An Extended Visit

Sao: (sleeping)

Karuri: Well, at least she's off the sugar rush...

Kurama: Hai, but how is the story being written then?

Karuri: That would be due to her loving muse, Neko.

Kurama: Cat? What kind of name is that?

Karuri: (points to a small cat with a huge fluffy tail as big as the rest of the cat. The cat is mostly white with a black patch on chest, over ears, on all four legs and covering most of the tail) A name for that.

Neko: 'Elloes! I will be writing this story for now, although I have to say it is rather hard to type with paws... (transforms into a slim girl about 4' 9" with black hair, pale skin, with a white flowing dress with wide collar off shoulders, black pendant, oh and the tail, only grown with her so it is about half as large as she is.) That's better.

Kurama: (sweatdrops)

Karuri couldn't say that she hadn't been ever so slightly embarrassed when she opened the door to find Minamino-san there. She wasn't sure she wanted him to see her in this getup. After all, he thought her to be a mostly quiet, shy, slightly odd girl, like most ningens.

But then she had caught the unobtrusive way he took her in appreciatively, eyes seeming almost to switch from emerald green to gold, then back again. And her kitsune nature had kicked in again. She had switched it off for so long. It had been forever since she had twisted men's hearts. If she hadn't been in illusion, she would have bared a fang in anticipation.

She could feel his eyes trying to keep from wandering over her body as she swayed to the loud American music. R.E.M "Bad Day" was her favorite; she had it on repeat and wondered if he'd notice. She also wondered if he'd notice that most of the things around here were labeled and reading in English. Probably he hadn't yet. But hey.

Finally she rinsed off the bathtub and stepped out, pretending not to notice her splashed fleece pajama pants. It was amazing how once she seemed to be noticing him he managed to ignore the fact that she was unclothed on top.

"Yeah, anyhow whoever had this place last wasn't too good about cleaning, obviously." she commented, grabbing the Windex from the cardboard box she had taken all her cleaning supplies on the plane in. She got to work on the grimy mirror. Being a neat freak was something she did obsessively, and rather well too.

"I can see that..." he said, barely audible even with kitsune hearing over the loud R.E.M. He probably didn't think she had heard. She grinned slightly.

"It's been a bad day, please don't take a picture, it's been a bad day, plee-ee-eease," she began to sing along with the song. After all, showing off was fun, and she did have it memorized.

"Umm... Karuri-san, is there anything I could do to help?"

"Sure, Minamino-san, call me Karuri and cart the boxes with smiley faces and 'fun stuff' written on them into the room with the bed frame." She finished the mirror and began to clean the counter and sinks. Whoever had lived here before her was going to be visited as soon as the human boy left... not that she wasn't enjoying his company.

"Call me Kurama." He offered.

"Kurama? All the girls at school call you Shuichi." she commented, quirking her head at him.

Damn. Why had he given her that name?

"It's a nickname, of sorts." he explained smoothly. After, all it was a true answer.

"Oh. Cool." she responded, grinning at him.

"Although, I prefer most of the people at school not to know this." he added.

"Works for me." she said happily, and began to set up the counter. If it hadn't been for Youko's hearing he would have missed the next part, and she probably meant him to. "Although from what I was taught Youko Kurama hated people stealing his name."

He stood in shock for about half a second, before Youko kicked in.

–: Where did she hear about me? Ningens don't know about me:–

Well apparently she does. -

–: But HOW:–

You're the all powerful kitsune thief, you tell me. -

–: There's the obvious. :–

Yes, there was, but he really didn't want to think about that. What would she think of him if he ended up dragging her along to see Koenma after all she had gone through to stay away from the damn toddler?

He was jerked away from his thoughts by the loud ringing of her doorbell. It hadn't sounded so very loud from outside the door. But then, it had to be loud if she was playing that gibberish song all the time. Which, he was starting to suspect was on repeat.

"Oh Kami." she sighed, hoisting the cleaners onto the counter, punching a few buttons on the radio and causing the noise to decrease drastically, and pulling a large maroon sweatshirt over her arms, covering her front but not her back. Kurama put the box down in the other room, which was otherwise occupied by a slightly rusty western-style bed frame and a thin mattress, and followed her curiously into the kitchen/livingroom room.

"Y'ello?" she asked (in English)

"Yeah, ano, konnichiwa, ano, what are we here for again?"

"I dunno, you tell me, Urameshi."

Kurama sweatdropped. Oh dear oh dear.

"Hn. Baka-ne. We are here, because you happen to be extremely out of place. Isn't this place for ningens?"

"Hm, hai, well it's supposed to be, isn't it? However, it seems that the mice and cockroaches have taken it over, so I'm trying to steal it back. Would you like to help?" she asked sweetly.

He caught Hiei's trademark death glare being leveled at the girl, who twirled one of the dark dusky locks of her hair unconcernedly.

