Deceiver: Chapter 2

Darting silently like a crimson shadow though the dimly lit streets, the fox quickly made her way through the heart of downtown Tokyo. Only she was no longer a fox.

Her crimson pelt covered body had been traded in for a different one, a bald one. A body of a human, and even though the fox was rather displeased with the loss of her pelt, tails and other attributes she only possessed in her spirit animal form, she was not however in any case an eyesore, at least when based upon human standers.

Long crimson hair the same color as her pelt, held tightly in a neat braid hung limply down to her slender back, which was covered by a relatively fitted camouflage print t-shirt. The words 'Hell's Rebel' written across the back in bold white letters. Her long, well muscled legs, by female standers at least, were dressed in a pair of simple, and rather worn blue jeans, a large gaping hole in the left knee. All in all the fox was defiantly not bad looking in her human body, however much she did dislike it. The only thing that had not changed in the kitsune's appearance was her eyes. They still remained as bold, and as green as they had been while her body had been that of a fox, and they still held an animalistic quality, a quality that no human eyes could possess.

Taking a moment to sniff the air the fox let out a soft growl, then continued on her way, jade orbs glinting in the light produced by the early morning sun.

She had arrived in the human realm quite some time ago, and was now attempting to find some sort of suitable lodgings. However it was proving to be rather difficult. She knew she would need some sort of parent like figure to pass herself off as an average human, but…

"Cursed beasts…" The fox muttered to herself, proceeding to move out of the shadows of the ally she had been hiding in. Who would of guessed that finding suitable lodgings would prove to such an annoying task?

Human minds were easy enough to control for one such as the fox, but first the proper memories, and thoughts were needed. So far no such human had made themselves known to her, and she was growing short on patients. She was also beginning to get a certain ringing in her ears from invading the minds of so many humans.

Letting out a gruff, yet feminine sigh, the fox settled herself upon the curb of the street she was on, and took to watching the few, and far between cars that passed by. From what she knew of human dwellings, the fox had a pretty good idea about where she was, and figured that this quite street would be the best place to look for a pretend human parent. She had seen humans leave from their homes after kissing their mates and young goodbye, but as to where they going the fox could only guess.

What she needed however was a household with preferably only one alpha and no cubs, for she had found from only watching them a short while that they annoyed her.

Then she spotted her, a lone female exiting her house seemingly in a hurry, for her long reddish brown hair was ruffled, and her face was flushed. It took only a moment for the fox to probe the woman's mind for the information she needed. She was thirty-four, single, working, and relatively kind. Most importantly however was the fact that she had some distant relatives from out of state, all the fox needed to do was make herself the long lost child of one of those relatives, and that was easy enough to do with only a slight bit of mind control.

Purring contently to herself over her find, the fox stood silently from her crouched position and made her way over towards the woman as she fumbled with the keys to her car. However the fox's expression was only confident for a moment, for as soon as the woman looked to her, she appeared to be no more than a lost child. Her pale face sick with worry, and a certain kind of fake pain.

The woman tilted her head slightly in confusion as to why such a being would approach her, the keys she was fumbling with only moment before now lying forgotten in her clenched fist.

" M-ms. Hinoto?" The fox asked softly -she had found the woman's name during her mind probe.

" Y- Yes?" The woman replied, blinking in confusion " D- do I know you miss?"

False tears welled up in the fox's large green orbs, and began to poor down her flushed cheeks.

" I- It's me" She choked out between fake sobs " Ne- Neome, your second cousin from America." As the final word of her sentence left her lips, the fox immediately griped the woman's mind with her own, forcing in false memories, and changing all others to fit her needs. It was all too easy.

Ms, Hinoto's confused face quickly became blank, as she fell completely under the fox's trance.

" Who did you say you were?" the woman asked slowly her voice, like her face, was utterly blank. The fox smirked her tears ceasing to fall.

" I am Neome, the daughter of your cousin from America, when my father, your cousin died in a car crash I was sent here to you." The fox's voice was calm cool, and yet so utterly commanding it was scary.

