A/N: ok first chapter. it might not be that great but stick around and i promis it'll get better. k? good. read on and review!!

It was raining outside. Lightning flashed across the dark sky and thunder rolled over head. A spiky haired young man opened the door of the apartment he shared with his best friend. He was drenched from head to toe from the rain and his black clothing stuck to his muscular body. He walked into the dark room and kicked off his muddy boots. His roommate, Kurama had his bedroom door shut so he assumed Kurama was asleep. The man, Hiei, went over to the couch where he usually slept and sank down into it.

He was sore, tired, and wet. Hiei hadn't been home for days and was finally glad to be able to sit down. He shivered from the cold and stared at the rain beaten window. Another bolt of lightning flashed across the sky briefly illuminating the room. Hiei gasped and shot to his feet, withdrawing his katana. He wasn't the only one in the room.

A girl stood in the dark corner. Raven black hair clung to her shoulders. Silver eyes stared eerily back into his own crimson ones. Tears rolled down her pale cheeks. She wore a deep red turtleneck sweater and a short black skirt with black boots.

"Hiei," she whispered.

"Hisha..." Hiei gasped. "I—I saw you die. There is no way you could have lived from your injury."

Hisha bit her lip as the tears continued to fall. Her chin trembled and she took a step toward Hiei who took one back. Hiei's eyes were wide open with shock. Water dripped from his black hair.

"Hisha, I saw you die. You were bleeding—in my arms—and you died. We all saw it."

FLASHBACK

Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and Hisha were running from the battle. They had been overwhelmed and couldn't fight back any longer. The exit wasn't far but everyone was injured in some way and couldn't run quickly enough. Arrows showered down on them and the Demon Army chased after them with swords. Hisha screamed and when they turned around, she was speared on one demon's sword with three arrows quivering in her back. Hiei screamed his mate's name and tried to run back, but Kurama and Yusuke grabbed him. "Hiei it's too late!" Kurama shouted to him his voice choking. "She's—." "No she's not!" Hiei shouted back. "She can't! HISHA!!!" Yusuke let go and allowed Hiei to speed to Hisha's side. He killed the demon and picked up Hisha's bleeding body. She clung to his cloak and he could feel her tremble as her body failed her.

END FLASHBACK

"Who are you really?"

"Don't you know me, Hiei?" the girl choked. "Don't you remember?"

She walked forward again and attempted to grab Hiei's hand. But he pulled away from her and stepped back. Something gleamed in his eyes like hurt, pain, and love all at once.

"Hiei," she pleaded softly as thunder boomed in the background.

"You were dead. I saw you die. Your blood was all over me."

"Believe me, even I don't know how I survived. I thought I was gone too. But—I told myself I had to hold on—for you—for us."

"You aren't real," Hiei said firmly. "I wont let myself be tricked by my own mind again. You aren't real."

"Hiei—!"

"No. Not again. No more."

Hiei sank back down into the couch and pulled his knees up to hide his face. The girl tried once more to touch him but Hiei put up a shield around himself and blocked everything off.

Hiei awoke the next morning to the smell of frying bacon and ham. He immediately sat up and looked around for the girl, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Just a dream," he mumbled running a hand through his hair. "Just another bad dream."

"Hiei, I saw you were back and decided to make breakfast!" Kurama called from the kitchen. "My mother taught me how to cook so I thought I'd give it a try this morning."

Hiei got up off the couch and groggily walked in to see how and what Kurama was doing.

Kurama had his long red hair tied back in a ponytail and a white apron was tied around his neck and waist. Stains covered the apron everywhere. He turned over the bacon in the frying pan and scooped the ham onto a plate for Hiei. He walked to the fridge and got out a glass of milk. He set it all down on the table and continued to cook his own breakfast.

Hiei looked down at the strips of meat and tore a piece off with his teeth. It wasn't bad he had to admit. He swished the milk around in his mouth for a minute and swallowed, draining the glass. He banged it on the table accidentally cracking the glass. Kurama looked over at his friend in surprise but didn't say anything. Hiei sighed and closed his eyes remembering his dream of the night before.

It was just a dream though... Just a dream... She's really gone...

He rubbed a hand over his eyes and breathed in deeply. He pushed himself away from the table after wolfing down the rest of the bacon and went to the door. He pulled on his boots and left, leaving an exasperated Kurama behind.

Hiei wandered through the streets, too fast to be seen by human eyes. He flitted on top of telephone poles, streetlights, stop signs, anything and everything. He wasn't going anywhere in particular; he was just wandering about aimlessly.

