Hineko drew her blade through the air, creating an unnoticeable cut through her opponent's stomach.

"Hah!" He laughed, "You can't even hit me with your lovely little kata-?" He was on the floor bleeding. Hineko stood, out of swordplay position.

"Eat that, Bastard." She scoffed, spitting on his remains and exited the small home on the south side of New York City. The gold-eyed demon swung her leg over the crotch rocket that awaited her. She removed the auburn wig from her head, revealing silvery hair that stretched to the small of her back. She folded the shining locks into her black motorcycle helmet and zipped up her jacket. She sped off toward the city lights.

Hineko pulled the glove off of her hand with her teeth; She held that same hand out masterfully to create a light violet crystalline prism. She hurled it into the road in front of her and drove through a large gap that it created in the air. She came out in ReiKai, a place of wonders and horrors alike, in her case, horrors.

"Hineko!" Her boss said enthusiastically. "Glad you made it." Hineko glared.

"You thought otherwise?" He shook his head.

"There is just always a chance..." He warned as she scoffed.

"Not for me, I never lose." They dropped the subject and entered the large mansion that belonged to the man, Maninaki Shigure.

"Anyway, you sure he's dead? We don't want him to end up like Toguro Ani, now do we?" Hineko let out a loud laugh. Her alto voice radiated off of the hallow walls of Maninaki's castle.

"That oaf? Who would want them on their team, besides, I split him in half." Maninaki nodded. "Good." He replied.

"Now, Onto business matters, we have a ReiKai Tantei on our tails, obviously the little toddler upstairs has caught on to our little demon hunting corporation and wants all the credit for themselves, kill the detective." Hineko looked taken aback.

"I don't kill humans." She replied pointedly. Maninaki laughed.

"I know that, but he isn't entirely human." Hineko stared still at her boss.

"That's no excuse." Maninaki sighed, and then a smile crept onto his face.

"He's Raizen's descendant." Maninaki said finally, "Now go kill him. His name is Yusuke Urameshi; he's in Tokyo. Farewell." Hineko nodded and created another crystalline prism.

"Dimensional Dagger." She muttered to the appalled Maninaki. She stepped through the portal and into the NingenKai. She came out on Maine and 22nd street, standing right in front of Tokyo Dome. Hineko laughed.

"Urameshi must be lacking in things to do for him to hang out in a place like this on weekends." She scoffed coldly as her eyes scanned the perimeter for him. No signs, then, on the boardwalk, a boy with slicked back black hair and big brown eyes entered the area. It was him; Hineko could sense his ReiKi a mile away. He made his way to the ticket booth and Hineko stopped him.

"Not so fast, little Tantei. I've got a bone to pick with you." He grimaced.

"Can't I watch the fight first?" He pleaded. "Then we can fight anytime." She glared.

"No." Was Hineko's firm response "We're fighting now or never, and never is not a choice." Yusuke sighed comically and brushed a hand through his hair.

"So where do we do this?" He asked easily. Hineko laughed, kicking the rocks around with her gothic boots.

"Wherever you want." He nodded.

"How about the abandoned warehouse on Gotsu and Northern?" Hineko nodded.

"No problem, let's just hurry, I got places to go and demons to kill." Yusuke raised his eyebrows.

"Why don't you just join the ReiKai Tantei?" He inquired curiously. Hineko stared at the ground.

"I have my reasons..." She muttered mysteriously. Yusuke nodded.

"We all do, I suppose. What does Maninaki have on you to keep you working for him though? Why don't you just become a mercenary?" Hineko looked deep into the detective's eyes.

"He has my little sister." They reached the warehouse.

"Why don't you break her out and run?" Yusuke demanded as he threw the first punch. Hineko shook her head, tears flying.

"It isn't that simple. You wouldn't understand." Yusuke sighed and continued to attack her.

"I think it is." Yusuke argued. "You can, you don't think you can." He said firmly, a quick shake from her head made him continue. "Look, if you'll let me help you..." Hineko pinned him to the wall.

"I told you, you don't freaking understand!" She confirmed, pressing hard into his jugular with a dagger she had pulled from her boot. Yusuke sighed.

"Yes I do. I understand." Hineko dropped the knife and backed away.

"You'll never understand." She threatened, violet yoki forming in her palms, lifting her into the air. "NO ONE WILL!" A storm of purple energy filled the small warehouse. Everything flashed purple then red as they were both shredded by the blades her anger had made of her Yoki. Yusuke sat thrown against the opposite wall from where he had started and Hineko had fallen on the ground in the center of the rubble. Yusuke stood weakly.

