusuke asked staring at his letter.
Kurama was quiet for a moment as he thought over several things, but some strings still weren't tying together. "But how would he have known that somebody had impersonated him? He would have had to come by us first to find….." He stopped mid-sentence as he looked down at his cup. "Oh, dear. Botan, I need to go to the Spirit World." He stood up quickly.
"To tell Koenma-sama?" Botan asked slightly taken aback. "We could just us the communicator for that."
"No, I need to go the Security Office again."
"You wanna go back to their nutcases? Why? We've already reviewed the vault recordings a thousand times!" Yusuke whined getting up.
"Just come on, it shouldn't take to long, we'll be back in time to go the festival."
KittyDragonPhoenixFox
"Hey ladies! Look's who's back!" One of the girls on the other side of the room cooed as she leaned back in her chair. She was wearing blue jeans and a light lacy green shirt that her fairly dark shin peaked through, her long black hair was tied up in a ponytail that swayed down past her golden earring loops and pointed ears, into the mass of her black feathered wings. She winked one of her violet eyes at them. "Hello boys. Hey Botan."
The two other women in the room swiveled in their chairs to the door that Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, (who had to be forcefully dragged from the corner he had been mopping in after he found out that Hiei was Yukina's brother and that the Koorime people despised men) Koenma, and Botan had just came through. The closes one was right in front of them, and she was an Arctic Fox demon. She was wearing puffy white pants and a sleeveless white shirt that was a few shades lighter then her creamy skin, and the same color as her shoulder length white hair and fox ears. Her snowy tails swayed behind her as she looked over the group with brilliant sky blue eyes.
"Oh, what's this? Our thirty-ninth date and none of you brought flowers? You'll never keep a girlfriend like that." She purred.
"What? No chocolates either? You all really are bad boyfriends." The third women said from her corner. Her hair was unusual, it barely went past her ears and the left side of her head was blond while the right side was black. She was wearing dark blue dress slacks and a pink lacy top with a see through dark blue long sleeve over shirt. Her left eye was golden and the right was deep green. "At least my full-time boyfriend managed to get us dinner reservations for tonight."
"Oh, Syana, Sei taking you out tonight? Where to?" The raven demon asked turning to her.
"We're going to this little café in France with a beautiful view of the country side. He's really excited about it. They're famous for their chocolate and whip cream cake. It's amazing, you'd love Raven." Syana said smiling.
"Hmm, if only Shugo would take me to place like that. All I get are rock concerts and the Sizzler." Raven said with a wave of her hand.
"What a shame," the fox demon said waving her hand. "Usa loves taking me out on hikes into the forest and having picnics."
"You got lucky Yitsune." Raven said as her friends giggled.
"It's nice to see you too ladies." Koenma said walking into the room and looking around. In the center of the room was a circle of hundreds of floating computer screens imbedded into a circular wall of light blue energy that connected all of them together. Each of the girls was surrounded by a ring of light pink transparent keys that floated in midair and sat at even points around it so that you could have drawn a perfect equilateral triangle from their seats. On the computer screens were images from all over the Spirit World playing in real time: the vaults, the hallways the entrances, the prisons and the waiting area. Then there were some places out side of the Spirit World like known demon hang outs, known portals, and the homes of permitted demons that lived in the Human World.
"Sorry to disturbed you all again, but I need to view the records of happened on July 17." Kurama said politely walking over to Yitsune. "Do you still have the recordings of that day?"
"Cutie pie, if we told you once we've told a thousand times, we keep everything that is recorded until one year afterwards, then it's gets shipped to the Historic Holding, then they do what they want to it." Raven said with a wave of her hand. "You've already seen it what, a thousand times already?"
"Today will be one thousand and fifty-two." Syana supported from her corner. The girls chuckled at her comment.
"Could you just play it for us?" Kurama asked.
"Alright, don't know why, you could have already memorized with how many times you've seen, but as you wish." The girls started clicking away at their keys staring at the screens that hovered right in front of their circles. "From the top?"
"From the top."
The girls sighed as several screens moved aside and lined up in sequence as to how the show was to go on, they flashed and the show started. In the first screen Hiei walked into the frame and entered through the north entrance, the screens followed him up to the entrance hallway to King Enma's vault and he walked up to the guards. They started to exchange words.
"Sadly we don't audio on these things." Syana sighed watching the screens on her side of the technological cylinder. "I bet gelled head over there could have given us a colorful discussion to listen too."