But he stopped at one point as two people, a boy and a girl, stared up at him as he perched on a building. They appeared to be brother and sister. The boy held her hand protectively and glared menacingly back at Hiei, as though daring him to so much as look at them wrong.

The girl looked innocent. She held onto her brother and stared back at Hiei with large red eyes. Black hair flowed over her slender shoulders. Her dark clothes added a mysterious look to her. A huge sword was strapped to her back and looked too heavy for her to even lift.

Her brother on the other hand had short spiky white hair with a black star burst in the middle. Silver eyes stared challengingly at everyone. He had a muscular body that strained against his gray shirt.

Hiei gave a short 'Hn' and flitted out of sight. He landed on top of a food vendor's tent and stretched out on the canvas. No one could see him and that was the way he liked things.

Not much later, there were several shouts and yells, crashes, and bangs. Annoyed at being interrupted from his nap, Hiei sat up.

A crowd had gathered and was chasing something. One particularly large man was holding a long stick and shouting while waving the stick ridiculously around his head. He appeared to be leading the crowd.

"Thieves!" shouted the fat man. "Thieves! Police! Those brats stole my goods! Thieves! Catch them!"

"Hn," Hiei said before disappearing to see who had caused the disruption of his nap.

The boy and girl were running up ahead of the crowd. The girl's arms were full of stolen goods. Her brother pulled her along by the wrist. Hiei almost smiled at their poorly attempted robbery. They were still ahead of the crowd by a good distance but they didn't slow their pace. The crowd was running angrily after them.

"They robbed my cart last week!" called a woman.

Several voices chorused in agreement.

The pair of youngsters impressed Hiei now at the number of people who claimed to have been robbed by them. He sighed and decided to help the two troublemakers out. He jumped down into the streets and shoved them into a dark alley.

"Hey!" called the boy.

"This way," Hiei said shortly.

He climbed up a ladder on the side of a building and the two of them followed. The crowd below was shouting insults and threats after them. The fat man threw his stick at them, but it missed and clattered harmlessly to the ground. When they reached the top, Hiei led them on. They jumped from one rooftop to another until the crowd gave up and dispersed.

"Why did you help us?" the boy asked when they finally stopped.

"So you're refusing my kind gesture? Fine. I wont help you again."

Hiei walked to the edge and was about to disappear once more, when the girl spoke for the first time.

"No, please," she said softly. "My brother did not mean to be rude. We are grateful for your help, but we wonder why you would help us?"

"Do I need a reason?" Hiei asked sharply. "I thought you didn't look like such bad kids and decided to throw you a line. Forgive me if my service was unwanted."

"Please, sir, that's not what we meant!"

The boy snorted.

"Forget it, Hinarama," said her brother. "I don't think he'll agree with you on much."

"But—Hitaro..."

The boy, Hitaro, ignored his sister.

"Look, we appreciate the help, but we really must be going now."

"Hn."

"Hinarama, we can't stay here too long, remember?" Hitaro muttered.

She looked down and nodded in agreement.

"I know. I know."

She bent down and readjusted the bundles in her arms. She stood up and tossed her hair back over her shoulder.

"Thank you anyways, sir," she said.

Hitaro climbed down the side of the building and Hinarama followed.

"Good bye," she smiled before she disappeared into the shadows with her brother.

"A boy and girl you say?" Kurama replied to Hiei later that evening.

"Yes, and youkai from their spirit energy. They are strong, yet they don't seem too dangerous, but how did two reasonably strong youkai slip into ningenkai undetected?"

Kurama was silent in thought. His brows were furrowed and his eyes looked troubled.

"I have no idea," he said finally. "Security is tight for entering and exiting between makai and ningenkai these days. How they got through is a mystery to me."

"I was worried you'd say that," Hiei muttered almost sarcastically.

"Do you think we should tell Koenma?"

"The toddler prince has enough to deal with right now. I don't think he'll really care about two-escapee youkai. Ever since the Demon Army overtook the makai, things have been—hectic."

"I know."

They were silent, both keeping their thoughts to themselves, but they were the same thoughts.

Hiei opened the window and sat on the ledge while dangling one boot over the side. The cool evening air blew the wisps of hair from his eyes. Stars were beginning to sprinkle the sky as the clouds turned pink and the sun rolled under the horizon. Cars honked in the nearby streets as ningens hurried home from work. The wind rustled through the trees and scattered leaves on the streets. The shadows lengthened until they covered everything. Kurama stood up and turned on a few lamps before retiring to his bedroom.

Hiei didn't plan on going anywhere tonight. He was going to fall asleep on this peaceful window ledge. No one was going to bother him...or else. He yawned a bit and let sleep settle in.

