Hikari Katsunan----- Hih-cahr-ee Cat-suu-nahn

Senko Miruto------Sehn-coh Mih-ruu-toh

Aika Seisho------Ay-eeka Sey-sho

------

"What do you mean, there are others?" asked Kurama with a frown. "What sort of others?"

"Others, like me." Kigeko answered. "Demons through spiritual transformation," she grinned, turning her eyes away. "Spirit Demons, we've named ourselves, since we don't seem to have a specific element."

Kigeko was sitting on a park bench. Kurama was beside her with Kuwabara sitting on one of the arms. Yusuke was leaning on the back of the bench, partially separated from the group but listening all the same to Kigeko's words.

"Where are these others?" asked Kurama, his green eyes gazing serenely at her in hopes to catch her gaze once more.

"He has them." she answered solemnly. "One is a friend of mine."

"You have friends?" Yusuke muttered. Kigeko's ears caught the comment, and her head whirled around to face the Spirit Detective. But instead of a mask of anger and loathing, her countenance instead sported a jovial grin.

"Amazing, isn't it? I seem more like the loner type."

"You might say you gave us that impression," Kurama chuckled.

"Yes well," Kigeko laughed. She shoved her hands into her pockets and leaned lazily against the back of bench, her chin rested on her chest and her eyes closed even though she was deep in conversation. "I usually am, but I make exceptions. I have a lot of friends if you want to think about it," she sighed. "But funny thing is, I don't like too many of them."

"How can you not like your friends?" Kuwabara asked. Kigeko grinned, though never changing her stance on the bench.

"Oh it's simple," she answered. "If you really think about it. I mean, these are people I've known for years, but overtime their company was less than desirable. I'd rather be alone than with them. I don't like them. They've changed too much, and not for the better." She stopped then, debating internally whether or not to continue on.

"And what happened to these friends whom you did care for?"

Kigeko sighed, her eyes closing tighter.

"I had four friends. Two of them moved before all of this started happening; Senko and Aika. We kept in touch up until about a month ago. I never told them what happened to me. We just lost contact with each other. I tried to call them and I never received responses. I assumed that they'd grown to feel about me the same way I had about so many other friends." She stopped and considered her words, then began laughing. It seemed such an odd sound. A mix between a child's innocent giggle, and a malicious cynical, almost mocking cackle. Kurama noted that whatever this was probably told a lot about her. "So I lost contact with all but one friend. We grew closer after I had changed, because she had sensed it."

"She sensed your change?" Yusuke asked in amazement.

"Well, that's not impossible." said Kurama, turning his gaze to Yusuke. "After all, Kuwabara has an exceptional sixth sense, and so does his sister Shizuru. It is not as uncommon as you think."

"No, it wasn't like that." Kigeko interrupted. All three turned to her.

Three simultaneous "Oh?" 's came her way, and immediately she grinned broadly.

"This friend of mine, Hikari Katsunan, she had undergone the same thing a month before me. Only she hadn't made a full transformation. She's only half Spirit Demon."

"Only half?" Kurama questioned. "That's odd."

"I thought so as well," she went on. "But then, none of this was in either one of our control, so it wasn't our place to complain, nor could we question because there was no one who had any answers."

Kurama nodded. "Of course."

"Yes well, it didn't help. Anyway, Imashirou found out about Hikari and now I'm all alone in a friendless world."

"How did he find out about her?" Yusuke asked. "Does he have some sort of demon detector?"

"I don't know, smart mouth," she laughed. "But it doesn't really matter how he's finding us. What matters is that he is finding us, and the probability of him soon finding me is very good seeing my odds."

"And what odds are those?" asked Kurama.

"Well, until you guys arrived, I was the only demon in town." she smiled brightly.

"Imashirou's tracing abilities are that strong?"

"Well, either that, or the demons these days are really dumb. I'm betting a combination of both. With, if I may say so, newbie demons like myself are walking around town, I'm sure there are many that are much more overconfident than I."

Kurama and Kuwabara chuckled, and Yusuke himself had to give a slight smile. For being what she was, Kigeko was an all right girl. Or demon. Demoness.