"Ssssssssssshhhhhhh, the bad and bloody is about to happen. Oh look there's our boys." Yitsune said watching as the rest of the Rekai Tantei entered the castle as Hiei turned the guards into mince meat. The possibly fake demon entered the vault and started to rummage around the treasures, not even giving several sharp and deadly objects a second look.
"Why take a necklace? There were so many other things in there he could have taken, but he didn't." Kurama muttered as he watched the thief grab a small sliver object and stow it away in his cloak, after having inspected the vault and having the girls zoom in and much research later they discovered that the stolen artifact was a locket that could, with the added power of another lost item and incantation would allow one to absorb another's power. But utterly useless then that.
"He might have the other object, or is working for another who has it." Koenma (3) said as he watched his enraged team thunder down the hallway. "Hiei or not, it seems that they don't have everything that they need yet, we haven't had any trouble thus far."
Kurama nodded his agreement as he watched their group speaking with Hiei in the hallway just outside of the vault. After a second they started to fight, Hiei avoiding everything they were throwing at him and attacking them every opened chanced he got.
"He's cute, he's fast, and he just kicked you in the face." Syana said pressing a key so that the ten second movement of Hiei twisting in the air and landing his foot in Kuwabara's face went on loop. "I'll really miss this when it gets shipped to Historic Holding."
"Oh come on!" Kuwabara yelled glaring at the eternalized embarrassment on the screen.
"Will you please continue?" Kurama asked, Syana pouted but allowed the recording to continue. After a few minutes or so, the demon got ahead of them, he threw open a door and ran down the hall getting father and father out of sight when he finally rounded a distant corner. "Pause it here." The camera froze on the open doorway and empty hallway with a bit of black in the distance.
The red headed fox demon sighed as he looked at the screen; at the time that this flight was recorded the Spirit World was still installing their new security system. There were only cameras in the vault hallways, in the vault themselves, at the main entrance to the Spirit World palace and at the portal ground for living people to pass from the Spirit World and the Human World. Once they left the hallway they were currently in there was no recording of them until they reached the portals.
"This is a four-way hallway, correct?" Kurama asked starting at the foot that was still visible.
"You know it." Yitsune said spinning in her chair. "It's still a four-way hallway, doesn't matter how many times you ask it, that's a four way cross right there."
The humanized fox ignored the demon fox's comment. "And there is no camera in any hallway?"
"No cameras," Raven supported.
"But I remember there being those mirror domes all over the hallways." Yusuke said pointing at a sliver object that was farther down the hall on the screen.
"Don't touch that!" The three women screamed at him, he pulled his arm away from the screen slowly and took a step back with his hands up in a defensive gesture.
"As we explained six times before hand," Syana said grumpily. "There were two guys in stalling the cameras, the camera guy, and the dome guy. The dome guy came two hours early and the camera guy came two hours late. The dome guy put up over half of the domes without the cameras, and the camera guy didn't even do a forth of his job. That is why the security system was so messed up for a freaking mouth. I swear, if I ever find that idiot or the idiot who hired him I'll skin them alive!"
At this comment Koenma took a step back.
"What does that hallway lead to?"Kurama asked gesturing to the off branch opposite of the one that the possible Hiei look alike had just gone down.
"Um," Raven started typing at her key board watching her small screen very intently. "It leads down to the stairs that lead down to the lower vaults."
"Would there be a camera in there?" The reincarnated fox demon took a step back and looked over all the screens.
"Um yeah, behind the entrance door, and at every landing below it."
"Would it have already been installed before the 17th?"
"Maybe, but if the door was closed it won't help you." Yitsune said as she and Syana started typing with Raven. "But seeing as how half the employees of the Spirit World are idiots there's a good chance it would have been left open."
"Especially since some of the lower level guys ran up to the King's vault to get Shish Kebobed with the rest." Raven said with a small smile. "Five bucks I'll never get back, Dave ran up there."
"Sucks to by you." Syana said cheerfully, the others in the room exchanged a look. "Here we are." Off in the distance one could spot a rather big black mass but it wasn't very distinguishable.
"Is that Hiei?" Botan asked squinting at the screen.
"Here, I'll make it clearer," Yitsune said typing again. There were several clicking sounds as the screen zoomed up and made itself clearer, then it zoomed in again and made itself clearer until the hallways was clear to see and the two occupants in it.
