Part 14

About ten minutes later I stood up and got my whole team's attention, "Everyone, coming into this tournament I was still an arrogant teenager, but now I have grown and I have every single one of you to thank for that. Thank you all for standing by me in this battle, you don't know how much it really means to me. I hope that after tomorrow that trust and friendship we have all created won't go away because you all mean a lot to me."

"I'll second that toast!" Tyler beamed happily.

"This has definitely been some of the best days of my life," Tiffany smiled, "Before the tournament I was still a child, but now I'm stronger both in spirit and in heart."

"Yeah, but you're still my younger sister!" I grinned.

"Shut up!" she retorted at me. I picked up my dessert and chucked it at her. She ducked and it smashed into Jin's face. A smirk spread across Jin's face as he took his whole plate and threw it at me

"Yikes!" I ducked down behind the couch and the plate hit Hiei in the face. I stood up and looked at him, laughing, "Sorry about that!" He turned to me, grabbing my plate and smashing it in my face. "Hiei!"

A grin escaped him, "You look better that way."

I growled as I jumped over the couch and tackled him to the ground. Tiffany and Rinku jumped onto the table they were eating at, "Food fight!" I rolled off of Hiei and climbed underneath a nearby table, laughing once again. I made my way to the buffet and grabbed two pies off the table. I threw them at Tiffany and Rinku, hitting them both. I ducked as food came flying at me. I stood up and turned to see Amanuma standing there.

"Hi Amanuma..."

"Hello, Stephanie," he replied smashing a piece of cake into my face.

My jaw dropped to the ground, "That's it, this is war!" I unleashed my wings and grabbed the big bowl of punch. I flew up into the air and dumped it all over Amanuma and Kurama who was standing nearby. I swept back down and grabbed a basket of fruits and began to throw them randomly at my friends. Hiei, who had hidden himself from the food fight jumped up and grabbed me, pulling me down to the ground.

He pinned me to the ground, "Come and get her!"

"TRAITOR!" I growled as I saw all my friends appear with food in their hands, "Hey guys...how are you? Nice day, huh?"

"Yeah, it's beautiful," Botan grinned as they all threw the food at me. Hiei stood up and helped me up as well. Just to piss him off I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a huge hug. He shoved me away from him and looked down at his cloak.

"That's for pinning me to the ground!" I yelled as we heard the doors open. We all stopped at looked to see Shanie and Trenia standing there. We all looked at one another and bust up laughing at the sight of ourselves.

"Who's going to clean this mess?" Shanie asked me.

I scratched my head, "I guess us, huh?"

"You'd better believe it," Trenia laughed, "But you guys do look like you had fun."

"Oh yeah," Tiffany smirked, "Haven't had this much fun in a long time."

After that our whole group went to cleaning up which went by pretty quickly with the help of Jin who easily took care of the food everywhere. Keishou and I then went onto blast the whole room with a mist of water and then Botan, Rinku, Tiffany, and I had a race to see who could scrub down their portion of the room the fastest.

About three hours later we were all done and were going to go to the baths to get cleaned. Eventually we were all back in the room, exhausted from the food fight and the afterwards clean up. We all dispersed to our rooms and crashed in our beds.

The next day Koenma came in and awoke us all pretty early for the presentation of the gifts. Everyone was given what they asked for, Tiffany and Tyler got money, a lot of it too. They each received a check for 1,000,000 ¥ which was amazing and Kurama got a whole bag of books that were from all over Makai. When it came to Jin and Touya's island we were all transported to it. Upon arrival at the island the two of them were very happy for the island was at least thirty miles across in any direction.

"Does this please you?" one of the committee members asked.

"Does it please us?" Jin asked, "This is beyond my wildest dreams!"

Touya nodded, "It's perfect."

The committee members looked over at me, "We have found the information you requested. Your parents are still pretty much alive, but under very difficult circumstances."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you heard of soul spheres?"

I looked at them weirdly, "'Soul spheres'? What are those?"