"C'mon." He picked Hineko up over his shoulder. "Let's go." The spirit detective had a bit of trouble stumbling home with the added weight and bruises, but he made it. He placed Hineko on his bed and made his staggering way to the couch.

Hineko awoke in a light blue bedroom. "Where?" She mumbled as she sat up to see a brown-eyed boy bringing tea in.

"You're in my bedroom." He confirmed kindly. "Tea?" Hineko nodded and took a glass.

"Why are you helping me?" She inquired helplessly. Yusuke looked at her sternly.

"Because you need to be helped." His voice rang with the innocence only a child could possess.

"No I don't, I need to be taken from this realm back to my own, back to the Makai, back to my family. My brother, sister and god forbid, my mother!" Hineko protested.

"What's your last name?" Yusuke inquired randomly. Hineko gave him a cool stare.

"Kurama, what business is it of yours though?" Yusuke smiled.

"Your brother is a close friend of mine. Was he a thief named Yoko?" She nodded. "Then he hunts demons with the rest of the ReiKai Tantei Gummi and I." Hineko looked appalled.

"Brother." She whispered. "But this is time not for sentiments, but for plotting. Do you posses a chess board?" She asked the boy of 16. He nodded.

"Left closet, second door to your right. It's on the top shelf." Hineko nodded and went to grab it. Yusuke sighed. "She's an eyeful." He muttered to himself, gaining Hineko's attention.

"I heard that." She informed him as she returned with the board. Yusuke blushed and she set the board up on the futon. She placed a castle next to the king; next to those were knights. Pawns surrounded that, two bishops stood in front of this brigade.

"This is the idea that Maninaki has set up in his defense. He lay's in the underground of a highly defended castle, he's the King. The castle is his mansion, and the nights are his two best henchmen, Shinobi Sensui and Suzaku." Yusuke's expression froze.

"They're both dead." He confirmed, "I killed them myself."

"Oh, so you're the one who murdered my love. Anyway, Maninaki is a man in high places and brought them back with a mixture of science and magic." Yusuke nodded dumbly. Hineko grabbed some white pieces. The king stood next to the queen, a knight stood on each side of them and two bishops stood in front. Pawns surrounded those one space out.

"Okay." She began to explain ReiKai's defense system. "Now the King is King Enma himself, the queen is his toddler son. The two nights are Yoko and you and the two bishops are Kazuma and Hiei. With me so far?" A sharp nod from the Tantei and she continued, "The pawns are Koenma's ogres. Serving no purpose other than to buy some time. Now. If we send Kazuma and Hiei in as the first fleet, then we have quiet a bit of time to prepare further." The pawns shifted out of Kuwabara and Hiei's way, allowing them to take out the opposing bishops at the cost of themselves taken by the pawns. "Now, we send you, Yoko and I in." She placed a castle near where one of Maninaki's bishops had been. "I can work undercover, say that I took you and Yoko for hostages instead of killing you, that will allow us some time to look through the castle for my sister.

"Now we can't mess up on this. This is the most important factor. Once we find where Aburi is hidden, we grab her and run. If someone falls behind, they're left behind." Yusuke nodded uneasily and she continued. "But we shouldn't have to worry about that, I can make sure it all goes well. The next most important rule is that our main priority is above all our own safety, we cannot risk our own lives for another's beyond what I have just outlined." The castle and two knights made their way across the board and cut down all of the pawns and Maninaki's knights, leaving only him and his castle. Hineko held her hand over the board and fire floated into it. She set the castle aflame, which took Maninaki with it. Hineko swept her hand over the board to return it all to it's prior state.

"However." She warned, as Maninaki's side began advancing and cutting down pawns of ReiKai's side. "One slip up, and we could all be," She watched Shinobi's knight break Koenma's queen into pieces. "Out of luck." Yusuke nodded.

"So you're saying this mission all depends on your connections." Hineko nodded. "So if one of them was to fall flat," He gestured to the board. "This would happen?" Hineko nodded.

"That would happen, yes. But that is why we are going to be careful, very careful." Yusuke nodded.

"And this would stop the rogue demon killers, so it is a real Tantei case. I will tell Koenma, let's go. BOTAN!!!!" Hineko clasped her hand over his mouth, possessing knowledge of no other method to silence him. Yusuke looked at her, his temple throbbing in his forehead.

"I've another way." She said softly, "That doesn't involve annoying blue- haired twits." Yusuke nodded and she removed her hands, now covered in his saliva. "Ew!" She said blatantly, wiping it onto the bed covers. She held her hand out, creating her Dimensional Dagger. Yusuke gasped and looked at her questioningly.

"That's something I wasn't expecting!" He announced and Hineko laughed.