"Hey! Kurama, what are you doing here?" Kuwabara's annoying voice rang out. It wasn't often that Kurama was tempted to kill the slightly brain-lacking boy, but right now, it seemed an awfully good idea.

–: Yes, let's see, there's frying, fricasseeing, baking, roasting, cubing, sauteeing, slicing, dicing, oh and let's not forget poison. :–

You forgot stuffing. -

–: Yes I did didn't I. Whoops. :–

"I came over to visit." he responded coolly to Kuwabaka's question. Hiei sent him a look, having caught the conversation between the kitsune and his human host.

"Whoa, you two know each other?" Yusuke asked.

"Well, seeing as we go to the same school..." Karuri supplied. "And so long as you guys know each other, you can help out!"

"Ano..." Yusuke began, before the door was flung wide and he was pulled in by the overly enthusiastic girl, who had to be at least five inches shorter than him. It was almost comical how the tough punk-image Spirit Detective seemed to get jerked around by all the harmless-looking girls. Of course, ever since he had come over here, Karuri had started to seem a lot less harmless. It might have had something to do with the amazing confidence boost and the spike necklace.

Kurama watched with amusement as Yusuke and Kuwabara surveyed the wreckage of a home in front of them. Karuri also smirked at the 'wow' looks on their faces. Hiei had blended into a corner and apparently been forgotten by the girl. Lucky him.

Karuri wasn't as sure what to do with the three who had now appeared at her door as she had been with Kurama. After all, at least she kind of knew the red head. But hey, they appeared human, which at least was slightly reassuring. She wouldn't really be able to tell until she had a moment to concentrate enough to probe their auras.

The problem all lay in the damn illusion. Maybe if she weren't so good at it, it wouldn't be so bad. The thing was, while seemingly a human, it decreased her youkai senses like hearing and smell considerably. And if that was bad, the real problem lay in that the finer senses, like tracking auras, and even sensing them, was totally gone until she focused enough to bring out the damn gift. After all, kitsunes were very good at finding things out.

Damn illusion.

But in the meantime, she had put the one called Yusuke to work washing the dishes, and Kuwabara moving the less breakable stuff. The other one, who was the one she actually worried about, had seemed to disappear shortly after making it inside the apartment. Kurama was helping dust, as she did the vacuuming. House slaves seemed like such a nice idea. Soon the place was looking fairly neat and clean, though she would do the dirtier work like washing the baseboards and cupboards later. And it had all gotten into some semblance of order much faster than it ever had on any of her other moves.

"'Kee dokes, I's (( – English)) going to go get dressed now, and then I'll be a good person and take you all out to eat to say thanks, 'kay?" she suggested, not waiting for an answer as she disappeared into the room with all of her stuff in it and shut the door.

Now to do a little probing. Kurama she trusted; she had known him for a few days and nothing about him screamed suspicious as the others seemed to.

Kuwabara she found immediately. He was so open to a reading it was almost funny. Come on. But, there was also a fair amount of power in him, for a human. And the warning edges of a sharp sixth sense, and an uneasiness that told her that even if he didn't consciously know he was being probed, he did understand that something was wrong. He wasn't quite as lacking in the wits department as he looked; there was more of a challenge at breaking into his actual thoughts, and she didn't pursue it.

Yusuke was harder to read. Some of the finer points might have gone unnoticed by anyone else in the face of the fierce fighting aura that seemed such an integral part of him. But there was also immense caring, kindness and loyalty, which partly explained why he had submitted to being dragged into this whole thing, even though he probably believed he could beat her silly if he tried. There was also a lively intelligence at work, even if it didn't lend itself to academics. He was puzzling over something, but there was a resistance that almost felt like a barrier, and she decided not to press it in case he guessed something was up.

So, she roved the house, passing over the gentle, calm aura of Kurama, and finally finding the dark, shadowed aura of the other boy who had come with them. She wasn't really surprised to be able to see that he was a demon before even really probing. However she wasn't quite prepared for him to react so violently to her trying to delve deeper into the mess of his aura. The blast of power took her by surprise, focusing intently on her and almost causing her to lose control of the illusion.

: Onna, you will not try that stunt again or you will find yourself in far worse shape. : A voice growled in her head.

Damn. That had backfired. Now he was probing her instead of the other way around. It wouldn't do for him to know she was the elemental kitsune, even if he was a youkai and therefor not with the underworld-lings. Youkai didn't align themselves with Rekai. It just didn't happen that way. Of course there had been rumors of two youkai with the Rekai Tentai ningens at the last Dark Tournament, but those were only rumors, and anyhow, her family didn't associated themselves with the Dark Tournament.

