Nightmare: All right, here we go with Chapter 4! You know, as I was writing, I kept getting reviews from people which only compelled me to write more.

Yusuke: Aww, isn't that sweet...

Nightmare: Oh, be quiet. Anyway, one of your reviews asked about Koenma's... Well, I guess you could call it his Stalking Powers. Just read and review and it will all come into the light! Thanks much!

The darkness finally began to fade. How long has it been? Yusuke sat up slowly, rubbing his head and wincing at the pain in his ribs. He looked around a bit. Damn… Still in the woods? How did we… who…? Kuwabara lay a few feet to the side, still unconscious. Hiei, for the umpteenth time, had gone and disappeared. He stood up, and sort of hobbled toward Kuwabara, trying not to collapse. He knelt down again and placed his hand on his shoulder and shook him gently, "Hey, Kuwabara…" When Kuwabara didn't react, he grabbed him by the collar and began slapping his face repeatedly.

"Kuwabara!" Yusuke yelled, "Wake… up… you… dumb ass!" With one final strike, Kuwabara's eyes finally opened.

"All right… ALL RIGHT!" Kuwabara shouted as he shoved Yusuke away. "What's your problem? I was just… Hey… Where's Shorty?"

"Hiei? No idea. He ditched us again." Yusuke said as he stood up and brushed himself off. Kuwabara stood as well. They began to walk around, surveying the area. The ground was soaked with the dark blood of the demon, and its scattered remains littered the terrain.

Kuwabara's eyes widened at the sight of the dead demon… or what was left of it. "Who or what did this? It sure wasn't us… was it?"

Yusuke shook his head, "I don't know. It was too dark to see. But check this out," Yusuke said, holding up his Demon Compass.

Kuwabara examined it, "Broken?" He poked it a few times.

Yusuke nodded. "Whatever killed that thing must've been a demon, otherwise my compass wouldn't have flipped out the way it did."

Kuwabara took the information in for a moment, "Do you think it was…?"

"There's only one way to find out." Yusuke cut him off, "Follow me." He began to walk back toward his house and Kuwabara followed. They walked through the door and looked at the clock on their way to Yusuke's room. They'd only been gone a few hours, and still no Atsuko.

"I've been wondering something, Urameshi," Kuwabara said as he sat down in a chair.

Yusuke took a seat on the edge of his bed, "Yeah?"

"How come binky-boy can't track Kurama on his own?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Yusuke said as he tossed him a Communication Mirror. Kuwabara caught it and opened it up. Botan's image appeared in the mirror.

"Whoa. Hi, Botan!" Kuwabara said cheerfully.

"Hello, Kuwabara. Can I help you with something?"

Kuwabara hesitated, and Yusuke came over and knelt next to him. "Botan," Yusuke said, "Patch us in to Koenma."

Botan's face fell, "Oh. Um. Sorry, Yusuke. Koenma-sama's a little busy… The only way you'd be able to speak with him would be if you actually came to Reikai, which is—"

"Fine," Yusuke interrupted.

"Fine?" Botan said, a bit confused, "You actually want to…"

"Get us to Spirit World, then. We have to talk to Koenma, now."

"All right, then… I'll create a portal for you. Just wait a moment." With that, the signal was lost and soon after, a blue-green portal appeared in the middle of Yusuke's floor. Yusuke walked over to it and motioned for Kuwabara to follow, and then they both jumped into it.

Yusuke and Kuwabara stepped out of the portal and found themselves standing in King Yama's palace. A blue ogre, Koenma's right-hand ogre, greeted them. He grinned at the two boys and led them to Koenma's office. He opened the door and found Koenma sitting at his desk between two monstrous piles of paperwork. By the taxed look on his face, one could judge that he had been doing quite a bit of stamping.

"Koenma-sama…" Ogre said.

"Ogre, I told you not to bother me when I'm WORKING!" said a very flustered Koenma.

Ogre dropped down and touched his forehead to the floor, "I-I'm sorry, Koenma, sir, but," he gulped, "there are some visitors here to see you…" Ogre shivered violently as he spoke.

Koenma looked up, "Oh," he said, setting his stamps aside, "show them in, then." Yusuke and Kuwabara walked into the room and sat down in front of him. "Yusuke? Kuwabara? Why are you… what are you doing here? This better be good! I'm a very busy man."

"You mean baby," Yusuke kidded.

"Watch yourself, Yusuke or I'll have you decommissioned." Yusuke backed off. Koenma shifted in his seat, "So tell me, why did you come all the way to Spirit World?"

"We were wondering if there was a way you could help us track Kurama down." Yusuke explained.

Koenma frowned, "Sorry, Yusuke, but there's nothing I can do. Try as I might, neither I nor anyone else here is able to track him. We don't know why. The only explanation I could come up with is that he's cloaking his ki. Unfortunately for you, I don't think he wants to be found."

"But why?" Kuwabara wanted to know.

"I don't know," Koenma said, rubbing his forehead, "but if his true self is out and about in the Human Realm, he must be found. He's an A class demon, you know."

Both boys nodded. "Wait a second," Yusuke began, "After we met up with the Kurama-less Shuichi, Botan showed up and said you saw the whole thing. If you saw that, why couldn't you see where Kurama went or what killed that demon?"

Koenma shook his head, "I'm Prince of the Spirit World, not God. It's not like I'm some great overseer. I just happened to be paying attention to your actions at the moment. Don't give me too much credit, even though I am perfect." Koenma smiled to himself at his last comment.

Yusuke and Kuwabara weren't amused, but Koenma didn't seem to care. "Thanks for your time, Koenma." Yusuke said as he exited with Kuwabara, passing Ogre, who was still on the floor. They both passed back through the portal and wound up back in Yusuke's room. The portal disappeared once they were both through.

Yusuke flopped back on his bed and stared at the ceiling, "Well, he was real helpful."

"Tell me about it," Kuwabara agreed as he sat down in the chair again.

"Where the Hell could Kurama be? He shouldn't be this hard to find!" Yusuke grumbled, "You should head home, Kuwabara. We'll search more tomorrow."

Kuwabara nodded and stood, "You think we'll find him, Urameshi?"

"With a busted compass and a missing fire demon, it's gonna be pretty damn difficult, but he's bound to show up somewhere."

Kuwabara was about to leave when there was a tapping on Yusuke's window. The two exchanged glances and Yusuke opened the window. Literally in the blink of an eye, Hiei came through the window.

"Hiei!" both boys said in unison. "Hiei, what are you doing?" Yusuke asked. Hiei didn't respond, and then Yusuke realized that he was cut and bleeding in several places. Hiei looked like he was on the verge of collapsing. He held a white bandage on his bleeding arm. Yusuke realized that Hiei's Jagan eye was exposed and the bandage wasn't a bandage, but his bandana. Yusuke moved toward him and tried to support him so he wouldn't fall, but Hiei pushed him away. "Hiei, what's wrong? What happened? Talk to me!"

Hiei dropped to his knees and was breathing heavily, "I think… I think I found him…"

Okay, what happened to Hiei? Something beat up everyone's favorite gothic munchkin! Come Chapter 5, we'll find Hiei's attacker, and perhaps much, much more.