Kurama looked over at me, "I can explain that. A human we know who has territorial powers can make rules and if you break the rules in his territory, your soul becomes his. You turn to stone and your soul comes from your body, turning into a sphere. If the sphere is destroyed, you cannot be revived."

My eyes grew wide as I looked back over at the committee, "This power, was it used on my parents?" They nodded. "How can I save them?"

"You have to find the one who has the spheres; it will most likely be the one who originally took the souls, meaning they will be very dangerous."

"Danger means nothing to me anymore, nothing can be as bad as what I've gone through this last week," I growled, turning to Koenma, "Can I take a vacation?"

"If you're going to go do something so reckless, let us gather more information for you at least," he told me.

"You'd do that for me?"

Koenma nodded, "After what you have done for this team and Reikai as its Spirit Detective, it would be my pleasure. As soon as we return I'll get to work on it myself."

"Thank you, Koenma. Oh, and can you please look after Mewalan for me? Make sure he's not treated badly for what he did, he's an old friend," I smiled, turning to my teammates, "Anyway, let's go home."

"Transportation is awaiting you at the docks," one of the members told us.

I laughed, "No, thanks, you've given us enough. I'd prefer to ride in style anyway." I walked over to Hiei, "Trust me?" He nodded and we placed our hands together as he removed his headband once again.

"Combine Black Dragons!" we exclaimed as our tattoos burst from our arms and forged together.

"Toro Hino Shiro, come forth as well!" I added as he came from my other arm. Everyone gathered on the two creatures except for Koenma and Ogre.

Koenma waived to us, "Again, congratulations." We nodded as we took off into the sky and the tiger ran along the ground below us. When we arrived at the barrier the barrier opened and we returned to Ningenkai.

"Go to Genkai's temple, everyone should be waiting there for us since they knew the finals were today!" The dragon and tiger roared as they headed for Genkai's. When we arrived we dismounted the dragon and tiger. The tiger trailed up my arm as Hiei and I put our hands together once more to seperate our dragons. We walked to the front of her temple and Yusuke came rushing outside with everyone behind him.

"You're back!" Kuwabara exclaimed happily.

I smiled, "Yeah, we're back."

"Hey, Amanuma, good to see you again," Yusuke said to him, "Anyway, you're all still alive, so that's a good thing."

"If it weren't for Yukina we'd be missing at least three of us..." I trailed off with a slight laugh.

Genkai walked up to me, "So, what happened, did you win or not?"

"What do you think, Grandma?" I beamed, "WE WON!"

Tiffany walked over to Kuwabara, "Hey, Kuwabara, when we got to request our gifts from the committee I asked for money and they gave me one million yen, and I want to give it to you for your shelter." She unfolded the check and gave it to him.

He looked over at me and I nodded, "That's exactly why she wanted it, besides, she won that money fairly in battle, so she can do what she wants with it. If I need cash I'll steal some of Tyler's."

"BACK OFF!" he growled at me.

"Oh, come on, I work my ass off so you can live," I scowled.

"So, you could have asked for money too!"

"I think my parents were a little more important than money, moron!"

"STOP CALLING ME A MORON!"

"FINE, IDIOT!"

"I'M NOT AN IDIOT!"

Keiko laughed, "It's good to have them back."

Later that night we were still at Genkai's and everyone decided it was time to bring Team Kouken Gurentai to a close. I stared up at the night's star filled sky and smiled, turning back to everyone, "This was fun, really, but I'm ready to go back to being Stephanie Jiano, the normal high school student."

Yusuke laughed, "Once you're a Spirit Detective, life is never normal."

"I can dream," I replied.

"We're going to go," Touya replied as he, Jin, and Kamikaze walked past me.

I nodded, "Thank you, all three of you, for helping us. We couldn't have done it without you."

"No problem," Jin grinned, "If you need us, we'll be on the island."

"Right," I replied as they sped off.

Keishou walked forward next. He gave me a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek, "You've grown up a lot, I'm proud of you."