The woman nodded slightly, like a zombie.

" Good." The fox cooed, her jade orbs glimmering slightly "…I'm glad that you understand auntie dear." With that, the woman quickly snapped back to reality, her eyes welling with tears. Before her, the fox had once again taken on the innocent look she had formally worn.

The woman took one look at her supposed family member's needy face, and embraced her tightly.

" Oh dear, oh my little dear. I'm so sorry for your loss…"she cried, as the fox wrapped her arms round her middle and cried false tears into her shoulder. This really was too easy. Humans were such weak, stupid creatures.

Despite her pretend tears, the fox couldn't help but smirk slightly into her new mind slaves shoulder. This ordeal was going to be more of an amusing game than she first thought.

" Now come in dear," Ms. Hinoto chided, gripping the fox by the shoulders gently, and lead her up to the front door of her house. For a moment the woman once again began fumbling with her keys and struggled to open her door. The fox smirked slightly at the human's inability to perform such a simple task, before she took a moment to examine her new den with a critical eye. Kept hidden only by her crimson locks that shielded her face like a mask.

The house was small, only one story high and a reddish pink in color, and the fact that there was a quaint little garden in the front only added to the homey look of it all.

Well. The fox thought to herself. It's certainly a change from my former lodgings in demon world…bit to happy and homey like though…I honestly don't understand why humans take so much time to merely fix up their dens…such pathetic, stupid creatures…

Ms. Hinoto finally got the door open, and once again took the fox by the shoulders to guide her slowly into her home.

" There you are dreary," She said kindly, taking the fox to a sofa, which she literally sank into upon taking a seat. " Now let me just call into work and say that I wont becoming in today. Try to make yourself as at home as possible…" And with that the woman scurried away.

The fox smirked "…humans are certainly the most pathetic creatures in all of the three worlds…and yet…they are also the most amusing…I do believe that our time here will prove to be quite enjoyable…don't you agree Ryusen?" A soft chuckle escaped the fox's lips, as her left eye began to glow a demonic golden golden.

She was most certainly going to have a good time in this world.

Warm jade orbs, flickering in the pale candlelight, scanned the area anxiously. At current, Kurama found himself located rather uncomfortably in The Crimson. One of Demon world's most popular bars, and the center most point of a notorious smuggling ring.

The bar was dimly lit, with only a few withering candles located on the tops of the black marble tables, that were scatter loosely through out the interior. The only other lighting came from the few, small, and red tinted lights located in the upper four corners of the bars ceiling. All in all, the dim lighting, black walls, and rough looking occupants, really added up to make The Crimson look like something straight out of the deepest pit of hell, which in all honesty it was.

As Kurma looked around, he couldn't help but feel the eyes of the other occupants locked on him in some sort of death glare…He knew that this particular crowd didn't take lightly to strangers…especially ones that looked like him. With his long crimson locks, friendly green eye, and over all human appearance. It was easy to see that spirit world detective was not a normal customer.

Hiei on the other hand was a different matter…the little fire youkai came busting in through the front door if the bar, dragging a kicking and screaming toad like creature.

Kurama couldn't help but sigh softly. Earlier, when Hiei had first mentioned going off on his own, and meeting up with Kurama at The Crimson, he knew there was bound to be trouble.

Scanning the dimly lit bar with his glaring crimson hues, Hiei quickly spotted Kurama and strolled casually over to him. Still dragging the frantic little demon behind him as if he did this sort of thing everyday.

"…I thought we agreed to make our stay a little less noticeable than this…"Kurama muttered softly as Hiei took a seat across from him at his booth, making sure to keep a firm death grip on the back of the little demons shirt collar.

"…Hn…"Hiei smirked "…Even if I hadn't made quite as big of an entrance…I doubt if our presence here would go unnoticed…for you seem to have attracted quite a bit of attention to yourself even without my being here…"

Kurama narrowed his eyes slightly, before taking another look about the bar. Sure enough, he was still being watched. Hiei only smirked more at his partners reaction, however his confident smirk quickly shifted into a heart stopping glare, which he aimed directly at the foolish ones who had chosen to take up staring at him…That made them divert their eyes.

