Chapter two

Preparation

"Yo, James! Long time no see!" Yusuke approached the older man. The veteran took the boy's hand in a warriors grip. "Boy, you've gotten taller since I last saw you. Is this your lady-friend, Keiko?" James gestured to the shortest female of the brown-haired company. Yusuke blushed and looked away. Keiko shook James' hand. "Its lovely to meet you James. Lil has told me a lot about you!"

"Has she? Yusuke is the only familiar face here; there are a good many new faces among you." Lil pushed her blonde hair out of her eyes using her sunglasses as a headband, revealing her green eyes. She pushed her friends into a rough line and pointed them out to her relative, "The long haired red-head is Suichi Minamino, but we call him Kurama; the spiky black-haired guy is Hiei, the tall brunette is Shizuru Kuwabara, the curly red-head is her brother Kazuma, the fluffy red-head is Jin, the smaller dude next to him is Touya, the tall blue-haired chick is Botan, and the shorter blue-haired mamacita is Yukina." The old man laughed heartily.

"So many new names and faces! I shall try my best to learn them all while you stay here. Between now and then, come! Allow me to show you around, don't worry about your luggage, it will be seen to." The white van became forgotten as they filed into the house and down the labyrinth halls. On the first floor were the dining hall, kitchen, drawing room, library and den; on the second floor were the guest rooms and other miscellaneous places; the third floor contained James' room, a small dojo, and an entertainment room; the fourth floor was prohibited. "I keep many delicate and antique things there, like an attic, only bigger." He said briefly. The guest rooms for the boys were located directly across from the girls, six rooms total, two people to a room except for Lil, being wrapped around James' finger as his only grandchild. Every room was connected to a small bathroom with a shower. The pairing of guests in each room goes as follows: Kurama and Hiei, Jin and Touya, Yusuke and Kuwabara, Shizuru and Botan, Keiko and Yukina, and Lil by herself. They found each of their belongings in their respective locations on the beds, waiting to be unloaded. Leaning out their doors, puzzled at having seen no servants of any kind to move their things, they heard Lil laugh softly, "My grampa works in mysterious ways." Jin flew up and down the halls. "I like this place, there's lots 'a room, and plenty of those pretty-smellin' trees outside to fly around! Like the one hanging on the mirror in the van." he laughed his cheery laugh.

"They're called pine trees, Jin." Kurama, the resident botanist chuckled.

"Jin, you can't fly around here!" Touya said.

"He's right, my grampa would have a heart-attack if he saw you flyin' around!" Lil yanked him down from the ceiling, "if you kill my grampa I'll-!" a tap on her shoulder diverted her mounting rage. She turned and blanched. "Eek! Grampa, hey, uh…what'cha doin'?" the old man eyed his blonde granddaughter warily, but with a smile.

"I was just about to ask you to do a bit of shopping for me; with a house of a dozen people, food would be scarce within the first few hours. Why don't you and the ladies take a trip to town a little way down the road and pick up some supplies?" James led the girl out of the house and back to the van. James really loved to have company, and he loved being a host to ladies even more. He held the van door open for each of the girls, making them blush. "I'll be back in an hour or two, grampa. Don't kill the boys while I'm gone!" Lil waved from the driver's seat. "Have fun, don't worry about them, I'll keep'em in one slice for you!"

As she turned out of the driveway, she muttered, "I just hope the boys don't screw up."

Yusuke was walking the length of the small dojo with Jin, while Hiei and Kuwabara were in a scrap again, with Kurama as the referee. Touya was already at the end of the dojo where large windows displayed the front yard, and watched the van leave. "Ya think the lass's granddad would mind if we wrangled a bit, Urameshi?" the fast talking Irish wind master addressed Yusuke.

"Uh…yes?" this provoked more laughter. Yusuke punched him to shut him up. "I won't use my Rei-gun if you don't use your wind powers. I'd hate to lose a sparring partner because Lil killed you for flying."