Hiei was rudely awakened for the second time that day, however. Around midnight, he felt someone tugging on his white scarf. He withdrew his katana and wheeled around on the vile perpetrator only to find...

"Hinarama?"

The girl stared up at him with her large crimson eyes and smiled.

"You remembered me!" she said happily.

"I never forget a face."

"I'm sorry I woke you, but, Hitaro and I were wondering, well I was wondering, if you could maybe help us one more time." She smiled hopefully at Hiei and blinked a few times.

"What do you need from me? And how did you even find me?"

"It was easy. I just tracked your spirit energy," she shrugged. "But we need to get back to Makai."

"If you got through on your own you can get back on your own."

"Getting through was easy!" Hinarama cried, still smiling, but her smile abruptly faded. "But now that we've gone through, they'll have increased security and it'll be impossible to get back with our things."

"What things? And why are you robbing the human world anyway?"

"Umm I can't tell you...just yet. But please, come talk to my brother. Your name's Hiei, is it not?"

"Yes and yes," said Hiei dryly.

"Thank you so much," she said sounding truly grateful. "Please, meet us at the park tomorrow at noon."

"But—!"

Hinarama jumped out the window and into the dark before Hiei could reply in a full sentence.

Perplexed, annoyed, and tired, Hiei slammed the window shut and decided to sleep on the couch again. As he lay down, he checked the room for any unwanted visitors, but there were none.

"She was only a dream," he said trying to convince himself. "Just another stupid dream."

"She said they'd be here at noon?" Kurama asked Hiei the next day. It was quarter past twelve and Hitaro and Hinarama were nowhere to be seen.

"Yes."

Kurama looked doubtful but sat down on the park bench and waited a bit longer. Hiei sat down next to him with a sigh. This whole thing was confusing. And it didn't help that he wasn't getting much sleep anymore. He was about to give up when the two siblings appeared in front of them.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Hitaro apologized. Then he noticed Kurama and frowned. "Who's he?"

"He's a friend of mine and no danger to you...unless you give him reason to be," Hiei added nastily.

Kurama just smiled. He then extended a hand in greeting.

"My name's Kurama," he said in his gentle voice. "And it's a pleasure to meet you..."

"Hitaro. And this is my sister, Hinarama."

Neither one of them took Kurama's hand.

"And what brings you to ningenkai?"

They both looked away, hesitant to answer Kurama. Hinarama slid her hand into her brother's and stared at the ground. Hitaro wouldn't make eye contact with anyone. His silver eyes stared glumly at the trees.

"If you want our help, tell us why you want it," Hiei said after getting tired of the silence. "Tell us or we leave."

"It's not that simple," Hitaro said with an edge to his voice.

"Our mother is deadly ill," Hinarama whispered softly. "We found a demon who was willing to help us, but it's costing us a lot. And it's easier to steal from ningens so that's why we came here."

"Charming."

"What does she have?" Kurama asked, his voice full of concern

"Hn."

"I'm not sure."

"She was seriously injured a long time ago and has never really been healthy," Hitaro continued. "But a bout a year ago, she started getting worse. She'd get really bad fevers and seizures, and fall into a coma for weeks before she'd wake up. After the last one, she wasn't able to wake up at all. Hinarama and I couldn't give her the help she needed, so we sought out help. We found a demon that said he was skilled in medicine and could make a brew for her for the right price. We had no other choice but to chance it. Stealing from demons was too hard though. And the consequences were higher than if we simply stole from ningens."

"How do you know the demon wasn't lying?" Hiei asked.

The two kids looked down guiltily.

"I didn't think about it," Hitaro admitted.

"Why would anyone lie about that?" Hinarama asked with hurt in her voice.

"Not everyone has the best interests of others in mind," Kurama explained. "Many people have only self-interest in mind. I doubt that this demon needs all that gold...or that he's really even a doctor."

The two of them looked down. They seemed crushed. Hitaro looked almost angry, even furious. His silver eyes stared coldly at the ground. Hinarama's red eyes were brimming with tears. Hitaro wiped her eyes and whispered softly, "Don't cry." She nodded and breathed in deeply.

"You should just get back to Makai," Hiei said as comforting as possible for him. "I'm sorry about your mother."

"No," Kurama interrupted. "We'll help you. Don't worry about it. I'll need to see your mother for myself though if I'm to help. So Hiei's suggestion is a good one. We'll all go back to Makai...but before that we have to return all the goods you stole."

Hitaro gave an almost Hiei-ish "Hn" at this.

"We worked hard to get those things," Hitaro said. "Why should we give the ningens back their treasures?"