"Not many people do. Time to go!" She dragged the weapon through the air, creating an air rip leading directly to ReiKai. Hineko grabbed Yusuke's hand and pulled through it. For a moment, they were in a place that is indescribable by words. It was nothing, it was nowhere, but they were there. Then they were in ReiKai, in Koenma's office. Hineko fell to a single mocking knee in front of the ruler of ReiKai, then stood to confront him.

"I come with a mission for the ReiKai Tantei Gummi." Hineko told the toddler as if she were his mother. "I was the head of the Tajiya Foundation until Yusuke defeated me in combat, now I wish to infiltrate the corporation in hopes of shutting it down and retrieving my sister from its depths." Koenma nodded thoughtfully.

"What reason do I have to allow this mission to commence?" He asked firmly. Hineko laughed, and Yusuke looked at her as though she belonged in a psyche ward.

"The shutting down of the entire underground Tajiyas." Koenma nodded.

"And that would eliminate a few unfriendly demons that allied with them as well." He told himself aloud, "Alright. We will first send in Hiei and Kurama to scope out the place, check around for your sister and decide if we have the manpower to take them. Then Yusuke, you and Hineko will take Kuwabara in and fight your way through the guards and defenses. Seikai?" Yusuke and Hineko nodded, but Hineko interjected.

"I was thinking we send Hiei in with Kuwabara, whom we can afford to lose, then Hiei can return and the four of us go in together." Koenma looked thoughtful but shook his head.

"Despite how it seems, I cannot lose Kuwabara at this point in the game. He will go with the two of you, unless you desire to go alone?" Hineko nodded.

"It is better than putting up with Kazuma, I've been tracking Hiei, Yusuke and he for many months and discovered his annoyance to be unbearable." Koenma nodded.

"Then he will not be informed that this mission is taking place. You may leave as I go inform Botan." Hineko nodded and they left through another air rip, reappearing in Yusuke's room just as Atsuko came in.

"Mom!" Yusuke shouted, shoving her out of the room, "Can't ya' see we're trying to have a serious discussion here?" She picked him up by the collar.

"What's so serious that you can't talk about it in front of your own mother?" She inquired testily. Yusuke sighed.

"It's not what you think!" He shouted. Atsuko glared at him.

"First Botan, now this girl? Do you ever stay loyal to Keiko? She is your girlfriend you know!" Yusuke growled.

"She was, Mom. Was." He shot back cruelly. "We broke up, remember? Just after the tournament." Atsuko looked down.

"I know, but I can't help but wish you two were still together." She said, a forlorn look on her face. "No one could ever replace her, you've known each other since you were children." Yusuke groaned, more childhood memories that he despised.

"Look, this girl's name is Hineko. Try not to be rash?!" Atsuko nodded sighing, as well as downing her beer bottle.

"Hello, you must be Hineko. Yusuke's told me all about you, cute ears by the way." Hineko nodded and smiled.

"They're real, you know." Atsuko nodded kindly, not realizing that Hineko had heard her and Yusuke's entire conversation. Hineko turned to Yusuke, "So why'd you break up with Keiko? I heard the whole conversation." Yusuke looked at the ground.

"It wasn't my idea, she broke up with me. She said I should concentrate more on the things that matter for my future instead of this ReiKai shit." He kicked the rug. "ReiKai Tantei is my future.." Hineko nodded.

"I understand." She interjected. Their eyes held for a moment but the gaze broke when Atsuko spoke.

"Anyone for rice cakes?" She asked, earning a glare from Hineko.

"No thank you." She replied coldly. Atsuko nodded.

"Well." She said finally, "I am going to go meet some girls at the bar, you're welcome to stay here as long as you wish, Hineko." Hineko nodded her thanks curtly.

"Thank you so much, Miss Urameshi." Atsuko glared.

"Please, Atsuko is fine." Hineko nodded.

"Atsuko. Right, I'll remember that next time." And the woman left. Yusuke stared at Hineko. "What?" She questioned sharply.

"You didn't seem to get along with my mother too well." Hineko nodded. "Ah well, whaddy'a wanna do til we go to sleep?" He asked kindly. The girl shrugged.

"I suppose we could numb our minds with some T.V." Yusuke nodded.

"You've got a good enough brain for it not to matter." Hineko laughed flirtatiously.

"Thank you, Yusuke." He nodded and flicked on the TV. Hineko made her way slowly closer to him until her head was on his shoulder, asleep. He smiled.

"Good night." He muttered to her, picking her off the couch and placing her in his bed. He turned off the TV an hour later and went to bed himself, loving the feeling of her hot breath on his bare neck and back.