Okay I have had possibly THE wost dayof my life. I was ill, I had to go to school anyway, we got our reports ('nuff said) and I can't sleep. So I thought I would share my dejectedness with everybody and hopefully get some reviews in the process. I got three reviewers this time... you know, I'm starting to notice a trend here. First I get one, then two, and now three. Hm...And nowto thank my reviewers:

Peeka-chan: Short but sweet! Thank you!

MikaSamu: Thank you very much! I was worried about whether they would seem OOC with the reunion thing. I'm glad you liked the garden, I had fun describing it. i think it is my dream garden. (Without the grave). I hope you're finding it interesting. R&R.

AniMei: Yes! I was trying to conceal the girl's true identity and I was worried I'd let something slip. Have to keep some mystery going ne? I don't know how Keiko/Kayko is supposed to be spelt but that seems to be the most common form. Once again, thank you for reviewing! (bows).

And now onto the main event!For all you Kurama fans out there -

EAE: Read it before she kills him off too (rolls eyes)

Hey, do YOU wanna write it? Oh yeah, we own only the plotline and an occasional OC. Nothing more!

The Makai was an immense, dark world of death, violence and greed. Shadow clung to the darkened landscape, smothering fog crawling like viscous ooze, covering hills and forests in a stifling cloud of foul smelling vapour. In this world, the greatest challenge was survival, where even the most innocent of flowers could suddenly spring up and bite your head off. In certain cases, that particular flower metaphor should be taken as deadly serious.

One would think that no happiness could possibly exist in this barren wasteland of trampled mosses and squalid pools where no star twinkled and only a washy dim light illuminated the cold darkness. Yet there is the most extraordinary thing about happiness. It can be found in even the most unlikely of places. Such as hanging upside down by its ankles from tree branches.

"OI TOUYA! How long do yeh reckon ah can do this before ah lose consciousness?"

It's amazing how happiness and insanity seem to go hand in hand, mused the demon as he watched the red headed shinobi dangle cheerfully from the thick, ivy encrusted branch, legs hooked firmly over the heavy wood.

"I would get down from there if I were you Jin."

"Oh, and why's tha' fox boy?"

A pale hand rose to brush a scarlet strand out of bright emerald eyes that were dancing with suppressed laughter.

"Well, I don't know about you but I enjoy having my head attached to my shoulders. It gives one a certain sense of security, ne?"

"And why would mah head be leavin' mah shoulders pray tell?"

A mild smile lifted the corners of the kitsune's lips.

"Because I have been harbouring a strange suspicion for the last… oh, few hours or so, that Touya finds the idea entertaining."

The wind shinobi's eyes flitted to a pale haired figure that possessed a pair of pale, pupiless eyes. Those eyes could look very creepy sometimes, especially when they were narrowed very slightly and fixed on your neck as though there was something he didn't like about it being the way it was: in Jin's case, intact.

"Ah think yeh have a point there mah friend."

Jin dropped easily from the branch; flipping around and falling into a hovering position barely an inch from the ice master's nose, grinning impudently. There was something quite unique about the way that Jin grinned at someone. It made you either want to grin back at him, or hit him repeatedly over the head with a large blunt object until he stopped moving.

Or both.

Touya was far too used to his friend's eccentric behaviour to be surprised or really angry. However, Irish red heads dropping out of the sky to laugh at you, call you a 'slow poke' (whatever that was) and continually send mini tornadoes your way merely because he was bored, can begin to grate on even the toughest of nerves. Touya took a deep, silent, calming breath and closed his eyes, willing his excitable shinobi partner to vanish into thin air. He opened his eyes.

"Shimatta…"

Kurama chuckled softly at the resigned comment, brushing in between the two, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

"I think you've been flying around a little too long Jin. The air seems to have filled up your head and crushed your brains out of existence." Jin smirked and did a back flip away from Touya to land neatly back on the tree branch, folding his arms.

"People with brains are borin'. They do stuff like trying teh figure oot the universe and why we all exist an' all kinds o' useless rubbish. Ah'll stick wi' flying thanks K'rama."

Kurama just smirked.

"Oh don' you dare – "

Jin launched himself from the branch but was not quick enough to escape the mass of ivy that pulled away from the dark trunk, scattering insects everywhere. The vines lashed themselves around the wind master, entangling him in a writhing mesh of tough green stems and broad, light tipped leaves. Touya grinned up at the struggling mass of foliage, wind shinobi and dead bark.

"Still enjoying your flying my friend?"

"Jus' yeh wait," the red head's dark voice was muffled somewhat, "When ah get oot of here ah swear I'll have tha' bloody fox's tail fer a hat..."

The shinobi might have made further menacing promises but was cut short by the moss-covered ground coming up to meet him. This is just a poetic way of saying that he was dropped flat on his face in the mud. Tearing his way out of the vines he spat out a leaf and turned to glare at Kurama.