"If you're going to stop this man," she started after a bout of silence. "You're going to need help. Your best bet is to break the dungeons and free as many demons as you can before ever getting in there on your own."

"Our first concern is our friend." Yusuke said with some irritation.

"Right." Kurama nodded. "After that, we'll see what we can do. Is there any way to defeat this Demon Lord?"

"If I knew that, I'd have done it already." Kigeko chimed sarcastically. Kurama sighed, along with the others.

"Yes, I suppose that makes sense."

"No plans, no hopes, no allies." Sighed Yusuke. "You'd think this just be another walk in the ball park."

------

"Are you always this slow or are you stopping to sniff fire hydrants when I'm not looking?" snapped Hiei as he peered over his shoulder to the lagging Inuyasha.

"Shut up, matchstick!" Inuyasha spat, landing a few yards behind him. "Do you even know where we're going?"

"Would you like to lead the way?" Hiei huffed. "I'm sure with that bloodhound nose of yours you could find your way out of this forest in a heartbeat!"

"You know something, you're really starting to get on my nerves!"

"And you're getting on mine! Do you want an award? Now, shut up! You don't know what's in these forests any better than I do. If we want to survive long enough to rescue your little friends we're going to have to work together."

"Looks like we've got some progress ahead of us." Inuyasha muttered.

"Indeed." replied Hiei, but so only he could hear. With a bound he was gone again, leaving it up to Inuyasha to keep up with him.

"Wait up will ya!" The hanyou yelled as he leapt after him. "So you're fast! You're proved that! You know. if we want to work together we're going to have to STAY TOGETHER!!!"

------

Hiei landed in a nearby tree, Inuyasha a few branches below him. There was a city in sight by now, empty streets and sidewalks, with driverless cars parked on the sides of the road. The playgrounds were bare of children, and all the stores seemed to be closed. The sun was beginning to set, giving the eerie overcast of a ghost town before hell was about to break loose.

"Great plan, genius." Inuyasha spat. "Do you-"

"Shut up!" Hiei hissed, this time more intense than ever before. Inuyasha fell silent merely out of surprise that this fire demon could sound like even more of an ass then he had been previously. The hanyou watched as Hiei removed the white bandana from his forehead to reveal;

"A third eye?!"

"Quiet!" Hiei hissed. "I need to concentrate."

"For what? Cleaning a contact lens!?!?"

Hiei disregarded how Inuyasha might know about the futuristic replacement for glasses and closed his two primary eyes. Within moments, the Jagan was combing the landscape for signs of life. He found some, at a part nearby. These were not the beings he expected to find, but they were most likely better than anything else he'd find.

"Come, this way." Hiei stated, leaping from the tree to the nearest rooftop, and then on to the next rooftop in quick and extraordinary flashes of light.

"Hey! Wait!" Inuyasha yelled, chasing after.

------

The group sat in awkward silence for some time. Kigeko had her eyes closed, either thinking or resting, no one was sure which. Kurama sat also with his own eyes closed, pondering on what they could do to release Hiei and the others from Imashirou's clutches. Yusuke was still leaning against the back of the bench, his eyes closed. Not in thought, but in sleep.

Kuwabara was the only one with open eyes, gazing dreamily into the clouds as though that was where the answer to all their problems lay.

They assumed this position for many minutes, no one thinking it unsafe to be out in the open with no one else out.

"Well, this is disappointing." Hiei laughed, more to himself than his newfound companion.

"What, that there's not enough of them to kill?" responded Inuyasha in a very sarcastic manner. Hiei turned a glare upon the half dog demon. Inuyasha turned his gaze away, showing no signs of regret over what he said. "What, demon? I know your type. You kill for pleasure and nothing else. Don't care who or what or why, you just do it because it feels good. I don't-" but Inuyasha was cut off when Hiei grabbed the cloth of his shirt and pulled him very, very close so that this hanyou would see the real fire that burned within him.

"Do not be so quick to judge, canine, unless you would like to find yourself sporting a hair cut similar to a poodle! I suggest you shut your very large mouth." with that he let go, then leapt stealthily from the rooftop to the tree near the daydreaming group. Inuyasha sighed, then followed, making sure to find a branch in which to sit himself upon.

