I'm Baaaaaack ;D And so is MSD! I'm terribly sorry for the (extremely ) delayed update! Things have been quite… stressful on this side, and I'm happy to be back in business with my wonder readers like yourselves! The updates shall be on their usual weekly schedule (Wednesday afternoons), so I hope you guys enjoy!

I, unfortunately, don't own YYH. Just my OCs!

Kurama paced his room as Hiei sat in the window sill.

"Spill it fox, I don't have the patience for your games." Kurama paused and looked to him, emerald eyes ablaze.

"We can't trust them."

Hiei raise a brow, snorting, "Of course we can't. It isn't about trust; it's about reaching our goal. Gouki's an idiot, but at least the woman's got a head on her shoulders. And the oaf will listen to her."

Kurama shook his head, "That's precisely it. I wasn't talking about Gouki, I was talking about Toshiko. We can't trust her and… what was the demon's name again? Ryo?" Hiei nodded, allowing Kurama to continue. "I know a lot of demons named Ryo, but did you see the way she climbed out of Gouki's shadow? I only know of one shadow demon with that name, and she isn't precisely the type of person we want on our side."

"She's powerful." Kurama looked at him, this time with an eyebrow of his own raised.

"Yes, she is. She was even stronger before, though. I don't know why she disappeared for 700 years, but it seems the rumors of her death are false. Toshiko may be a genius, but Ryo is definitely the strength behind her. If something goes wrong, we need to be sure she won't turn on us mid-heist."

"You're over thinking this, fox. Get a hold of yourself. Besides, it's not like we can kill her and be done with it. I tried."

Kurama sighed, going over to his desk and sinking into his chair. "I suppose your right. Her hyper-regeneration skills will stop any attempt we could possibly make to get rid of her. But still, the question remains: can we trust her? And what is she after?"

Hiei shrugged nonchalantly, he had better things to do than entertain the fox's mind with 'whats' and 'whys'. "What do we care? So long as she keeps us covered, we'll be good and the plan will be successful. What she does will either get her caught or keep her alive. I don't care either way."

"If she's strong enough to watch our backs, Hiei, she's strong enough to slash at them."

"If she does then we kill her."

"And how do you plan to do that? If it were two on one, we could trap her easily enough, but Gouki's on her side, remember? Two on three. We will lose."

Hiei's eyes narrowed. The fox had a point.

"We'll just watch our own backs, fox. If she tries anything, we take her down."

Kurama nodded with a sigh.

He had a hell of a lot of work to do, between his studies and this heist. Not to mention keeping his mother from finding out. Kurama looked back to the window sill, about to ask Hiei what he thought about the girls. The fire demon was gone, leaving him alone to his musings. Rubbing his temples, Kurama frowned. He still had to face her at school and act like none of this happened.

Not hard for him, but he knew that her acting skills might not be as great as his.

He supposed she was, with the way she only hinted at her anger during their shogi match. But there were those eyes to worry about. Toshiko's eyes. They hid her emotions, as if no possible feeling could reach her so closely that it could reach her eyes.

Perhaps she was a sociopath?

But then again, it seemed the girl experienced feelings. She smiled, chuckled, even looked off into the distance when she was in deep thought. He had analyzed her, but those eyes still disturbed him. Those creepy, emotionless eyes.

They were the eyes of a dead person.

And when it came to people like that, you could never be too careful.

Ryo's POV

"So we enter here, take this hallway to this room. From there, you'll hack into the mainframe and set the cameras. Once we're done with that, we take this abandoned stairwell to the floor. We should come out here. At this part, we'll split. Us three shall go down this hallway, turn here, and jack into the vault with the hacking system Yorusta-san puts on a zip drive. From there we carefully get the items, making sure not to trip the security, and then it's a quick and easy escape back to the stairwell."

I nodded as all of us gathered around the dinner table at the Horawada house. Kurama had been motioning to the blueprints Toshiko had printed out and laid on the table, telling of their side of the plan. I placed two fingers on the map, tracing a route that ran through all of the hallways. "This is the guard route. Since its high-security and the level is so large, they have rounds that cross these points," I paused in my tracing and tapped three different areas on the map that were nearby to the route my fellows were taking, "every five minutes. According to Toshiko, the guard that takes this route," I traced a path that ran a single hallway down from the hallway they were taking, then turned to cross in front of the vault that held the Items of Darkness and went back to the starting point, "usually takes twenty-three minutes to complete a single run. He'll be ya main annoyance. Seven minutes into his route, he hits here." I tapped a place that had a perfect view of the stairwell. "Thirteen, here." I tapped a place that had a view of the hallway they were taking. "Seventeen, here." I touched the place that the guard turned onto the hallway the vault was on. "He crosses the vault approximately nineteen minutes into his route, where he takes this hallway and starts all over again." The others nodded. I leaned off of the table, crossing my arms. "If he catches ya, which'll be the most likely thing to stop us, kill him quickly and quietly. The guards check in on each other through a walkie-talkie system. Someone buzzes him or he buzzes somebody around every three minutes. Once you kill him, we have to get the hell outa there, items or no."

"When can you have the zip drive?" Kurama asked, leaning away from the table as well. He stood across from me, with Hiei on my right and Gouki on my left.

"They change the codes every two weeks, so I'll get it to you the day before. Since they change the codes per level, I'll have an identical drive." He nodded, seeming at least a bit more at ease.

