A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has read, reviewed and favorited or followed! It means so much to me to see people enjoying this story.

Lots of Hiei's inner workings in this chapter, but not his POV. I want to write a chapter in his perspective soon. I think it'll be interesting, given the events that are coming down the line. We will also get to see some of Shinpi's actual powers soon too. Let me know what you think of this! I always love constructive critiques, or even just "I liked this part!".

Thanks again for reading!

Chapter 10: A New Breed- In which Hiei reads about Shinpi's history and forms a 'sure-fire' plan.

Hiei poured himself over the pages, sequestered in the reading room so he could be alone with his thoughts. Kurama's files were immaculate and informative as always. There was a table of contents in the front, the pages were numbered, all one fifty-seven of them, and Hiei was certain he'd find cross-references in the back. Not that he looked. The typeface made it easy enough to scan each sheet before laying it to the side in Hiei's own form of order.

Hiei had long suspected that Kurama'd begun numbering things this way not to aid him in finding what he needed but so the fox could piece everything back together when he finished with it.

Hiei's mind didn't work like Kurama's. Where the fox was capable of forming mental fractals to connect dots, jagged arches or spiraling octagonal patterns weaving between ideas to eventually come to a point, Hiei tended to be more linear. Their conversations had been rife with Kurama requesting Hiei become more flexible in his rigid thinking, to see things from other perspectives. Particular when it came to understanding the pea-brained human population Kurama would remind Hiei that their experiences were vastly different than his own and he needed to take that into account.

Hiei scoffed at the mere idea on every occasion. It wasn't his job to understand these pathetic creatures. He didn't care about their lackluster lives or perspectives. And why should he? Where would it ever benefit him?

The fire demon sank into his shoulders slightly, back pressed to the front of an armchair as he staked his place on the ground for more space. Shinpi's words swam back to him despite himself, her accusation he'd betray his allies if it didn't benefit him to aid them. The woman was a gnat even when she wasn't around. He went back to the papers in his hands, eyes probing each word for a deeper truth.

Kurama had organized the file from furthest to most recent histories of the woman. Hiei had no desire to read about her as a child. How could that help him now? She was an adult. It didn't matter where she grew up or with whom. Instead of heeding the chronological order Kurama had established, HIei picked through the multitude of pieces and began to pile them into stacks of what he wanted to know and what he didn't. Then what was useful and what wasn't. Finally, what still applied and what could be forgotten. Because even though the papers spread before him all described and articulated the woman under his watch, she wasn't the same being she'd been when this was gathered.

If she didn't get her ass in gear, she might never be that being again.

A bandaged hand lifted another page and Hiei stared at it dully. Another account of Shinpi's past transgressions, though she hardly seemed the criminal sort. Most of the information was about her political affiliations. For instance, her stalwart alliance with Raizen. He could have anticipated that. But he hadn't thought that Mukuro and the woman had been friends, really, until he read that they'd had a long prospering relationship. The details of how that ended were sparse.

Summarized in less than two sentences: Amon-Shinpi sought Mukuro's aid in overthrowing Hiro, but was denied. She died before any formal action could be taken against Alaric.

In black and white, there it was. Shinpi had gone to Mukuro for help and had been turned away. No reason was given as to why, no matter how much Hiei read. He'd have to ask one or both of them. He thought about it and decided that question could be added to the list he wanted to offer to his commander.

Shinpi wasn't likely to give him any more clarity than the paper in his hand had.

Hiei found this effort of Kurama's to be mostly useless to him, but there were redeemable bits of information awaiting him in the text. For instance, he learned that Shinpi was a wolf demon, and an elemental. Like one of her ancestors she held control over more than one element, a rare occurrence in her line. Wind and water. According to reports of her death, earth if only in one rage-induced incident.

His mind wandered to their grappling match outside the week before and how the air between them had shifted around their bodies, seemingly out of season with its chill. A subconscious effort of hers, he imagined, as he hadn't sensed her energy in the least bit.

Another frustration he wanted to address with her but would bide his time for.

Shinpi, by all accounts, had been brimming with power. Before her alliance had formed with Mukuro, how that came to pass continued to elude the fire demon, Alaric and the Takani's had gone to war over land. Namely, Mukuro had attacked the smaller territory in her quest for expanding her own borders. She'd expected little resistance, Hiei was sure, given the details of the rest of the pack that resided in the oasis.

She was met with utter disaster.

Amon-Shinpi, left unabated, had destroyed armies and sent the pieces back to Mukuro in carts. She left only a single survivor from each wave to depict the carnage in detail to Alaric's masked king. Stories of funnel clouds the size of mountains tearing through battlefields, of mudslides that swept soldiers to their deaths, storms that shook the earth and sky alike.

