Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own the manga/anime Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Tagashi. I do however own my story and my oc Oriana.

Oriana did not allow the snake demon's attack keep her from going into town. The next week she visited Sam, the card playing demons had noticed their friend's absence. Luckily, they never said anything to her. They must not have noticed him following her home. In fact it was not for another two weeks before one of the poker playing demons mentioned anything about it.

While sitting at the bar, Oriana could hear the group of demons behind her complaining about their missing player. "Iza hasn't shown up in weeks," the red demon commented making the vixen stiffen a little.

"The bloke probably corked it on the way to the boozer," the large Mohawk sporting demon commented with his thick Australian accent.

"It's not any fun going against you two bozos. We need to find another person," the drunken demoness slurred.

"Oi, you over there at the bar! You got any coin to play cards, mate?" the Aussie shouted, "You're in 'er enough."
The queen of thieves nearly jumped out of her skin as he called attention to her. Looking up she saw a smirk on Sam's face. She stuck her tongue out at him before turning around. "I have enough money to play, but are you sure you want me to walk away with more?" Oriana questioned actually enjoying the idea of finding another way to spend her long ten years.

"You're female. Good, we need another. Too many dicks in this game already," the green haired drunk said nearly getting a laugh out of the vixen.

"Sounds like a challenge and don't mind my wife. She's had a little too much to drink," the ogre type demon told her with a smile.

"There's no way you're gonna beat Chu," the small child boosted.

Oriana pulled out the chair between the kid and the red skinned demon and sat down. "How much to pay in?" she inquired.

"One silver," the blue haired demon answered. "You gonna take that hood down, Sheila?"

"I'm kind of ashamed of my looks. Sorry but my hood will remain in place," the vixen quickly answered. As nice as they seemed she was not going to expose herself.

"As long as you ain't got one of those jagans under there don't bother me none," he replied.

"Only two eyes. So don't worry," she tossed a silver coin into the center of the table. The other three adults followed suit.

The plump red skinned demon began to shuffle the cards. "Welcome to our little club. I'm Enki by the way and this lovely flower beside me is my wife Kokou," he introduced them as his wife merely took a swig from a rather large sake bottle.

"Name's Chu the Drunken Fist Master," the one with the Mohawk told her.

"And I'm Rinku. One day I'll be as great a warrior as Chu!" the child announced with enthusiasm.

Realizing it was her turn the queen of thieves told them, "My friends call me Ora."

Enki began to deal out the cards, "Well Ora, hope you don't mind going home with a lighter purse."

Oriana just laughed as she lifted her cards to see what she had. Two queens and two fives was not bad. The other demons noticed the expensive ring on her left and her two bracelets. They each thought that this demoness was rich and would have plenty of money to win.

By the end of the day the group had gotten to know her and visa versa. Of course she still did not tell them what she was or who she was married to. They were a little annoyed that she left with a heavier coin purse than she arrived with. In fact the group had Rinku feel under her hood for a third eye which he of course had not found. She did have the perfect poker face which gave her an advantage. They would have to look else where for tells if they wanted to win.

As she made her way down the streets. Oriana waved back at her new friends and called, "You can try to win back your money next week!"

So every week they would sit at the same table in Sam's tavern and play cards. Some times Oriana lost and others she won. Overall she came out even because she always won back the money she lost the previous week. They all got along so well she even considered removing her hood after meeting up for so long, but thought better of it. Humans turned demon were not well liked. In fact half demons were held in a higher regard and they were often killed on sight if discovered. It would be best if she did not risk exposing herself.

For five years Oriana went through the same basic routine. In the morning a few days a week, she would train by herself. She did her chores and would go into town a couple days a week. One to play cards and the other to food shop. Then there were the times the vixen would go to bed at night and cry silently to herself. Those were the times when the absence of both her best friend and husband would weigh heavily on her soul. If she did not have the knowledge that Youko was alive, the demoness was sure that she would have given up a long time ago. Every day she woke up she would count down another day toward the end of the ten year wait. However, there was always the possibility that he might not be able to return right away. What if she would have to wait even longer? What if he could not make it back to the Makai at all? Or worse, what if Kurama got caught be Spirit World?

While cleaning Youko's study one day, the fox demoness caught sight of the rolled up blueprints to the Gate of Judgment sitting on a shelf. She knew that the child that Kurama had placed his soul in was now five years old. Another five years and he would have access to his demon powers once more. Then he would be able to return to Demon World. Though knowing her husband he would probably get into trouble during that time. If he got caught by Spirit World they would judge them based on all his past crimes. King Yama could imprison him for life or even worse, execute him. If that happened she would never know. It seemed like these thoughts plagued her more and more as time went by.