"There's two Hiei's." Botan said surprised blinking at the screen.
"Play it now." Kurama said with a smile on his face. The Hiei that was walking toward the camera was frowning as he was tugging at something on his wrist, it didn't seem like he saw the other Hiei in front of him. The recording continued, the two Hiei's ran into each other and fell down. After a second the Hiei facing the camera open his eyes and stared in surprise at the other Hiei. They looked at each other until something directed their attention toward the hallway when they got a glimpse of the other Hiei's white face; apparently his plan just went down the toilet.
He turned around to face the other Hiei again and then his body started to change, confirming that he was a shape shifter. His hair turned white and went to his mid-back and he grew several feet taller. Hiei opened his mouth and said something but the unknown person cut him off.
"Did he just?" Yusuke asked starting at the computer screen as Hiei pushed the other off of him and stared in a horrified shock as the other disappeared in a swirl of white smoke.
"Kiss him? Yeah I think so." Yitsune said staring at her own screen.
"I think I saw some tongue." Raven said pausing the recording as Hiei got up. "Well, now you know why some things didn't match up, it wasn't your guy until the end. That really had to suck."
"It wasn't Hiei!" Yusuke cried joyfully. "I knew he couldn't have betrayed us!" Everyone in the room just stared at him very annoyed; you could actual feel the anime sweat drop.
"Interesting, seeing as how the last several times you watched the recordings you called him and I quote," Raven pressed a button on her keyboard and one of the screens changed to a visual of the Security Room with Yusuke pacing and yelling. "That god damned son of a bitch! How could he do this to us? THAT BASTARD!!! And I thought we were friends!"
Yusuke looked down to the ground and walked over to the corner that Kuwabara was slumped in with his depression hanging over him, and slumped down next to him, adding to the depression bubble.
"So now we know that our culprit is a white haired shape shifter. That doesn't give us much to go on." Koenma sighed as he started to pace.
"That could be either male or female, and has spent a lot of time watching us, or Hiei at least." Kurama said staring at his friend who was just about to walk in on a very angry and very dangerous group. He looked at the slightly confused faces and sighed. "As I have told you, a shape shifter can take on another's appearance and voice. The older and most experienced ones can even mimic another's energy single if they've felt it enough times. But no matter how good at disguising themselves that they are, they cannot copy ones movements or how they act." He glared at the screen. "But this one pulled off Hiei so well that he had to have been watching him and us for a long time to see how he acted with us and carried himself. He was planning this for a very long time. That kind of commitment means he's planning something bigger, something that's still in the process."
"And we have nothing to go on, besides he's a shape shifter." Yusuke spoke out from his corner.
"Well, I wouldn't say nothing." Raven said with a small evil smile. "We weren't some of the best bounty hunters that the Demon World ever saw for nothing. Ladies lets get to work! Syana, we're gonna need both of you."
"Kay, kay," Syana jumped out of her chair, her keyboard disappeared as she stood perfectly still. She closed her eyes and put her hands together, after a second she clapped them and with a bang like a shot gun and a blast of light she split into two girls, one with gold eyes and blond hair and the other with deep green eyes and black hair.
"Come on Sya!" The black haired one said as a chair materialized out of no where for her. The two sat down back to back to each other as a larger keyboard appeared around them.
"Well this will be fun Na!" Sya said as the group of girls started hacking way at their keyboards. The room as filled with clicking as they typed at 160 gwpm and the computer screens kept flashing to different things and moving and new ones appeared with the desired information.
"I got a face!" Raven said after a minute of harsh clicking. The group left standing or mopping gather around to see the displayed picture.
The shape shifter was a man, with a smooth slightly square face that could still be mistaken as a women's. His eyes were still the same as Hiei's ruby ones, and stood out against his extremely pale complexion. His snowy bangs fell neatly just over his eyebrows and curved down around his face to the sides, just covering his hooked back ears. There was a wide taunting smile painted across his face.
"It looks like you're after a male albino or at least part albino, shape shifter." Raven said looking at another screen and still clicking away at her keyboard. "And I was right about the tongue, when you friend pushed him off he tried to lick his lips." She said shaking her head. "He's one of those sickos' I can already tell, hopefully he doesn't have you little friend."
"Indeed." Kurama said glaring at the taunting face. He looked to be in his thirties, and as a demon that meant he was extremely old and extremely well practiced. "Do you have a name?"