Mukuro had attended a battle once, seen what Amon-Shinpi was capable of and immediately withdrew her troops back to her own lands. This was meant to be the end of the war. But a small faction had refused to leave, had acted alone and attacked the Takanis after the truce was announced. The faction had killed the king and queen.

Amon-Shinpi blamed Mukuro for the attack. Demanded to be seen by the masked king. They met outside the Takani territory in a desert known for its deadly mirages. Amon-Shinpi had won their fight that day. But it wasn't her control of the elements that landed her success but her efficiency in combat. Between a sandstorm, a tornado, and quick-thinking Shinpi had managed to disorient Mukuro enough to disable her.

She'd claimed the king's mechanical arm as a trophy and after that for some inexplicable reason, they were allies.

Hiei didn't understand it at all. But he was impressed.

He desperately wanted to face that Amon-Shinpi. The one on paper in front of him, recounted by legend and eye witnesses. The one who had won Mukuro's respect.

Setting the paper down, he eyed the still-closed door. The temple was quiet, nearly everyone asleep. Kurama was there in a guest room, slumbering away so deeply that he might not have woken for an earthquake. But Hiei still refused to the leave the room because he'd noticed Shinpi kept odd hours, and she often wandered the temple late. He didn't want to bump into her.

The awkward tension after their sparring match had lingered after their showers and through dinner. Neither of them could seem to leave the room fast enough.

If he was lucky, she was hiding in her room the way he had sequestered himself here.

"Hiei?" Yukina pushed the door open, bringing in a tray of tea of some light snacks. "I thought you might like something if you're going to be up so late."

"Hn." He gruffly nodded and accepted the mug she held out to him.

Yukina settled into one of the chairs and eyed the stacks of paper with some interest and some distaste. "Is all of this about Hichi?"

"Why do you call her that?" Hiei demanded. "No one else does."

"She asked me to." Yukina admitted with a light blush. "An old nickname from her family. We are very close friends."

"Which family?" Hiei wondered aloud, eyes trained on his sister for merely a second before wandering back to the papers spread around him.

"Her previous, I think. She said it came from her grandfather, since she was so much like him." The ice maiden sipped her own tea. "Are you learning anything helpful?"

"I've learned she's annoying." Hiei grumped, frowning. "And that she's an animal apparition, wolf to be exact. Makes her calling me a dog a touch ironic."

"Oh, yes, she told me that." Yukina nodded and Hiei jerked his attention to her so quickly she flinched. Her tea sloshed in her cup, dangerously close to the brim.

"She told you? When?" He demanded. He'd been toiling away for hours trying to unlock any piece of that woman's puzzling mind and she'd just been giving the answer key away to others.

Typical.

"The first night she was here, when I went in to heal her head wound." Yukina explained softly. "She confessed the whole history of how we know each other to me and allowed me to ask as many questions as I wanted."

"So she's being difficult just for me." Hiei complained.

"Perhaps she opened up to me because I haven't battered her skull or left bruising handprints on her arms." Yukina responded coolly and Hiei had the decency to look at least a little embarrassed by the passive admonishment. "Hichi is a good person, Hiei. She enjoys taking care of people. And she's always been helpful to us when she visits."

"How did you know she was a good person if she was lying the whole time?" Hiei asked her seriously. "She could have been anyone. She wasn't what she said she was."

"She was always Hichi to me. She always will be." Yukina sighed. "It doesn't matter her hair color or what name she uses. She's the same. In fact, this Hichi is calmer and more decent than the one I met all those years ago."

Hiei blinked at her, then tipped his head to the side as he sipped his tea. "Her hair?"

"She was a natural redhead." Yukina nodded with a warm smile. "Her hair was brighter than Kurama's. It's how I found her in the snow, when I did. Took ages to stop her shivering. She's not very adapted to the cold. But she said she couldn't feel it. I think, then, she couldn't feel much of anything. It's hard to notice sensations when your heart has been so thoroughly wounded."

The twins remained quiet for a moment. Hiei turned back to the papers with an annoyed huff.

"Did she happen to tell you anything else?" He pried, leaning his head back against the armchair he'd propped himself against as he sat on the floor.

"I didn't ask many questions." Yukina admitted with a small shrug. "It wasn't worth the pain it would have caused her."

"You're too gentle with her." Hiei rolled his eyes. "She'll walk all over you."

"Someone has to show her kindness or she'll forget what it feels like. Between you and Genkai, who is left but me?" Yukina sighed. "Genkai tries to keep Hichi on the right path. She guides her and they are friends, they talk, but she's not nearly as soft as I am. She had no issues with cutting through Hichi with her words if it means driving the point home. You're the same. But someone has to soothe the wounds or they'll never heal."

Hiei once again fell silent as he regarded his sister. She sat loosely arranged in her armchair, feet drawn up onto the cushion and her hair loose around her face and shoulders. A relaxed, pleasant woman in her home.