Taking the scroll of paper she brought it to her workshop in the next room. If Spirit World found him, she wanted to know and she did not want them to know all of his past crimes. The only way that could happen would be if she got her connection to the Spirit World network working. To do that Oriana would have to do the one thing she never wanted to do after she had trained with Kuronue, break into somewhere and steal. It was to protect and find Youko though, so the demoness was willing to do this.

Oriana spent days inside her workshop making sure her receiver and transmitter worked perfectly. Even once that was finished, she spent another two days going over the blueprints. She had to make sure that she knew exactly where she was going to avoid suspicion when she moved through King Yama's palace for her plan to work. The only time the vixen left the house was to play cards and once that was finished she immediately returned to her work. Her new friends noticed that she Oriana was a little distracted, but she assured them that it was nothing. After that they dropped the subject. Their concern for her well being was heartwarming for the vixen. It was good to have friends that she could count on again.

Completely satisfied with her plan and her equipment, the queen of thieves prepared to leave for the portal to the Spirit Realm. Oriana dressed in a blue tank top and white pants that tapered at her ankles. She was going to leave her cloak at home. It would only get in the way. The only thing she needed was her over the shoulder bag that she placed her equipment in including a new little toy. The demoness knew that Spirit World had been keeping digital copies of files on the living for years now thanks to Sam. So to remove Kurama's from the data base she would be moving the files into a homemade flash drive. Because of her reservations about stealing, Oriana wanted a way to return anything she would take once she and her husband were together again.

Taking a deep breath, the queen of thieves ran into the forest toward the portal that Youko had used to enter Spirit World. She was sure that if she were still human, her heart would be pounding in her chest about now. Oriana was incredibly nervous but knew she had to do this for Kurama. In front of her she could see the portal appear. Picking up speed, she leapt through the portal. On the other side was a bright world contrasting the mostly dark Demon World. The ground was made of solid clouds and the Gate of Judgment loomed before her. Behind her she could hear the water of the River Styx which stretched off into the distance.

Bringing her middle and index finger of her right hand to her forehead the demoness whispered, "Fox magic transform." A cloud of smoke surrounded her body. When the smoke cleared the vixen had taken the form of one of King Yama's ogres. The form she had taken had blue skin, was very muscular, male, had two horns on top of her head and no hair. The demoness' shoulder bag was hidden from sight by the fox magic.

Oriana walked up to the gate and knocked on the door a little franticly. "Hey let me in! I got locked out again!" she shouted, using a deep male's voice she had heard in town before.

The gate swung open slowly leaving enough room for her to enter. There was an ogre on the other side that shut the door after she was inside. Once the gate was closed once more he turned his gaze to her looking rather annoyed. "Get back to work before King Yama or Prince Koenma find out," he scolded.

"Thanks," Oriana said before hurrying deeper into the Gate of Judgment.

Originally, the queen of thieves had planned on calmly walking to her destination. However, it appeared that all of the ogres were constantly running about in a panic. Quickly navigating though the halls, she could not believe her luck. It seemed her plan was working and that she would actually make it out of there alive. After a few twists and turns and pushing past several ogres, the vixen found herself outside the IT room where the computer mainframes were stored.

Slipping inside, Oriana could see a desktop computer on a high table in the center of the room. Behind that in a semicircle were large computer mainframe towers. No one else was in the room making the demoness smile to herself at her luck. She locked the door behind her as smoke surrounded her once more. Returning to proper appearance would conserve energy and being deep in enemy territory that would be the smart thing to.

The first thing she set to work on was connecting the transmitter. Removing the small device from her bag she approached the mainframe towers. There were small steel plates on the front of each one. Looking over each one Oriana found the plate that said Prince Koenma's Office. From what the vixen knew about the prince he was very arrogant and not very clever. His computer would be the simplest to hack into. If she was correct than his password would be easy to guess and he would never know she broke in.

Slipping between the towers, the queen of thieves positioned herself behind the tower that processed for Koenma's personal use. After quickly looking over all the ports and wires in front of her, she removed a panel near the bottom. Oriana disconnected a couple of wires inside and then reconnected them into her homemade transmitter. Once connected the demoness flicked a switch on the side of the small device. A small green light lit up signaling that is was working. With a small grin to herself, the vixen placed the panel back into place.

Returning once more to the other side, the vixen pulled out her next toy. She plugged the flash drive into the desktop computer in the center of the room. With dexterous fingers only someone with her hacking experience could achieve, Oriana brought up the digital personal files of her husband and anyone else that his name appeared in. As far as she was concerned Spirit World would have no record that Youko Kurama had ever existed. The fox demoness was surprised that her own file had not come up. Apparently Reikai had no knowledge of their marriage.