I blushed, "Thanks, Keishou. I'll never forget you."

"And I'll never forget you..." he replied leaving as well. After him Amanuma left to return home while Kurama and Botan returned to Reikai to fill out their reports for the files, Yukina and Rinku going back with them.

I walked over to Hiei, "Can I talk to you...alone?" He nodded and we went treetop to speak. "What are you going to do now that the tournament is over?"

He peered out into the sky, "I'm not really sure, I'm once again at a forked path and I don't know which way to take."

"Where do the paths lead?"

Hiei looked over at me and I saw a softness in his eyes that almost looked sad. I was surprised that he'd show such a thing to me, especially since he was always so uptight about his feelings and thoughts. "One leads to a path of darkness, one leads to a path of light."

"What's so hard about taking the path of light?"

"I've never taken it before..."

I looked away from him and upto the sky, "After all that we've gone through, I'm just glad to be alive. If it weren't for you, Kurama, and especially Yukina, I would be dead. Well, my Tora Hino Shiro helped too, but anyway, if you want, as repayment for your helping me multiple times, you're welcome to stay with me, Tyler, and Tiffany. They wouldn't care if you did, and I know I wouldn't mind it. I work a lot, and we all go to school, so you'd pretty much have the place to yourself...but, I'm not trying to force you into it. You do whatever you like, Flying Shadow."

After that silence fell about us for at least twenty minutes. I jumped when he cleared his throat. I looked over at him and he smiled slightly, "I'm taking the path I'm used to taking."

"Oh..." I replied staring down at the ground.

He jumped into a nearby tree and looked back at me, "I'm not saying I'm not going leave and never come back, you know. I will come visit you; I promise, Stephanie."

I looked up at him and smiled, "Okay, but you'd better keep that promise!"

"Of course, I'm not one to break a promise, especially to a friend," he replied as he took off into the darkness.

"Friend...?" I thought to myself as a smile crept once again across my lips. I jumped back down and was met by Tyler and Tiffany, "You guys ready to go home?" They both nodded so we turned to Kuwabara, Yusuke, Keiko, and Genkai.

"Thank you for all your help these last months," we all bowed respectfully as Yusuke walked over and handed us all back our keys.

"Don't forget to visit us," he grinned, "Oh, and tell Gramps hello for me."

I smiled, "Of course." And with that said we left. When we eventually arrived back at the apartment we went inside and looked around. Everything was still the same it was a week earlier. I gave a slight wave to Tyler and Tiffany, "I'm going to bed, I'm tired."

"I am too," Tiffany said locking the front door, "My bed sounds so welcoming right now."

Tyler laughed, "Yeah, it does, those hotel beds were pretty uncomfortable." We stopped talking after that and went into our seperate rooms. I locked my door and went over to the glass sliding door. I unlocked it and smiled as I went and changed into pajamas. I crashed onto my bed and was out like a light minutes later.

The next morning I rolled out of bed and threw on my school uniform. I brushed out my hair and put it back into it's ponytail before heading out for breakfast. I poured a bowl of cereal and ate it down quickly before running out the door. I arrived at school and saw Okubo. "Hey, how are you?"

"Good, are you doing alright? Kuwabara told me you were really sick and that's why you missed so much school."

I scratched my head, "Yeah, I'm fine, fit as a fiddle. That stomach flu was a pain."

"But he said you had the measles."

"Uh...oh, yeah, the measles, I must have forgotten..." I laughed as I left and went inside. I went to my class and plopped down in my spot in the back of the class. Later during the day when Geometry came around, Mr. Najiru's class, I walked down a hallway bored out of my mind. Suddenly I heard the familiar annoying sound of his voice.

"JIANO!" I turned to see him coming down the hall. He was about ten feet away from me as the loud speaker came on.

"Stephanie Jiano, this is Principal Takenaka, please report to my office."

"Saved by the old man," I grinned as I turned and ran down the hall, opposite of Najiru, "See ya, jerkface!" I heard him curse as he went back to his classroom. When I arrived at Takenaka's office I walked past the secretary.

