By Mezi Matsuki
Later that day, after trying for a while to find the youkai, they seemed to have completely lost him. They could find no trace of his slimy hide whatsoever. Keecha was beginning to whine that she didn't want to stay in Makai for the night, and Mehin was tired of saving Ami and Nikki from random things such as trees that tried to bite you. During the last scuffle with these aggravating trees, the little group's "leader" of sorts, Mehin, got bit by something that was evidently poisonous, due to the fact that his hand was now slightly purple and swelling.
"I don't know how to fix it, Mehin! It's all... gooey..." whined Keecha, who was tired of Makai and just wanted to get home to take a nap.
"Didn't Uncle Kurama have biting plants? I thought he taught you how to cure the bites. He did, didn't he?"
"Yeah... but I don't know what type of plant this is... I can't cure it if I don't know what kind of plant it was." She said.
"Can't you find out from someone? Maybe a village or something nearby? C'mon, that's what we'll do." Grabbing his sister's hand with his non-purple-gooey one, he pulled himself up off the ground and started leading everyone once again. Unknown to the group of hanyous and ningens, a pair of dark red eyes were watching them as they searched for some sort of even slightly civilized form of youkai life. With a flit and a zip, the watcher was gone, searching for an old friend to help them.
"Damnit, I know his hideout was around here... Stupid fox, with his thieving ways... always hiding..." muttered Hiei, searching for the opening that led into Kurama's hideout. Finally finding it, he went inside without any hesitation at all. Barking out Kurama's name, he continued to wander down the catacomb-like hallways passing dumbstruck thieves who thought he was insane. He continued past them all until someone finally realized 'hey, this guy is either really stupid or he knows the boss' and sent someone to let Kurama know that someone was looking for him (not that there was an intruder.).
"Look, man, you don't belong in here." Noticing that Hiei just continued to go past him, he tried to stop him once again. "Dude, c'mon. You can't go back there. Just wait here, the boss is gonna deal with you in a—"
"Tell the fox to get his ass out here. Let him know if he doesn't, the Black Dragon will find a tasty snack of his hideout."
"Dude, there's no reason to threaten. The boss will be out in a minute, if he wants to. He may decide you aren't worth his time, Shrimp. I don't know whether he will come out or not, truthfully, he's been stuck in the back rooms for so long, and we don't really know what he's doing. He won't even come out for meals, not anymore."
"Does he come out at all?" Hiei prompted, curious about his friend's odd behavior and quite happy that this guard was so stupid and talkative.
"Nope. We see him pretty much once a month or so, and even then he's distant, like he's off in another world. A couple of the guys were worried and tried to make him come out, but two of 'em are down in the dungeons and the other three were all blood and scraps when we found 'em. Poor guys, he tore 'em up."
"Do you know why the fox only comes out that rarely?"
"Nope. There's rumors 'bout him tryin' to get his old partner back, but we all—"
"You all what? I think I deserve to know what people are talking about in my hideout, especially when it is concerning me." Came a voice from the doorway. Looking up with a look of utter fear, the thief just squeaked a "gomen nasai, Kurama-sama!" and dropped to his knees with his head on the floor. Hiei didn't understand why the thief was so afraid of Kurama, but as he was about to ask, Kurama spoke.
"Hiei, come with me. This gossip doesn't really need anymore information to yap about, ne?" A frightened squeak came from the kneeling thief as Kurama walked past Hiei and into a different room, where Hiei followed him.
"Damn... your men really are afraid of you... That poor guy nearly shit his pants when you came in." said an astonished Hiei. With a grin, Kurama answered.
"I know, isn't it great? They act like whipped dogs. Anyway, Hiei, what brings you to my humble hideout? It's rare that any of you come to visit me anymore."
"My nephew got bit by one of your man-eating plants."
"And?"
"It's one of the poisonous ones."
"So? Keecha should be able to heal plant bite."
"That's ningen plants, Kurama. Not Youkai."
"And what do you want me to do?"
"Find Mehin and heal it."
"Why?"
"Because I said so." Realizing that this wasn't then ningen Kurama that Hiei was used to, he realized that this Kurama would not do 'charity work'.
"And what shall I get?"
"What do you want, you greedy fox?"
"Just promise you'll help me when I call for it. I'm still working out the bugs and doing the research." Answered Kurama with a fox-like grin that only a youko could mimic. 'Oh great... he wants me to help him steal something... oh well, it's for Yukina's kid...' he thought.
"Whatever, fine. Just let me know in time to get Mukuro off my ass for just disappearing."
"All right, it's a deal. I'll personally see to it that they get here." Replied Kurama with an even more fox-like grin.
"I don't like your grin." With that, Kurama grinned largest yet, and stood up to go get the hanyou-ningen group from their searching for a civilization of some sort.