He felt dirty and out of place sitting next to her, as though his mere presence might infect her.

"You two seemed to get along well enough today though. I'm glad. You're both so important to me, it would be hard having you at each other's throats." Yukina spoke quietly, but her smile grew. "I feel like we are all a family, don't you think?"

Sometimes, more often recently than ever before, Hiei wondered how much Yukina knew. But he never pried into her head to find out. She'd offer him that smile, a little too bright, eyes a little too sharp, and say something like she just had. And Hiei would reel for a second, wondering if she knew his secret.

He didn't want to know if she knew. He was better off not knowing, actually. It was best if he never addressed the pointed tone she used with him at times. Because after all these years, he wasn't sure what he'd do if she admitted they were siblings. He didn't know how to be a brother.

It was part of why he'd been staying away from this world for so long. To put space between him and any crazy notions Yukina may be harboring about family.

"Sparring with someone is easy." Hiei admitted, quick to change the subject. "It has nothing to do with liking them. I trained Kuwabara too, for a time, remember."

"You should see Genkai and Hichi spar. You'd enjoy that." Yukina offered him a knowing smile. "They pair together nicely."

"I didn't know the old woman still partook." Hiei raised his eyebrows.

"She doesn't often." Yukina acknowledged.

The room lapsed back into silence and it was comfortable. The two of them drank tea as Hiei pawed through the pages littering the floor. Yukina eventually left him, bidding him goodnight and reminding him to get some sleep if he could. But an idea struck Hiei between the eyebrows and his feet found the floor before he carried himself to the bookshelf.

Reclaiming his spot in front of the chair, he cracked open the old tome and scanned the table of contents in the front before flipping to the section that he needed.

Hiei had a lot of blind spots in his working knowledge of other breeds of demons. His facts were vague, the basics, enough to aid him in a fight. For instance, about wolf demons he knew not to get bit by them because their damn teeth could tear your flesh clear from your bones. But beyond that, and that they were quick footed creatures, he didn't know much off the top of his head. Human world didn't have wolf demons and neither did Alaric.

Human World did, however, have wolves and he suspected there would be some overlap.

So he read the section of the book about grey wolves. How they were a pack creature, generally in groups of five to eight but in ones as small as two. Only the alphas mated, the rest of the pack comprised of offspring normally. Adults all pitched in to care for the young. Their territories could range from a few hundred to a thousand miles in diameter. Wolves howled as a form of communication, to alert the pack of their location or to convey some warning. Each wolf had a distinctive howl, a unique voice.

Lone wolves, those who lost their pack by discharge or their own will, rarely howled. These wolves had a shorter lifespan as well.

He moved onto domesticated canines. He found these creatures too craved companionship. They were loyal as well. They also communicated in unique voices and had an array of barks with various meanings. Without socialization they could turn aggressive, shy or skittish. It was noted that domesticated canines could become depressed if they were denied proper companionship.

It must be difficult. To lose her family… Kurama's words swam to the forefront of Hiei's thoughts. Pursing his lips, the fire demon adjusted his position on the floor.

Some of her behavior was starting to make sense to him. Her protectiveness of Yukina. Her loyalty, as unfathomable as it was, to her foreign human friends, Yukina, Genkai. Her desire to aid Kuwabara, admittedly the weakest of their "pack".

A wolf that had been displaced could be welcomed into a new pack. The pack had to be willing to take them in and the wolf had to be willing to accept.

Hiei continued reading until his eyes began to hurt and eventually, he haphazardly piled the papers back into their folder and left it on the floor. He wandered outside to find a tree and hoisted himself up into it on arms that were shakier than they should have been from his sparring match earlier. Grey light began to filter through the clouds and he groaned, closing his eyes and taking what rest he could for the moment as his thoughts whirled around a forming plan.

Dogs could be trained. They just needed a firm hand, bountiful rewards and immediate consequences. If he put his mind to it, he could get Shinpi to heed his commands. It would take time and breaking her of her stubborn attitude, but Hiei felt confident he could manage. How hard could it be? All he had to do was establish his dominance over the woman, then a routine.

He fell asleep smirking.

Hiei wandered back to the reading room sometime after the bustle of the morning had started in full. The tree he'd perched in had incessantly dripped water on his head, the leaves still slick with the earlier rain. He'd gotten very little sleep and his demeanor wasn't done any favors by that fact. His patience was already absent when he jerked open the door and stepped inside to find the files he'd left cradled in delicate hands.

Shinpi lounged in the chair he'd posted against the night before, one of the manila folders in her careful fingers, one leg draped over the arm of the chair and the other pulled up to rest the file against. She didn't spare him a glance as she read over the pages, turning them over with only the sound of the sheets brushing each other.

"What the hell are you doing?" Hiei demanded, marching over to her. He reached out to yank the file back but she offered it to him before he could. "This has nothing to do with you."

