Same disclaimers and warnings apply, plus a flashback! Whoo! Flashback!

++

            Yukina swirled her coffee mug, watching the liquid inside create a little vortex. "So what exactly happened?"

Botan and Koenma glared daggers at one another, while in the background, the four infant members of the Reikai Tantei played happily. Of course, happily meant Kuwabara was avoiding Hiei at all costs, Yusuke was pounding Kuwabara's skull with his fists, and Kurama was hopping about wildly.

            "You were supposed to be keeping an eye out for trouble!" Koenma declared.

            "Well, you shouldn't have sent them out on that stupid assignment in the first place!"

The both of them exchanged looks, eyes narrowing before they answered in unison, "IT'S ALL KURAMA'S FAULT!"

The silver kit poked his head up at the mention of his name, head cocked as if to say, "who, me?"

            "How in the Reikai is it his fault?" the koorime asked.

Koenma slurped a mouthful of coffee. "If that damn horny youko hadn't pissed off his ex-girlfriends, we'd be in far better shape right now."

Botan shook her head. "I sense a flashback coming on…"

            "Not quite yet, Botan, I have to explain things first," Koenma chided. "You see, it all started because Yomi and Mukuro were bickering again and sending demons to make a mess out of one another's territories…nothing new, right. The problem was that they were traipsing through Raizen's turf, and he was none too happy about this, so he asked me to send Yusuke and the boys to get the demons out of Raizen's lands and get the other two to quit trying to make Swiss cheese out of the Makai…"

++

            The four members of the Reikai Tantei were getting pretty fed up of chasing demons. They'd made a brief stop at Mukuro's fortress to warn her that Raizen would be busting her ass the next time she told her legions of demons to cut across his backyard in order to mess with Yomi.

            "She didn't look too happy to see you, Hiei," Yusuke observed.

Hiei shrugged. "It's because I refused to follow that infernal woman's orders. I'd much prefer being Koenma's errand boy than Mukuro's pet project."

Kuwabara shook his head grimly. "Yeah, if I were in the same place, I'd take toddler over bionic bitch any day."

Kurama sighed, toying with the ends of his hair.

"Do we really have to see Yomi as well? I'd rather avoid him if at all possible," he stated.

            "We don't have much of a choice, he is part of the problem. We just tell the horned freak to knock it off and that'll be that. I know how much you hate having to deal with him," Yusuke replied.

Kuwabara snickered, slugging the redhead in the shoulder. "What's the matter? Scared of your ex?"

            "Immensely," Kurama replied in all honesty. Given the choice between going before Yomi and being boiled alive in a vat of Yusuke's hair pomade, he'd most indubitably take the latter.        

Hiei's hand rested briefly on his katana. "Don't worry, fox. If I catch him anywhere near you, I'll make sure he's less one set of ears."

Well, it wasn't the most loving of declarations, but then again, Hiei wasn't the most loving of demons. At least his heart's in the right place.

            "Uh, guys?" Kuwabara coughed. "We're not alone."

Just then, a pair of youko leapt from the trees overhead, folding their arms across their chests and glaring at Team Urameshi. They were a pair of dark females, fox-spirits, one dressed in green, the other in brown. Kurama seemed to pale at the sight of them.

            "Well, well. What do we have here, Nadiel?" the one in brown asked.

            "Don't know, Lis. Looks like a bunch of trespassers in Master Yomi's territory to me."

The fox-girl in green, Nadiel, pouted. "You know, I believe that these are those boys Koenma sent to spoil the boss's fun."

Lis nodded. "I think you're right. Let's see…" she pulled a little set of index cards from thin air. "Yusuke Urameshi, Reikai Tantei of the Ningenkai."

            "Raizen's boy?"

            "The very one. And we have Kazuma Kuwabara, the ningen psychic with the glowing Spirit Ken. He's the tall, stupid-looking one, Nadiel."

Kuwabara's eyes bugged out of his head at hearing some little demon call him such things. "Hey!"

The shorthaired youko flipped another card. "Ooh, Jaganshi Hiei. Forbidden Child of the Koorime, fire demon…Mukuro's little playboy. My, this is quite a group, isn't it?"

Nadiel smiled viciously at Hiei. "Indeed."

            "And lastly, one Shuuichi Minamino…oh, beg pardon, that's his alias. Alias, Shuuichi Minamino. His real name happens to be…oh ho, this is interesting. Youko Kurama. Nadiel, it's our dear friend Kurama, come home for a visit! It's lovely to see you again, dear."

Yusuke winced. Not only were these girls laying the sarcasm thick, but they were making Kurama absolutely squirm as well. The redhead's youko self had been notoriously promiscuous in the past, taking lovers of both sexes, and these were obviously a couple of his ex-girlfriends. Ouch.

            "I take it you two are working for Yomi now. I thought you swore you'd never sell yourselves out to some big boss," the half-demon boy said pointedly.

            "We did," Nadiel stated coolly. "But Yomi's got a really good 401K plan, not to mention great dental coverage. Plus we get every other Thursday off, no nights, no weekends, no holidays, and we don't have to carry pagers."

Hiei gave the two girls a withering look. "What is it that you pathetic excuses for youko want?"

            "Ooh, he's got a temper. The boss sent us, firebomb. Yomi-sama isn't too happy that you've gone and chased off, maimed and killed off so much of his army."

Lis nodded, starting to bristle. "Not to mention you've spoiled all his fun. Tormenting Mukuro is about the only thing worth doing around here, you know."

            Yusuke lifted his hand, obviously prepared to charge up his Rei Gun and make some intelligent little quip, but the fox-girls lifted hands to stop him.

            "No you don't, Urameshi. We'll have none of that. You see, because you've gone and ruined Yomi-sama's plans, he wished for us to…um, how should I put this? Dispose of you?"