------

Kurama was the first to hear the voice, but wondered if it was just his hopeful overactive imagination. With a start he flew up from his seat and stood, allowing his eyes to search their surroundings. Yusuke, taken off by the sudden movement from behind him, turned his gaze to face the rest of his companions, eyeing the fox demon with question.

"What is it Kurama?"

"I...just heard...." he drifted off. "That voice..."

"Hey Kurama, what's up?" Asked Kuwabara, seeing his friend's discomfort.

Kurama remained in his stance for some time, his eyes restlessly combing the park until his suspicions were satisfied, and his heart disappointed.

"I'm just imagining things, it seems."

He turned to sit back down when suddenly there was a rustle in the tree just overhead. All looked up, suspecting the worst. Finally, a sarcastic and whining voice, trying desperately to make a whisper out of it, came down at them through the leaves.

"I can't help it!"

There was another low muttering, but no one could make out the words.

Yusuke stood, fists clenched; hungry for another battle.

"Hey! You in the tree! Come down here now and show yourself!"

Silence.

Yusuke smiled.

"All right then, I'll just have to come," he started to climb. "up--there!"

Kurama's ears caught it first. The sound of metal being pulled from a wooden scabbard. He aimed to call out to Yusuke who was only inching closer to his death, but it was too late for that. Within a fraction of a second, Kurama had his rose whip readied and sent it flying through the leaves of the tree. It took with it two heavy masses. One was dressed mostly in red, the other in black. The former fell atop the latter, his eyes wide from the stun of the whip. The other merely grunted, trying desperately to get out from underneath the creature.

"It's..." Kuwabara muttered, seeing the pair before Kurama could maneuver around them.

"HIEI!" Yusuke hollered happily. He shoved the white haired hanyou off of him and lifted the fire demon into a brotherly embrace in which Hiei struggled against for many moments.

After he finally released him, Yusuke began to prod the other with his finger curiously.

"Hey Hiei, who's your friend?"

"He's not my friend," Hiei answered immediately. "He's an annoyance that I would very soon like to be rid of." He turned to see the others staring at him in joy and relief, save for one young girl whom he did not know. "Hello Kurama," he greeted, overlooking her for the moment.

"Hey Hiei, what about me?" asked Kuwabara, a bright and stupid smile upon his face.

"Yes, you're still here. I'm amazed." commented the fire demon. "And disappointed." Kuwabara frowned, then began muttering to himself about rudeness. "Who's the girl?"

Kurama motioned to introduce the two, but Kigeko made herself known well enough to Hiei by releasing a clawed hand out before him to be shaken. He glared at her hand, and realizing that Hiei was not that sort of socialite, Kigeko retracted her hand and shoved it into one of her pockets.

"Kigeko." she answered. Hiei merely glared at her, and Kigeko eagerly matched it. After a few silent moments between the two, the fire demon turned away and looked to Kurama. "If you're going to ask if I can be trusted, that will be up to you." Kigeko stated before the fire demon could ever utter a word. "I can only say that I would not benefit from killing or betraying any or all of you, so it's not on my current agenda."

"Current?" Hiei asked with a slight suspicion.

"Well," she raised an eyebrow, "you've yet to piss me off yet, so yes. Yet. It's not on my agenda, yet."

"I see." Hiei stated. He turned then to see if Yusuke was still alive from bothering the hanyou, and found himself staring at an image of the white haired half demon holding his friend by his ankles and poking him continuously.

"How do you like that, huh?" he asked, poking incessantly as Yusuke yelled in annoyance. "Is that funny? Huh? Huh!?!"

"Oh my," sighed Kurama.

Kigeko snorted slightly, eyeing the situation with a slight bit of humor flickering in her eyes.

"It seems we may have a situation on our hands."

All the others nodded.

Author's Note: There Kat, are you happy now? Better be, damn it. I can't feel my hands anymore! By the way, that Hikari Katsunan, that's your character! So keep an eye out for her in the future. Okay?

Hope you liked it.