"Perhaps you shouldn't have left it out." She lulled the statement.

Hiei looked at her again. She was being unusually languid this morning, looking far too relaxed in his presence. Where was the usual annoyance cast over her expression? Then he realized her eyes were shadowed with heavy bags.

"It's not Hiro."

Hiei frowned, raised his one eyebrow and tilted his head. "What isn't?"

"The culprit." She gestured to the file in his hand. A comprehensive list of missing persons that Kurama had brought along on his trek. There was a post-it note on the inside of the folder that listed possible suspects and Hiro's name had been on the list.

Because in Spirit World she'd suggested him.

She'd been wrong.

"You're looking for a small cluster of low level apparitions. Three or four, I would think based on the numbers. They must be in the city proper too, which might make it hard to find them. Scents tend to mingle and get washed away in the city. There's just too much going on." Shinpi remained in the seat.

Hiei eyed the file.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Not his type." She answered with a frown. "Hiro craves power. He likes to prove himself and lord it over others. These people are too weak to catch his attention. He'd be more likely to target someone like Kuwabara."

Hiei nodded, accepting the information.

"I'm not looking for anything. I've been too preoccupied here." Hiei told her, tucking the file against his side, under his arm. "The team is handling this one."

Shinpi squinted at the far wall, her mind at work. Chewing her lip in thought, she tipped her head back and moved her gaze to the ceiling.

"You don't use your Jagan as much as I assumed you did." She commented, still mostly in thought. "I had thought when you threw your tantrum about the wards that you'd be rifling through my thoughts constantly. And yet you haven't."

"Where is that coming from?" He asked her, then he walked closer and noticed the other file.

The one about her, that included her entire history. The one he'd been so dedicated to reading last night. The reason he hadn't skulked outside until dawn had nearly broken and a large part of why he was so exhausted. It was there, closed, sitting in her lap.

Shinpi followed his line of attention. Then the left corner of her mouth quirked up, her fingers drumming over the file as her expression turned mildly devious.

"It's Kurama's." Were the first words he could think to utter in his own defense, sure this was about to become an argument over invading her privacy.

"I'm aware. Him and I discussed it yesterday." She told him, that same devious grin lilting on her face. "I would have thought you'd have done the research before becoming my guardian."

Guardian? That didn't seem right. Hiei scowled. That implied a far more altruistic reason for him dragging her here. Parole officer seemed to fit better, in his opinion. Warden.

"There wasn't time." Hiei pointed out. "I needed to make an assessment in the moment."

"One that pointedly didn't include my past life." Shinpi pointed out. "Why is that?"

"Required too much energy and I knew the information was in Koenma's books. Your previous memories are tightly guarded, it seems, and they also had little to do with the discussion. Your human life was up for question, not your former."

"Ah."

Hiei squinted at her, not quite glaring, merely assessing her befuddling amusement.

"Did the file shed light on anything for you?" She asked him lightly, toying with the open edge of the manila folder. "Any burning questions you need clarified?"

"No." Hiei narrowed his eyes then. "I don't know what it is, but you're up to something."

Her grin widened and then she slid off the chair, rolling to her feet and handed him the file as she passed him on the way out of the room.

"Yukina and I are walking Kurama to the train then going into town to do some shopping." She announced. "Genkai has her own business today. Are you going to supervise us?"

Hiei thought about it. He saw no reason to go with them. Shopping wasn't high on his list of preferred activities. But not going meant allowing Shinpi to wander off with Yukina. Would she come back on her own? Would she start trouble?

"I'll think about it." Hiei told her firmly.

"Alright. We leave in an hour." She left him alone then, still confused and wondering what the hell she was up to.

Whatever it was, it wasn't good. Especially not for him.

Hiei spun and left the room to hunt down Kurama. They hadn't had much of a chance to speak since the fox had arrived. Leaving the sitting room meant he didn't notice that Shinpi had replaced the books he'd been reading on their proper shelves. Which meant he hadn't drawn the lines between her smile and the fact she knew he'd been brushing up on his understanding of domesticated canines and wild wolves.

Hiei walked off to find his ally to discuss the woman and her strange behavior. Ask some clarifying questions about wolf demons. Kurama was a fox, which was close enough.

Shinpi waited patiently, already plotting and preparing how to handle Hiei's obviously grave misunderstanding of her. He thought he could treat her like a house pet? A dog? She couldn't wait for him to begin. What would he do first? Pet her head? Offer her a treat? Get her a squeaky toy? Her delight was entirely nefarious because she intended to string Hiei's misunderstanding along as long as she could.

Why? Because it would be fun.

Plus, in its own way, it was sort of charming that Hiei was putting in so much effort to try and understand her. It was more than she'd ever given him credit for. While it might be entertaining, it was also endearing.

Something she would deny with her dying breath.