Nadiel nodded in agreement. "I guess 'dispose' is all right. You're gonna die, any way you slice it."

            "I'm not fighting no girl, Urameshi," Kuwabara stated. "It goes against my Code of Honor."

Yusuke sighed. "I know, Kuwabara, we've previously established this. Besides, it isn't going to take all four of us to drop these vixens anyways. You can just sit back with the popcorn and watch. I call dibs on one of them, Hiei and Kurama, you two can duke it out for the other."

            "You know, Yomi-sama is willing to compromise, if you're willing to listen," Lis pointed out. "Or we can just fight to the death like the rest of the uncivilized masses living here. Your choice."

Kurama stepped forward. "What are Yomi's demands? I'd rather not spill any unnecessary blood."

Longhaired Nadiel pulled out a small piece of stationary paper, perused it, and threw it over her shoulder. It ignited midair and completely burnt away before it ever hit the ground.

            "Very simple. Kurama goes back to working for Yomi-sama, and he'll immediately cease all attacks on Mukuro."

            "No," Kurama said immediately. "Absolutely no. 'Working for Yomi' as you put it translates out to 'being his youko-baby sex slave.' So no."

Lis shrugged, removing a long, slender pipe from where it was tucked in her belt. "I was afraid that would be your answer, and so was Yomi-sama. So he sent this along with us."

            Suddenly Yusuke let out a sharp howl of pain, clutching a spot in his neck. A hair-thin needle was quivering in the flesh. Kuwabara yelped as well, stuck by another needle. Youko Lis twirled her blowgun in her slender fingers, grinning viciously. Nadiel grinned as well.

            "You're next, Mister Jaganshi," she informed Hiei.

Hiei gave her a condescending smirk. "If you can catch me, vixen bitch."

Lis began chasing the demon, but he was always one step ahead, practically a blur of black as he darted from branch to branch. Nadiel groaned, shaking her head.

            "We don't have time for this!"

The girl in brown stopped, dropping down out of the trees, while her partner made something materialize in her hand…something she lobbed in Hiei's general direction. It exploded in a burst of blue powder, which enveloped a wide swath of the area. In a very un-Hiei-like fashion, he fell from his perch, clutching his throat and choking. Kurama glared at his two ex-girlfriends.

            "What have you done to them?" he snarled, too furious to pull such a mediocre stunt as to reach for his rose whip. The girls shrugged.

            "It's not going to kill them," Lis stated nonchalantly.

            "Just a little…erm…spell type thingy Yomi-sama had cooked up especially for you boys in case you didn't feel like cooperating with us. So what do you say now, Kurama-kun? Are you going to reconsider?" Nadiel added. "Or are you going to end up like your friends?"

Kurama's ki crackled around him dangerously. Suddenly his outline blurred, and where there had been a redheaded half-human now stood a very, very angry silver youko. The two girls didn't even seem threatened as Youko Kurama moved closer to them, shielding the others.

            "I told you before," the demon hissed, "I will not be going back to Yomi. Now unless you give me the antidote in the next two seconds, you will not be going back to him either."

Nadiel and Lis exchanged glances. "He threatened us."

            "He did! And to think, not more than seven hundred years ago we were one big happy orgy. Just Kurama, and us, and Rekki, and Sabrem, and Ketriel, and Mareen, and…"

            "Don't forget Jocastra."

            "Oh, right."

Kurama grabbed them by the collars, lifting them off the ground and bringing him just inches from his face. "Are you even listening to me? Or are you just mocking me now?"

Lis jabbed one of her blow darts in his throat. "Nope, just waiting for the opportune moment to stick you with one of these things. You shouldn't have turned Yomi-sama down, Kurama."

Nadiel smiled sweetly. "Enjoy being a puppy, we know we'll have fun watching you. Yomi-sama just bought a high-definition television, so we can watch you just the way that goofy kid Koenma watches you, only with better reception."

            Youko Kurama dropped the two girls, who ran off giggling hysterically. "Shit…"

He sank slowly to the ground, gulping as a bitter taste filled his mouth. That potion worked pretty damn quickly. Vision going blurry, the silver youko curled up beside Hiei and passed out.

++

            "And this," Botan waved at the toddlers behind them, "was how I found them when Koenma sent me to check on their progress."

The childlike god nodded. "That hothead Kurama should have just gone with those girls. So what if he got stuck with Yomi for a while, at least he would've gotten the chance to retrieve the antidote. Now I've got to go beg Yomi, and I hate having to beg! It makes me look so juvenile!"

            "Then why don't I go and get the antidote?" Yukina suggested.

            "NO!" Botan and Koenma shouted.

Yukina folded her arms and pouted. "You appoint me Reikai Tantei, then you tell me I can't go and do my job…you're going to make me watch all four of them, aren't you?"

Botan grinned. "Just think of it this way, you get to spend time with Kuwabara after all!"

            "I didn't mean it like this!" she moaned. "Please, isn't there anything you can do?"

Koenma's eyebrows arched. "Of course not! If I thought there was, I would've already tried it!"

Botan bit her lip. "We should probably go now, Koenma-sama, so we don't leave Yukina by herself for too long."

He nodded in agreement. "Let's roll."

            As soon as Yukina was out of earshot the Reikai prince exchanged looks with his coworker.

            "Jeez, Yukina's definitely hit teenagerdom. She acts like she's got PMS."

Botan shrugged. "Oh, I'll bet she'll get over it. Hey, let's stop for ice cream first! My treat."

            "Definitely. Can't beg before powerful demon lords on an empty stomach."

            "Maybe catch a movie too?"

            "Aw, hells, why not? We never get time off for dates anymore, do we?"

++

TO BE CONTINUED…