Quickly she worked at shoving back all the elements within her, mindlessly allowing one to take dominance. Ice presented itself for check in. Ice worked well to block out the sight of the other ones. And it was a hell of a lot safer than dark, which tended to try to take over and swallow everything else. Ice would war with some of the elements, and there would be hell to pay for upsetting the balance she tried to maintain, but it was still better, safer than being found out.

:.:Well in that case why don't you try getting out of MY head and then we're all even now, ne:.: she suggested, carefully blocking him out of her mind. Undoubtedly he'd marked her by now as an Arctic or Blue kitsune.

:Hn. : His presence retreated, maybe he'd found out all he'd needed to find.

"Well that was a painful experience." she muttered, and began digging through her box of clothes to find something decent to wear. "Note to self- do not go probing strange demons past the point where they can sense it unless you know something about them beforehand. It backfires."

Yusuke and Kuwabara were amusing themselves with an automated toy they had found in one of the boxes with a strange face and the English markings "uh-oh" on it while they waited for Karuri. In about five minutes ((yes, that's all that all that probing AND getting dressed took!)) she came out looking a little bit loftier and less fun, somehow, than she had before. She was dressed in baggy black cargo pants that were too long and a close fitting black turtleneck. A tiny ice-blue heart pendant on a silver chain rested around her neck, standing out well against the black.

"Is we ready to go?" she asked, still happily, but calmer than before.

–: I liked her better in the other outfit. :– Youko pouted.

Yes but it was hardly society appropriate. -

–: Hell, it was barely guest appropriate and you know it. :–

Hai, at least you do though. Sometimes I wonder. -

–: At least she put on something else before she let the others in... :–

Yeah... Hey! Stop that- Youko was replaying images of her body in his mind. Hentai kitsune thief. And it was extremely distracting.

"Sure." Yusuke said. "At least we're getting something out of this."

"Allons-y, then!" (( – French! Well, not the 'then'))

"Ano... What was that?" Kuwabara asked.

"French." she responded, shooing them out the door. Kurama wasn't surprised to see Hiei already out in the hall.

If you keep pulling disappearing and appearing acts like that she'll get suspicious. - he sent to the irritated looking youkai.

:Hn. She already knows. : he shot back, and flitted off.

"I know the perfect place." Karuri announced to them, setting off down the hall.

Definitely calmer, colder than before. What had happened? She wasn't even like this in school.

"Are you all right, Karuri?" he asked her, catching up to walk next to her and leaving Yusuke and Kuwabara following them, engaged in one of their useless squabbles.

"Of course, why do you ask?" She looked up at him with troubled eyes that flashed pale blue for a moment before returning to their original blue-green color.

Definitely not convincing him.

Neko: All's done!

Sao: (wakes up) Whaaat? You did an entire chapter without me?

Karuri: Yep. Sugar crashes do seem to keep people down for a while, don't they?

Kurama: Don't worry, it all went smoothly in your absence.

Sao: What? You guys don't love me? (Sobs)

Kurama: (sweatdrops)

Karuri: Sao, stop acting like that before I have to accuse you of PMSing.

Sao: What? I'm not PMSing.

Karuri: And will you stop saying 'what?'

Neko: Yeah, I thought I taught you better than to go around saying just 'what?' all the time.

Sao: Now listen here, you conceited little denizen of a muse, I taught you all you know and not the other way around.

Neko: Oh yeah? Wanna bet?

Karuri: Oh dear. Not again.

Kurama: How long are we here again?

Sao: Anyhow, thanks so much to all of my reviewers! It made me feel loved and important! Kami I nearly stopped breathing when I found out everybody actually likes this! (throws milky ways/snickers/nestle crunches to all)

Angel Sari Neko Jeminie Indigo: I would never offer violence to people who don't know what R.E.M is, because doing so would leave me very, very, very tired at the end of the day. It's a musical group (obviously... I think. My judgement isn't very clear on this though...) Ummm. I'm not sure what else there is to describe it. O well. I'm a little lacking on knowing anything about the real world. Mine is so much more fun. Eheh. Agree with you totally on enjoying every minute of it.

Animegirl417: I will be trying to update every Wednesday. If I manage this, though, hell might experience a turn for the glacial, so, ano...

Owl: OOOHH! I feel so loved! And everybody's stories are good! Share the love! (unless your embarrassed of yours like I am of mine... there are so many of mine that I enjoy overly much, but don't feel right putting on the net... so I shouldn't be talking, ne?)

A Crazy Elephant: Yay! I thought you'd never find me! Took you long enough. I'm glad you like it. I distributed crunches just for you. Oh, and graham crackers. Dundundun... Did you know I obsessed over the end of the world song before I even knew R.E.M existed? Actually, I still didn't know it was an R.E.M song until I came home one night last year telling mother about this awesome group called R.E.M that I heard at Rachel's house...

Well! I feel better now. See you all next week... we hope.