I opened the door and he saw me, "Come in." I nodded and sat down in the chair in front of his desk. "I heard you have been out sick for a long time."

"Yeah, the measles, but I got over them pretty quickly," I laughed, "Oh, and I've got a message from an old student of yours."

"Really, what is it?"

"He says 'THAT OLD COOT IS STILL ALIVE!'," I told him, "Actually, he says hey, and how've you been?"

"You must be talking about Urameshi, no doubt," he replied with a smile, "That boy has always been one of my favorite students. He had great potential in him, and I'm glad Keiko helped him get through school."

"Yeah, they have a noodle shop now. Kuwabara owns a cat shelter, he's doing pretty good as well. Anyway, after school I'm planning on going to see Yusuke and Keiko at the noodle shop, if you'd like to come."

"See Urameshi again, huh? Sounds interesting."

"So, I'll meet you in front after school, then?"

He smiled and stood up, "Sure."

I stood up, "Alright, see ya." I left his office and went to the library to wait until my next class. At the end of the day I met Mr. Takenaka outside of the school. We got into his car and headed to downtown where the noodle shop was. We stopped and climbed out. "Wait here, I'm going to go make sure he's here." Mr. Takenaka nodded as I went inside, "Hey, Keiko, is Yusuke here?"

Keiko smiled, "Yeah, he's here. Yusuke!"

He came out of the back, "What? Oh, hey, Stephanie, did you give the old man the message?"

"Sure did, and I actually have a surprise for you..." I opened the door, "You can come in now." Mr. Takenaka walked inside and I saw Yusuke's jaw drop.

"Takenaka, what are you doing here!"

"I came to have a late lunch," he replied sitting down across from me at a table.

Keiko walked over, "What can I get you two?"

"I'll take a plate of chow mein," I smiled.

"Give me whatever you like," Mr. Takenaka replied as she walked off.

About ten minutes later Yusuke came out and gave us our food. Mr. Takenaka tried his first and looked over at Yusuke, who was still standing nearby, "This is actually really good, Urameshi! I always told you that you had great potential!"

Yusuke laughed, "Thanks, old man."

After we were done eating Mr. Takenaka took his leave and I turned to Yusuke, "Sorry, I had to."

"Yeah, yeah..."

"Oh, and what's with Kuwabara telling Okado and Mr. Takenaka that I had the measles! I almost got caught when I told Okado I had the stomach flu!"

"Oops, sorry, Stephanie," Keiko laughed, "I guess we forgot to mention that to you when you guys got back yesterday."

"Yeah, thanks for the warning," I scowled, "Anyway, I better get going, I have to get to my job." I went home and changed into my work uniform and ran off before either of the other two had gotten home. Later that night, after getting off from work, I headed to the other side of town to see what had happened to the club that Mr. Carewallen had owned before his death.

I knocked on the door and it opened without anyone peeking out of it, "Yeah?"

"Zjaan?"

"Steph, how are you?" he asked letting me inside, "I heard your team won the tournament."

"You heard right," I replied looking around, "So, who's running the joint now that Mr. Carewallen is no longer part of the living?"

"You're looking at him," Zjaan beamed.

"You? Congratulations, finally someone with some taste and true objectives is running this old place. I'm really happy for you."

"I'm happy too, I've worked here a long time and it was always my dream to one day own it. I just never thought it'd come this fast."

"Yeah, well, feel lucky, I have to go back to school and work," I replied pointing to my job uniform, "But, life sucks, I guess."

"You don't like your job?"

"Are you kidding? They treat me like I'm nothing more than scum on the floor, I absolutely hate it and I'm surprised I haven't killed anyone with my refound powers."

He looked around, "Well, if you want, you can have a job here. I need good hearted people and demons here that aren't going to cause trouble and help keep the peace. I want this place to thrive like it once did back in the day."

My eyes widened, "Really? You'd hire me?"

"Sure, and anyone else you think would like to work here."