"So if we're caught, you're caught?" I nodded. I had no intention of betraying them, but the fox still didn't trust me and Toshiko.

Which was rather smart, actually. But his distrust could lead to more than a few complications during the heist, so I had to do at least a few things to put his mind at ease. We didn't have to be best friends, but we did have to watch each other's backs.

"What exactly are you after?" Hiei asked, stopping his study of the map to watch me as I answered. "You never told any of us, not even Gouki."

Under normal circumstances, I would've turned this on him by saying: 'and you know Gouki doesn't know, how?', but these were far from normal circumstances. We were robbing the Spirit World, and like I said, we had to watch each other's backs. Building at least that small layer of trust was important.

"God's Dirt." Kurama stared with wide eyes. So he knew about it, huh? That was to be expected; he probably lived through some of the wars over it. Hiei's brows furrowed, he had no clue what I was talking about. Gouki obviously didn't either. I could hardly blame them, it was before their time.

"I thought they destroyed all of the crops!" Kurama exclaimed. I nodded.

"They did, but the Spirit World still has a good bit of it stored on that level. It's the stuff they managed to confiscate off the black market and steal from both human's and demon's private collections." He nodded with understanding.

"Since according to their own law it shouldn't exist, even if they do notice some of it was taken, they'll never act on the theft for fear of the public finding out." His eyes narrowed as he put two and two together. "You plan on using this for your own body, don't you?" I shrugged, moving away from the table and going into the kitchen.

"It really doesn't matter what I use it for, does it?" I fixed myself a cup of tea while in there, not bothering to offer them any. Call me a bad host, but I don't think they'll stay long enough to drink with me.

"What is this 'God's Dirt' Kurama?" Hiei asked, mimicking the fox in taking a seat. Gouki followed the other two's move, wooden chair creaking under his weight while the fox began his explanation.

"An ancient healing agent that's made from the grinding down of specific plants into a very fine dust. A few ounces of it could heal an army going to war. Or in Ryo's case," he paused, looking to me as I sat in the chair opposite him, sipping my tea with a smirk and a raised brow, "regenerate a whole body from seemingly nothingness. It was used on both sides in many wars, performing miracles and being sought after by everyone. In those times, whatever side of a war held the most productive crops wins. King Yama banned it from existence shortly after burning every crop he could find in all three worlds. Wars broke out after that for the remaining Dirt, but it seems he was able to finally get a hold of the last of it. He was supposed to destroy it, according to his own law." I shrugged, swirling my tea in my cup.

"But he didn't. So it hardly matters anymore. He won't be able to do anything even if I'm caught. Which I won't be." A buzzing sound sprang into the air just as the last of the words left my lips. Kurama's eye widened in shock as he hastily pulled out a ringing cell phone from his pocket. A look of dread filled his face before he calmly placed it over with a patient look. Smooth… I thought to myself as he stood from the table, very smooth.

"Excuse me, I have to take this. Shall we meet back here this Saturday?" I nodded, and he calmly left the house, answering his phone as soon as he left the room. Hiei shot a wary look to the fox's back, as if he knew what the call was about.

"I'm goin' to eat. You comin' Ryo?" Gouki asked, pushing himself out of the chair and standing to his giant height.

"We already fed this week, if ya don't remember. Catch your own meal this time." He shot a glare and an angry look at me before turning and leaving. I didn't care; he was Toshiko's pet, not mine. Hiei raised a brow at this.

"You hunt with that whelp?" He asked as he shoved his hands in his pockets, scooting back the chair before propping his feet on the table. I couldn't contain the scoff even if I wanted too.

"Hunt? It's hardly a hunt with humans. And the only reason I eat at all is for Toshiko's benefit. She needs to maintain some kind of connection to her pawns." I took another sip of the tea as he watched me carefully, judging whether or not to keep up the conversation or go. I honestly didn't care. Toshiko could come out right now and I wouldn't have a problem with it. But she was resting, so I was stuck either here, or back in that damn kitchen waiting on the body to rest.

"That's all he is to you? A pawn?" He finally decided to get at least a bit more information out of me. I sent him a 'what do you think?' look.

"To me he's just a useless idiot. Toshiko keeps him around so that we have a place to put the table scraps. So yeah, to her he's just a pawn." He snorted at my reference to humans, finding some dark humor in it.

"If we get caught, what will you do?" He asked bluntly, not caring for darting around the fire anymore. I shrugged, meeting the bold look in his red eyes with an uncaring one in my own.

"Honestly? I won't be caught. There's no need to even think about it. But if the lot of ya were to be found out, my actions would depend on your own. I'd kill the whole lot of ya if ya thought about double-crossing me at your own fault." He paused for a moment, watching me and thinking to himself. I truly thought he'd scoff at the part where I'd said I'd kill him, but it seems that he at least knew who the stronger one was. The gears turning in his head were almost visible as I waited for his response.

"And if it were only one of us?" He finally asked, deep voice as calm as could be.

"Then there's only need for one of ya to die, right?"

It seemed he got the answer he was looking for, because he disappeared into thin air as he rushed off, causing the chair he sat in to clatter back onto all four of its legs.

Have I ever told any of you how frikin amazing you are? Because you know, you're pretty awesome : )

Super special thank you to my amazing reviewers who continued to support me throughout my 'off' time! : Torin! Chibi Botan! Ur-alternative-girl! And last but definitely not least, Jasmin Liertha! I look forward to hearing from all of you again ; )

See you next week!