"Savy!" (That's pirate talk, sorry.) The two stood back from each other and took their fighting stances. They went on with speed a normal human could comprehend, using mainly grappling techniques. The floorboards creaked as they slammed each other into it. Unknown to them, the others were watching out of sheer boredom. Jin held Yusuke's head in a headlock for several seconds before the detective franticly signaled defeat. Jin released him and noticed why Yusuke had stopped; James was watching with raised eyebrows, his mouth reduced to a dot and hidden by his moustache. "Do you two fight often? Or is this some sport to you?" he asked cautiously.

"We pummel each other for sport!" Jin answered with a grin, "And sometimes for revenge." James clapped his hands together, "Its good to see the fighting spirit in people so young! I was curious, maybe one of you boys would take pity and have a short duel with this doddering old man. I do love to spar, but I live alone, with no one to spar with. It gets quite boring you see."

"I'll duel with you, jiji." (Loosely: old man, or grandfather.) Hiei stepped up to the man tall man. James was over six feet tall, taller than even Kuwabara; Hiei, contrary to the widespread rumor of his height, had reached the old man's collar, not including his hair. "I noticed a katana concealed underneath your cloak, boy, I knew you had a swordsman's spirit in you." James walked to the wall nearest and pulled a wooden sword from the rack mounted on it. "Unless you have never known my granddaughter's wrath, I suggest you put that blade away and chose a safer weapon." Kurama, Jin, Touya, Yusuke, and Kuwabara watched in horror. Hiei had previously sensed the veteran's fighting spirit and carefully probed his mind for a range of his expertise; it included swordsmanship.

It was surprising enough the Jagan-wielding fire-yokai chose to duel with a mere human, but he surprised them even more when he hesitated, and then leaned his katana against the wall and took down a wooden sword. He also decided not to use his lightening-speed or stone-crushing strength, just his skill. The silent audience held their breath. Surely Hiei would crush the old man mercilessly!

The swordsmen squared off and took different styled stances. Hiei's of course Japanese, and James'… it was hard to say for the audience; they had only known Japanese swordsmanship, Hiei and Shishiwakamaru being the only two in a wide ranging group of friends with swords. Kuwabara...he didn't count. James pushed off from his spot with his left foot, his sword perfectly aligned in front of him. Spinning his wrist, he directed his sword in a strong thrust. Hiei dodged and brought his sword down on James. The old man was not as doddering as he seemed; he flipped his sword up and blocked the blow. "Good, you adapted to my style very easily; though I must admit yours is odd to me."

Hiei nodded in agreement and jumped above James' head, bringing a thundering blow from above. James blocked this attack; when his sword made contact with Hiei's, he slid his sword across Hiei's until it caught against the hilt. Using his sword as a lever, he heaved the smaller person across the room and crashed into a wall. James' speed and strength had surprised him. Greatly. Maybe he wouldn't have to lay off his powers after all…

Yukina observed the quantities of candy and pumpkins on sale in the store. Did all humans have a raging sweet tooth? What's a pumpkin? "Lil, why is the store selling so much candy? I don't understand why such cheerful looking people are dressed in black and hang scary spiders from the ceiling."

"Its just the spirit of the holiday, Yukina. Halloween is an ancient festival, dating back to the Celts, who honored the dead on this day. They dressed up as animals and other things as part of a ceremony and went to each other's houses to ask for food as part of a grand feast. They also hollowed out small vegetables and put embers in them to ward away evil spirits. In the present, children dress up and go from house to house and people give them candy. As for the pumpkins, when Europeans came to the American continent, they discovered pumpkins were much easier to hollow out and carve."

"I see, I think." Yukina laughed and smiled at a few children begging their mother to buy more candy. Shizuru and Botan appeared with a shopping cart full of things in addition to the ones Keiko and Lil were pushing. "Do you think we'll really need this much food? I mean this is only half of the list!" Botan fanned her flushed face with her hand.

"We'll be here for a while after Halloween, Botan. Besides, there are seven men in the house now."

"You mean six men, and my kid brother." Shizuru snickered.

"Oh come on, Shizuru, Kuwabara isn't that young any more. He survived the Dark Tournament, hasn't he? Doesn't that count as being a man?" Botan frowned.