Kurama shook his head slowly, and shifted his gaze to the shivering demon that Hiei still held captive. "…Who is this?"He questioned lightly.

"…The pathetic creature that's going to help us…"Hiei answered simply, his voice suddenly very hushed and serious. Kurama nodded in response, before he took to studying the little demon.

He was small, probably only about four feet high, with a body that looked similar to a stretched out toad's. His eyes large yellow eyes were wide in terror, and his toothless mouth hung open in a permanent gape.

"What dose he know?" Kurama asked softly, still keeping a wary eye on the demon

" N-nothing!" The demon croaked loudly, only to have his air supply cut off as Hiei wrapped a firm hand about his neck.

"…What was that?" Hiei growled lowly…thirty seconds into the integration and he was already running out of patients. The demon visibly flinched, and clawed at his throat for air. For a moment longer Hiei kept his grip firmly locked around the demons neck, then almost reluctantly, he loosened it. "…Keep your voice down…"He warned softly.

The demon nodded quickly, before speaking "…what exactly do you want to know?" He croaked softly.

"Anything you know about the happenings at the spirit world vault…" Kurama said softly, before Hiei could even open his mouth to speak. The Demon's large eyes widened at this, and a crooked smile spread across his face

"…Ah…. So you're after the core…"he murmured softly "…Then you must know that its already been stolen… am I correct?" Hiei rolled his eyes.

" Of course we do," He snarled, " You may not know this, but not all people are as stupid as you." The little demon flinched at Hiei's strong words, as if physically stung by something. Kurama merely shook his head again…sometimes working with Hiei was impossible.

"What exactly do you know about the thief who broke into the vault?" The redhead questioned softly. The demon shifted slightly in his seat next to Hiei.

" Not much I'm sorry to say…No one really dose…but…"He paused and looked to Kurama "…There's a roomer that Red ghost is the one you're after…"

"Red ghost?" Kurama echoed, "…Who is this red ghost?"

"Like the thing with the vault…"The demon continued " Not much is known about The ghost…All that's really known about her is that she appeared in demon world for the first time about fifty years ago…but at that time she was a nobody, just another wanna be gold runner really…but then there was some talk about her stealing something of great power from spirit world, and then she disappeared…Some said she was caught and killed by the spirit world officials, but then about eight months ago she just randomly showed up again out of the blue…"

The little demon gazed around nervously for a moment, looking to see if anyone was eavesdropping, but there was no one. He remained in silence until Hiei gruffly have his head a shake, and then continued.

" The Ghost didn't really remain here in Demon world long, because she made a deal with old man mist…one of the most powerful collectors of illegal items. I don't know what they made an agreement about…but the word on the street is that the old man was going to have Red Ghost steal something for him…"Kurama nodded slowly.

"…It's beginning to make sense now…isn't it Hiei?" He said softly. The raven-haired fire demon merely gave a shrug of his shoulders.

"We have all the information that we don't really need, all we need to know is where the heck this Red Ghost is now, and how to kill her." With that the fire youkai turned his attention to the toad demon, which seemed to shrink with fear.

" I-I'm sorry, but I can't help you with that…They say that anyone who's ever gone after Red Ghost turns up dead…And besides…No one even knows where she is…"Hiei growled softly, and Kurama let out a heavy breath.

" Thank you for your time…"The redhead said softly, as he tucked a few stray crimson tresses behind one of his ears. "…However, I must ask you to keep our discussion secrete…"

" Or else…" Hiei added threateningly. At this the little toad demon nodded quickly, and scampered away the moment Hiei threw him to the ground.

"We need to get back, and report…. out findings…"Kurama muttered softly to his shorter partner. Hiei merely shrugged and stood.
"Hn…. Then what are you still sitting around for?" He grumbled, as he turned and began to make his way out of the bar.

The redhead sighed once more before he got to his feet and followed the fire demon's lead. As soon as they got back to spirit world, Koenma was going to get an earful…