"We're looking for it. But we just started putting all the files on a new system, so he might not be on it yet if we have a file, and not all of them have pictures either." Raven said with a frown as she continued on with her search.
"How are you doing all of this? How'd you get the picture and zoom in on the camera like that and how are you searching for the guy?" Yusuke asked looking at her moving form screen to screen before he could even read a sentence on it.
She winked at him. "That's our little secret, along with several Human World countries governments and militaries secret. We've just moved them up a couple years a head of schedule for our own uses." She smiled evilly. "You humans aren't as stupid as some make you out to be, your kind can come up with a lot of interesting toys that just need to be loved up a bit."
"This is military technology you're using?" Yusuke asked staring at all of the screens.
"No, we took their ideals and made it better, much better. They won't be near out level for a couple more years." Na said evilly. "Your guy went to Europe by the way."
"What?" Kurama asked going over to the two halves. They were surrounded by a circular type of screen that was showing the Human World map with smaller screens closing in on Europe and closer in on certain parts of it. Suddenly the four girls stopped typing.
"Shoot, the trail went cold! Damn wizards! Can't they clean up their energy overlap?" Yitsune cursed angrily.
"What?" Yusuke said looking lost. "You lost him?"
"Yeah, the bastard seems to have the power to transport himself where ever he wants when ever he wants." Yitsune said bitterly. "We managed to track him to Japan, China, Russia, Bulgaria, France,"
"Then he entered the heart of the wizard land." Sya said a bit depressed, she sighed. "The energy wizards produce is so random and mixed up, and it lingers for years."
"It's the perfect cover for any demon on the run. They can hide themselves fully and completely under that cloud of crap." Na growled angrily as well.
"And he's not in the system." Raven said sadly. All the girls looked very dejected, as if they had just lost a loved one. "He could be in the files, but it'll take ages to find him with just a picture. That mess is filed in the century that people were hunted or seen in and by name, over half of them don't have a picture."
"So we still don't have anything?" Yusuke and Kuwabara whined together.
"At least now we know Hiei didn't do it." Botan supported but it didn't help the mood in the room.
"Man I wanted to catch the guy!" Yitsune whined pouting.
"Don't worry Yitsune, now that they got a picture and place they can go in Muggle and Wizard area's and start looking around for him. And if he ever shows up in the records we'll have a name." Sya said trying to reinsure her friend as her other half snorted loudly.
"You guys have a lot to search in though." Yitsune pouted pointing to a huge area on her screen of the map of Europe that was enclosed in a circle. "Your culprit could be in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, and that tip of Spain. If it's in that circle he could be there. Stupid wizards, and their lingering energy."
"I have a question." Yusuke said raising his hand. "What do you guys mean by "Muggles" and "Wizards"?"
"I'll explain it on my way back to my office Yusuke." Koenma said open the door out of the room. "We best let them get back to their jobs so no one else breaks into the vault unknowingly."
"Could you try to narrow in on his location?" Kurama asked hopefully.
"Possibly but it'll be hard with all that over lap, we'd have to work on it for a few days." Raven said as she and the others started typing again.
"Thank you."
"No problem."
The group filed out of the room, happy at now knowing that their friend hadn't betrayed them, put down slightly because they had wrongly accused their now probably pissed off beyond reason friend who probably won't ever trust them again, and really put out because their trail on the real culprit went cold.
KittyDragonPhoenixFox
Translations:
1. A Hakama is something a kin to the Kimono of men, but not really. They explain it on Wikipedia.
2. We have heard that Hiei and Yukina are twins and that they are half siblings. It is known that Hiei told Yusuke that he and Yukina had different mothers and the same father; that is a proven lie to the fact that Koorime's are asexual, though I do not remember where I heard that from. So this is how I'm figuring the whole twin and half sibling thing works.
3. They filled Koenma in on their ideals on their way to the Security Office.
- I don't think the Japanese have a fall festival, but for my story, they do. By the way this chapter takes place in October.
- In the anime Yusuke's mom doesn't know about the whole Spirit Detective thing, so she won't here.
- The emotion link thing is my ideal.
- Hoped you like my girls.
Konnichiwa! Sokono here!