"Yeh just signed yer death warrant fox. Mark mah words…"

The shinobi's voice trailed off into silence when he noticed that neither Kurama nor Touya was looking at him. They were staring at the trunk of the tree where the vines had been before Kurama's youki tore them away. There, pinioned to the living wood was a half rotted corpse.

The stench of putrid flesh washed over the trio and Kurama was forced to turn his head away as the vile smell assailed his sensitive nose. All traces of amusement and playfulness had gone from Jin's face as he looked bleakly at the pitiful remains. Touya's eyes had narrowed into slits and the ice master's fists were clenched.

"Is it… is it him?" Jin's soft voice seemed like a bellow in the heavy silence.

Kurama, who seemed to have recovered slightly from the terrible reek, looked back at the body. It was held there by what looked like a single length of rusted iron, like a nail, driven straight through the figure's exposed ribcage. The face was practically unrecognisable as either a human or a demon, half of the flesh hanging off to expose yellow bone, the eyes half ripped out of their sockets. One thing that the hanyou was able to tell from this fact alone was that this was not the object of their search. The eyes were blue.

"No." He sighed softly, answering Jin's hesitant question. "It's not him."

Touya gave a small sigh of relief and Jin closed his eyes, dragging a hand across his face. Kurama's practiced eyes flickered over the scene, taking in every detail. He should have spotted something out of the ordinary before really. Ivy was quite rare in the Makai (even though it was a native) in the sense that it was harmless to demons.

Why so much of it happened to be here merely underlined the theory that this was the work of a plant wielding youkai. And not an amateur one at that. Being a plant master himself, he could appreciate the way the leaves had been cunningly grown to appear ragged and old, as though they had always been there, the way they had clung so convincingly to the tough bark. Not as good as what he would have done, but still, not bad.

There was another puzzle. With the over powering smell of rotting flesh making his nose sting now, there was no way he could not have smelt it before.

Unless…

The two shinobi watched him stoop and pick up a handful of the vines that had encased the corpse to the tree. Upon closer inspection, he found clusters of tiny green blossoms, well camouflaged amongst the simple ivy leaves.

"Kasumihana" he muttered, sharp eyes sweeping the area around the tree, finding many of the small flowers cunningly concealed around the tree trunk. Touya walked gingerly to stand beside him, looking curiously at the cluster of flowers in the kitsune's grasp.

"What does it do?"

"Masks strong smells," replied Kurama shortly, the gears in his sharp mind turning swiftly. "Evidently someone intended that this body should never be found."

"But…" Jin's blue eyes were troubled, "no one in the Makai ever does tha' unless they 'ave a reason teh hide their kill. Most would jus' leave 'em oot in the open teh rot, warns their enemies off don't it? Who would go teh all this trouble?"

"And why?" said Kurama softly.

Touya was frowning, apparently deep in thought. Lines furrowed the ice master's smooth brow and Jin could tell that his partner was seriously bothered about something.

"This just doesn't make any sense."

"Wha' doesn't?" Inquired Jin gloomily, his blue eyes uncharacteristically dull. The wind shinobi hated things like this: cruel, senseless killing. He loved a good brawl and he had no qualms about killing in self-defence, after all, he was a demon. But seeing something like this… it was just despicable.

"Everything!"

Touya began to pace back and forth, frustration clear in every line of his body.

"Why is it all happening now? Unexplained killings, Hiei's disappearance… why wouldn't Hiei return to Mukuro's territory? Why wouldn't he tell someone where he was going? He trusted us before didn't he? He trusted Kurama."

"And Inari willing he still does," muttered Kurama, half to himself. They were already slipping into the past tense when talking of the fierce fire youkai. As though he was dead. Kurama's jaw set. He refused to believe that until he found proof, even if it took him a lifetime. He had to admit though, that he didn't understand it any more than Touya.

Hiei was well known throughout the land of the demons and he knew from experience that there were eyes everywhere in the Makai. If the Jaganshi had been killed then they would have heard something by now. It was as if his friend had simply dropped off the face of the earth. Hiei had been known to vanish for long periods of time when he was troubled, and Kurama knew that the tragedy with Yuusuke and Kuwabara had affected him deeply although he would never admit it.

But still, not even Hiei had literally disappeared for an entire decade before. Kurama had begun the search for the younger youkai about five years after his disappearance. At the time, he did not even realise that Hiei was missing. Only when he entered Mukuro's territory and asked to see the fire demon was he told that Hiei had not been back there for five years. After that he had searched alone for a year before running into Touya and Jin. Well, he thought wryly, 'running into' was putting it rather mildly. They had all agreed to help each other out, rather unusual in itself. In the Makai it was mostly survival of the strongest.