Hinarama nodded in agreement with her brother.

"It's the right thing to do," Kurama said sternly. "Now we'll return those tonight and return to Makai in the morning. Got that?"

Hitaro was clearly upset at being bossed around and Hinarama even seemed a little annoyed as well. But they both nodded and agreed to go along with Hiei and Kurama.

The four of them walked down the dark and dank alley. Water dripped from the rusting gutters and pipes. Trashcans spilled over with garbage and rats scampered out of site. The run down buildings loomed overhead menacingly. Hitaro stepped through the door of a particularly sad looking structure.

"This is where you stayed?" Hiei asked in mild disgust.

"Yes," Hinarama whispered. "No one comes here except for some ningens and they never stay long. It's the perfect hide out for us."

"Cozy," Kurama noted to himself.

Hitaro went up a flight of rickety stairs and led them into a room where the molding on the walls was crumbling especially badly. There was an old lumpy mattress shoved in the corner with a few ragged and torn blankets. A considerable hoard of gold and other expensive items were shoved in the closet. One miserable curtain swung from the cracked and grimy window.

"It isn't much," Hitaro said, "But this has been our home."

Hiei kicked his boot at a rat. It squeaked as it flew out the door.

"Let's get moving then," Kurama called over his shoulder as he bent down to remove some items from the closet.

Hiei sighed and piled the goods in his arms.

The goods had more or less all been returned that night and the four of them returned to the apartment to sleep.

Hinarama and Hitaro slept in Hiei's bed, Kurama was in his own, and Hiei slept outside in a tree.

As everyone was snoring soundly and safely in their beds, Hiei began to feel drowsy and was slowly drifting off to sleep. He let himself relax and allowed his constantly tense muscles to lessen a bit. He gave a sigh and sleep took over.

But that night, the girl appeared in his dreams again. She kept saying she needed help, kept pleading to Hiei. Her silver eyes were misty with tears. Hiei refused to listen once more and he blocked her out as best as he could. The hallucination finally seemed to give up and she faded away once more.

Hiei was the first one up that morning. The two twins did not get up for several hours. When they finally did, both were famished and began prowling the apartment for food.

Kurama made them some cereal (which they found to be the best tasting food ever) and allowed them to eat as much as they wanted. Hiei didn't feel like eating. He hardly ever ate breakfast anyway except if he was tired from a long journey or he just felt like it.

Kurama contacted Botan and made arrangements for them to all travel safely back to Makai.

Trips to Makai or any of the realms were dangerous these days. The Demon Armies were running unchecked throughout Makai. It was tricky making a deal with them to pass through the realms. Luckily Botan had a contact with the Demon Army and was able to negotiate their passage.

When they had entered Makai, Kurama and Hiei were shocked at the sight. The last they had seen of the demon world was the warring armies clashing over the bloodstained battlefields. Now the land was flat and blackened for as far as they could see. Small makeshift homes were sprinkled in groups here and there, but they were sparse. Every few miles were a tower where a small portion of the army controlled the area. A cold wind blew through everything.

"It's horrible," Kurama spoke in barely a whisper. "What's happened since we've been gone?"

Hiei could only stare in disbelief.

"After the Rei kai tantei left," explained Hitaro, "The Demon Army took over. They killed anyone who disagreed with them and destroyed everything so that no one had anything to fight against them with."

"It's been terrible," Hinarama said darkly, which was uncharacteristic of her.

"Yes. They banished Lord Koenma and all loyal to him. Your friend, Botan, she's lucky she's not in some Demon Lord's palace locked up in a cage where she's viewed as a sport everyday when they torture her."

"Hn."

"Why did you leave?" Hinarama asked with the slightest edge of anger to her voice. "No one is powerful enough to chase them all away. You could have done it, but you left. Why?"

"We had no idea this would happen," said Kurama, still in mild shock. "And we didn't even mean to be gone long. But when we entered Ningenkai, we were locked in with no way back."

"Do you honestly think we would willingly allow this to happen?" Hiei asked testily.

"No," they both admitted.

Everyone just stood there, taking in the horror of it. Hitaro was the first one to come to his senses.

"We can't stay long or they'll come to investigate us," he warned.

They all knew he was right and ran silently behind him out of sight. It got worse the farther in they went. Most people hadn't even been given time to bury their dead before being forced out of their homes. Corpses lay rotting here and there. Kurama was obviously disturbed. Not that Hiei wasn't but he had more control over his emotions than Kurama. Hinarama and Hitaro weren't even fazed. They walked along without giving so much as a second glance to anything.

"Welcome home," Hitaro muttered darkly.