Woot! Thank you all for reading! Hugs! Sorry it took so long for a update. I got my HP book! And I just want to say: BEST BOOK EVER!!!!!!!! Sad yes, BUT AWSOME!!!!! I went with my friend to get it a midnight I thought we were going to go early because there was suppose to be a party or something, but my friend didn't really read my email. TT So we left at like 11: 45 and went up to Borders, apparently the year before there was short line there so my friends mom wanted to go a little late so the line would be shorter. Apparently she didn't know the universally law that hundreds of people have to show up when the last of something is being released. So we're in the car, we drive by the book store with the line going out it, we go by the this line of connected buildings with the line down it, then we go around the corner and down another line of builds with the line. At the end of it was the end of line, so my friend and I got out to get in line while her mom parked the car. But that wasn't the end of the line, the line actual started to double up on itself. And I'm laughing at it and asking my friend how her mom could not have seen this coming, it was last of the books, people who have never touched the HP books would get in line to buy it cause it was last of it. So we hung out in the line, singing random songs with these two other girls and got some food out of the Dollar Store (That had to be their best ideal ever, to stay open that late….) Then we get into the store and the line was weaved all around it!(I really hope that those poor people who working the Harry Potter release nights got huge raises.) Final we get back in the car with our books and I start reading it. I stayed at her house for the next to days. I was up for over 40 hours, I swear I could have finished that book within twenty-four hours of buying it, but about halfway through chapter thirty-one the letters on the page were dancing so much it was hard to read it, so I went to bed and started reading it again at the beginning of chapter thirty. My friend stayed up a bit later to get caught up to me at chapter thirty, so she got the full high of sleep depravation I finished it in less then two days!!!! AND IT WAS AWSOME!!!! I would have started written then, but my mom wanted me to read the book to her, and that took a while, I also wanted to finish chapter two of Angel of Shadows, and the back light of my laptop has also gone out. So it's kind of hard to read my computer right now. So yeah.
And I just wanted to mention again that I've posted a new story and would love it some of you all read it. The summary isn't very good but once I come up with a better one I'll change it. I think my ideal for it will be interesting and it shouldn't be that long of story, maybe ten chapters at most. So please read it and review! I need like ten reviews before I post a new chapter! And now a shout out to my reviewers!!!
IcyPanther: I'm glad you liked Hiei's comment to Umbridge, I almost didn't put that in, it was one of last second ideal. Tthey always seemed to come out great don't they? I would make a comment toward the book, but I don't know if everyone that is reading this has read it yet so BEWARE!!…….. SNAPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE SHALL MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MAY LILY FORGIVE YOU!!!!!!!!! Thank you for reviewing.
Jessica: . . . . . . . um…… I think I understand what your saying…… It'll happen eventually, I haven't exactly figured that bit out yet. Thank you for reviewing!
Blades of Silver: Oh no, Hagrid will be gone the same amount of time as he was the book, granted if I made it any longer he wouldn't show up in the story it took so long for him to come back in OotP. And she does deserve it doesn't she? You know, after watching the movie I think I hate her even more. Thank you for reviewing!
Sweetnsexy89: I'm glad you enjoy the story. thanks for the complement. Thank you for reviewing!
The Celestial Anachronism: I like the owl too. I hope this chapter was satisfying for you. Thanks for the complement. And thank you for reviewing!
TrenchcoatMan: I know there was a lot from the book last chapter it was kind of plain, just have to go with what I have to work with. I hoped you like Kurama in this chapter! Thank you for reviewing!
Angelkitsune-Naomi: Oh yes, the nightmares are absolutely terrible for that old toad. The sixth one was a good one, but I believe that the seventh was the absolute best! It had everything that you would want in itsigh) Thank you for reviewing!
Gothic-Fire-Wolf: Thank you for the complement!!!!!! And thank you for reviewing!
Sreiviner: A certain type of potion could delay he's healing power's, but not for that long. I hope this chapter answered your questions. Thank you for reviewing!
Ronin-N-Gang: 1) Yes that would keep me out of her room as well. 2) I know that was an awesome line, that's why I had to use it form the book. Go Professor M.! 3) 4) Wow, that had to stink for you. But that won't happen for Hiei, though I am now tempted to do so. 5) I hope you got your book! 6)Okay. 7) LOL Thank you for reviewing!
Psychicfiredemoness: I'm glad you like it! Thank you for reviewing!
EverD: All questions shall be answered, the last two are already answered. Thank you for reviewing!
PrincessVictoriaAnnMacbeth: Thank you for reviewing!
Hsagchelsea: I'll update when I'm good and ready to update. Thank you for reviewing!