I pondered quietly, "I may have two more like me..."

"If you can get them to come in and work here, that'd be great, if not, though, it's okay."

"I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind, but they are younger than myself, one's almost fourteen and one's about eleven and a half."

"That's no problem, you worked here when you were younger than that."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow," I nodded as I left.

That night I told Tyler and Tiffany about the job and they both seemed pretty excited about it. They both knew what kind of place it was too, since they had been there before when the demon attacked and Keishou made his appearance. Tiffany said that she would still be volunteering at Kuwabara's cat shelter and I told her that was fine. Tyler was hesitant about giving up his place as an arcade freak, but I told him that the job would most likely be nights so he could go to the arcade after school and meet up with Amanuma or whatever.

The next day after school we met up at the club and Zjaan greeted us. He told me I would be working the bar, Tyler could run the stage lighting, and Tiffany could work in the back as a help for the performers. He explained that we would start the next night and only be working from eight to midnight, which didn't bother us, especially since he was told us we were going to be paid 1,000 ¥ an hour, and that I could keep all my tips.

We returned home with grins on our faces, finally glad that we were going to be making more than enough money to survive on. Tyler had went to the bank that day and opened a savings account, like I already had, and deposited his check. I told Tiffany I would open one for her the next day before work and then we went to making dinner. Later that night we took turns showering before we all headed to bed.

About a month or so later, everyone was asleep, exhausted from a hard night of work because of a huge party that was going on. We were called in at four and had worked until midnight, so we were completely wiped out. Around three or so I awoke suddenly and looked around. A cold breeze blew past me and I shivered as I realized that the sliding door was open. I got up and walked over to the door. I poked my head outside and looked around, not seeing anyone so I closed the door. When I turned around I almost screamed when I saw Hiei standing in front of me.

"Don't scream, you'll wake up Tyler and Tiffany."

"No shit, moron! Don't ever do that to me again!" I retorted punching him in the shoulder.

Hiei growled, "Is this how you greet friends you haven't seen in a month?"

"Yeah, pretty much," I sighed walked over and sitting down on my bed, "What are you doing back?"

"I was asked to relay a message to you, it's a job from Koenma. Kurama was supposed to come tell you about it, but he got caught up in a job that he couldn't just drop, so he asked me to tell you. Besides, I was in the area."

"What kind of job?"

"There's a demon that's been causing quite a stir in Makai in the last week. Koenma wants you to go see what he's upto and, if necessary, kill him."

"What else aren't you telling me, Hiei?"

"Koenma also said that the demon is leaving a trail of stone demons in his place, much like your parents."

I was wide awake after he said that, "Does he know if it's the demon that stole my parent's souls?"

"He's not sure, but the demon could be."

I jumped up and ran into my closet. I closed the door and emerged minutes later in my martial arts outfit. I walked over to Hiei and handed him my key to the apartment, "Hiei, I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

"Stay here in Ningenkai and watch over Tyler and Tiffany for me. They work nightly at the club across town from eight to midnight and they both have school, so they shouldn't be a problem."

"But--"

"Hiei, please? Just in case I don't come back, I need someone to be here for them."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked me.

My gaze dropped to the ground, "If I can't stop this demon, I want you to take care of them for me. I trust you and so do they."

"Stephanie, I'll stay, but you have to come back, I'm not a babysitter," Hiei retorted with a scowl.

I walked past him and opened the sliding door, "I know." I went outside and lifted my arm into the air, prepared to release the dragon on my arm. I opened my Jagan eye as I felt Hiei's hand touch mine. I looked over at him, "What are you doing?"

"Take the kokuryuhaa and Goukaryuu with you." I nodded.

"Combine Black Dragons!" The tattoos on our arms burst to life and combined together.

"Dragons, we have a job to do." The dragon nodded as it lowered it's head down to me. I climbed on him and Gouka flew up and sat down in front of me. The dragon lifted off and I turned to Hiei and waived, "See you later, and thanks again!"