Out of curiosity she pulled up her own file. Spirit World had labeled her as missing and a case was created to try and find her because they knew a demon was involved. Her home and assets were being preserved incase they did every find her. It was nice of them but Oriana knew she would probably never see any of it again not that she really had any want to. Closing her file, the vixen moved all the others onto her flash drive. Once that was completed she removed all traces of the files' existence from the mainframes and that she had ever been in there.

The easy part was now over and the next part was going to be more nerve racking. After returning the flash drive to her bag, Oriana dawned her ogre disguise once more. Unlocking the door, she slipped out into the hallway and briskly made her way to her next destination. The physical archives were nearly on the other side of the palace and the quickest way there was for her to go past Prince Koenma's office. Doing her best to calm her nerves, the demoness hurried down the halls and around corners. The faster she got out of there the better.

The queen of thieves was making her way down the hallway in which the Spirit World prince's office was locate when a door ahead of her opened. A large blue ogre with long blonde hair and bald spot on top of his head stepped out first quickly followed by the tiny Prince of Spirit World. Oriana was not surprised to see he was in the form of a toddler. Youko had once remarked on the Spirit Realm being run by a child. Thinking fast the vixen bowed as Koenma and his servant passed. Neither passerby paid any attention to the bowing blue ogre and continued on their way. Releasing the breath she was holding, she once again moved down the hallway.

The door to the archives came into view after another corner and slipped inside. There were only a few ogres inside from what the demoness could sense. The room was filled with rows and rows of bookshelves with scrolls and numerous volumes of booked lined upon them. Oriana traveled passed many of the rows still disguised as an ogre. There were several people in the room with her that she could sense. Finally she came across a section filled with personal files on demons. The queen of thieves looked over the files sitting sideways on the shelves. Glancing over them she looked for the K's. It took awhile considering how many demons were on record there, but eventually the section she was looking for came into view. Quickly looking over the files she saw one that was a little thicker than the rest. Smiling to herself she removed it from the shelf. Printed on the front of it was 'Youko Kurama.' Not even bothering to look through it, the queen of thieves stuffed it into her bag.

Feeling incredibly victorious Oriana glanced around to make sure the coast was clear. Relieved to find no one had seen her steal the file, she hurried out of the archives and through the hallways back toward the gate entrance. The return to the large doors was uneventful. The vixen slipped back outside without being noticed and ran for the portal to the demon plain which closed behind her.

When Oriana was back in Demon World she was out of breath from the adrenaline and leaned forward onto her knees to calm herself. She now understood why Youko and Kuronue liked to steal stuff. It was quite a rush. However, the vixen swore to herself that she would never do that again. She had gotten lucky this time. Very lucky.

The queen of thieves made her way home through the dense forest that surrounded the cottage. The clearing came into view and she knew without a doubt that she had done it. She had stolen from Spirit World and made it back alive. The first thing she did was approach the grave marker for Kuronue. Oriana knelt down in front of it with a sad smile.

A small shaky laugh escaped her lips before she spoke softly, "Kuro, you would be so proud of me today. I broke into the Gate of Judgment and made it back. I used everything you taught me. I wish you were here so I could see your face. I miss you, Kuro." The demoness sniffled and touched the pendent close to her neck. "Just five more years, Kuro and I can be with him again. Now that I have access to Reikai's systems I might be able to find him if he gets into trouble again. Which we both know he will." Reaching back into her hair and pulled out a small brown seed. It grew in her hand into a beautiful red rose which she set down against Kuronue's headstone. "Rest peacefully, my friend."

Inside her home, the now apply named queen of thieves made her way to the vault where Youko and Kuronue's spoils were. Oriana unlocked the heavy wooden door and then inside on a table she set the folder with Kurama's life and crimes inside and the flash drive. They would remain safe in the and the demoness had no intentions of looking through either.

Once the vault was safely locked up, the vixen went to her workshop and sat down in front of her laptop. As soon as the computer was booted up, she connected to the receiver for Spirit World. It connected almost immediately much to the demoness' relief. A log in screen appeared looking for a password. Oriana smiled and typed in 'PrinceKoenma,' but an error screen appeared. Humming to herself she then typed in 'KOENMA' figuring he probably thought caps lock would make him clever. Just as she thought the password worked and she could see the prince's desktop. Now she was set. Anything that would come up on Koenma's computer she would be able to see. So if Spirit World found her husband she would know about it. Satisfied with her work, the vixen logged off and shut her laptop. She was another step closer to being with Youko again. Now all she had to do was just wait another five years or so. That should not be so hard.

Thanks for hanging in there guys until I could update again. My computer is acting up really bad. It was difficult to even type this up because it kept stalling and would not catch everything I was typing or the cursor would jump to another part of the screen. So please ignore any typos you see. I fixed what I could. I'm going to start doing larger leaps in time since I'm sure we all miss our favorite fox demon. Next time Oriana has only one more year until Kurama is 10 for instance. Thanks for reading guys. Until next time.