Well… the strongest or the ones who were smart enough to know that when you have a sword and the other guy doesn't yet the other guy is grinning at you, it's probably safe to say that either the other guy is suicidal or you are about to get creamed. Life had improved since then and yet Kurama could not dispel the strange feeling that they were looking in the in all the wrong places. With difficulty he wrenched his thoughts away from his former partner in crime and pulled himself together.

Jin had seen the fox's brief faraway expression and knew instantly what Kurama was thinking about. He knew that despite the fact that Hiei had been antisocial, sarcastic, cold and outwardly unfeeling, Jin knew that Kurama and Hiei had shared some special bond. Hiei and Kurama had trusted each other and that alone showed that the two were a force to be reckoned with. Neither of the demons gave their trust easily, Hiei especially. But then, if your mother had chucked you off a cliff within an hour of your birth then it was probably understandable that the fire youkai had issues.

Touya had stopped pacing and was leaning against another of the dark tree trunks, eyes closed and slim, pale fingers pressed to his temples. Kurama was staring at the corpse with the unreadable expression that showed the kitsune was deep in thought. There were in fact, several variations of this expression that the demon's two shinobi companions had picked up remarkably quickly.

For example, if Kurama was staring absently up at the sky then he was thinking either about what they were going to do next or whether the demon attempting to sneak up on them was really worth the effort. If he was watching his feet as he walked along he was generally lost in old memories of Ningenkai and his friends. If he was staring fixedly at something in the far distance with his eyes very slightly unfocused then he was going over all the places that they had been and where they could possibly go next and how long he had before he had to prevent Touya from actually strangling his shinobi partner. If he had had his gaze fixed on an inanimate object with his eyes narrowed for over a minute, as was the case now, then it was generally not a good idea to talk to him within a radius of five metres without a lot of weed killer, spirit armour, possibly a flamethrower and a pair of industrial goggles.

Eventually Kurama sighed almost inaudibly, tearing his eyes away from the grotesque image to look up into the darkened tree canopy. Seeing this as a sign that he was allowed to move now, Jin jumped lightly into the air, toes barely brushing the ground as he skimmed over to the kitsune demon.

"Wha's happenin' then K'rama?"

Kurama slowly turned to look at Jin, a troubled look in his emerald eyes. Touya had moved forward and was scrutinising something at the base of the tree. Kurama brushed a hand across his tired eyelids.

"Whoever that person was, she was human."

"Human? She?" Jin looked curiously at his friend's face. Kurama smiled thinly.

"Yes, she. The scent, however obscure it is, is distinctly feminine and the blood is not that of a demon." Touya looked over at the fox demon, eyes narrowed.

"What else?"

Kurama looked back at the body, "I think… I can smell Reikai on her."

Touya nodded, straightening up holding something out to the other two.

"Would this explain it?"

Kurama' eyes widened very slightly. The device lying shattered in Touya's palm was all too familiar.

"One of Koenma's communication mirrors," he murmured, looking back at the body. "This must have been one of the junior Reikai Tantei that Koenma hired after…" He took the small object from Touya. The screen was smashed as though it had been dropped and dried blood was flecked across it.

"Well tha's jus' bloody brilliant," Jin flipped himself irritably into the air, settling himself into a crosslegged position in midair. "Another little mystery teh add teh the heap we've got already."

Kurama looked up at him. "Actually, I think this finally gives us a starting point." Jin raised an eyebrow, flipping upside down, "Oh? An' wha' would tha' be?" Kurama's features were set as though in stone. "I think that Koenma may be able to give us some answers." Jin's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hair and Touya shot Kurama a doubtful look.

"Are you sure… I mean, do you think you're ready to see him without… well…" he trailed of delicately, not wanting to incur the fox's wrath. Kurama turned his head very slowly to the ice demon and Touya saw clearly the shimmering golden flecks swimming in the kitsune's deep, emerald eyes. Kurama smiled humourlessly at the shinobi.

"You mean, will I be able to see him without having one of my death plants chew him up and spit him out?" he inquired mildly. Touya nodded slightly, continuing to watch him warily. The fox demon's smile widened, "I'm not really sure my friend. I suppose… we'll just have to play it by ear."

Touya suddenly found himself feeling intensely grateful that he was not Koenma. He almost felt sorry for the Reikai Lord.

Almost.

"K'rama…"

The kitsune looked back around at the sound of Jin's voice. The wind shinobi was frowning at the head of the corpse.

"What's tha'?"

The other two demons followed the blue eyed shinobi's gaze. The skin that had peeled away from the dead woman's forehead seemed oddly regular. Kurama frowned, the gold fading slightly as he stepped forward. He lifted the skin and pressed it back against the yellow bone.

Then he went very still.

Jin and Touya watched threads of silver creep down the kitsune's long red mane.

"K'rama?"

Very little could chill the blood of these two demons. Kurama's voice froze the blood in their veins.

"It's him."

R&R! PLEASE! I need a reason to continue. FLAME me for all I care, just do SOMETHING!