"He still goes trick-or-treating, Botan." Shizuru's eyes narrowed, annoyed.

"Oh…"

"So?! I go trick-or-treating and I'm mature!" Lil huffed, pushing her shopping cart to another aisle. "I can't resist free candy; especially Reese's peanut butter cups, and Reese's pieces. Anything that combines chocolate and peanut butter…" Lil continued her one-sided conversation while drooling. The remainder of the sane company looked on in fear or shame.

When all the groceries had been bought, the staggering mountain of food was only matched with the bill. Half of it had to be delivered by truck. Yukina had purchased a pumpkin, eager to fashion a Jack o' lantern of her own, and try to make a pumpkin pie. Lil had not come out of her drooling trance and was confined to the passenger front seat for fear of running them off the road while muttering the names of random chocolate edibles. "Oooh, Twix, yummy, 'two for me, none for you,' Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!!" X-D

When the manor came into view, Lil had escaped her bonds and journeyed to the back seat, eating a package of cookies and hissing 'my precious' every so often, spraying crumbs all over a very annoyed Botan in the process. The truck driver stopped in front of the house and offered to help unload their van. He opened the back of the van and reached in to grab a bag; he pulled up Lil's head instead. "AAAAAAAHH!!" he screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAHH!!" Lil screamed back, flinging cookies at him. "My precious!!" she snarled with a similar expression she had given Jin when he asked her 'if they were there yet.' The poor man ran back to his truck, hurriedly unloaded the contents, and peeled out of the driveway. Laughing hysterically, Lil burrowed into the groceries in search of more sugar. Shizuru yanked the girl out by her ankle and plopped her on the ground. "Stay." She said tersely. Shizuru suddenly straightened and looked toward the house; Hiei's spirit energy was rising. Lil had also sensed her grandfather's spirit energy flickering, not in a weak way, but as if it had not been released in a long time. The two of them abandoned the groceries and ran inside the house.

Skidding to a halt in the doorway of the dojo, Lil assessed the sight before her. James and Hiei were in a fast paced, and almost war-like duel. Fire shown in both of the duelists' eyes. James made a mistake in his footing and shrank back; Hiei lunged with a sword-thrust. James ducked directly under Hiei's sword and made a foot-sweep, throwing the yokai to the floor; and set his sword across Hiei's throat. "Well done, boy," he said, breathing heavily.

"And you, jiji." Hiei said. James rose; Hiei allowed the older man to help him up, and they replaced their swords on the wall. James turned to the door and stopped, "Oh, granddaughter, I did not notice you had returned. Come, gentlemen, lets help the girls with the groceries." Dumbstruck, Lil looked to the others for answers. Kurama smiled and shrugged, the others did something of the same fashion and followed the old man out the door. Lil lagged behind and pulled Hiei back with her. "Did you let him beat you?" Hiei's piercing red eyes revealed nothing. "You're stronger than he is, why did you fight him?"

"Because he had skill. His style of swordsmanship is superior to my own; true I am faster and stronger, but those were not assets I used, only a fighting style." he turned and walked away.

When every thing had been put in order and dinner was cooking, the teens settled into the den to relax a bit. Jin seemed incapable of tranquility and was fighting the urge to fly. He wasn't used to staying on the ground when he didn't want to. The fact that his executioner was sitting right next to him was not helping either. Lil seemed callous to his discomfort. Yukina and Keiko were still in the kitchen attempting to make a Jack o' lantern. The preparations for Halloween were underway; the sun was setting. Let the games begin.

Hey, peoples; this is my first update since I decided to end my other yyh fic. I was pretty sad because it was a sad ending and so many people loved it, I hated to give them the end, but I had to do it. This fic now has my attention, and with the spirit of Halloween permeating through my house (along with the smell of snickers bars) for the next few weeks, I'm going to make this as scary as possible. I wont make any shonen-ai between the usual suspects like jin and touya, and kurama and hiei, I just can't write like that, but there will be a little fluff between keiko and yusuke, and maybe kuwa and yukina if I can. Ja!