A night that seemed to last forever passed over the palace in the spirit world. Searching through over seven billion inhabitants in the human world was no simple task, even with the assistance of advanced technology wielded by reikai. Data on ever human in existence within the decade was looked over by both hand and computer for any possible signs of spirit awareness, physical resemblance to Yusuke, and personality similar to Yusuke. Hard work with sleepless hours were spent by most of the staff in the spirit world for weeks at a time. After a week with no success, KoEnma was starting to grow more impatient as there were no definite matches.

As dawn broke through the dark clouds that carpeted the sky, KoEnma devised a second plan. Even after the long years, at this time he summons Botan. The blue haired girl entered KoEnma's office, not a hair out of place from a thousand years in the passing. Her kimono was still the bright pink it had always been. She approached his desk and stared intently at him.

"You called, Lord KoEnma?" she asked. Her voice still sounded like her normal self, as if she never aged in the least bit. Her ruler stood up to look at her; and what a thousand years made a difference to him. His physical form held that of a teenager now, instead of his former and much younger form that appeared far more child-like. His hair was only a little longer, and he wore no hat upon his head anymore. His clothes appeared different and still reflected a Japanese style with Chinese influence. He had gotten so used to the manipulation of the form to his age which he begun that he could now hold it without reverting to his younger form unless willingly. He nodded after Botan's question, a same semi-serious tone about him. It appeared that he had only matured a little, yet he still matured.

"Yes, I did. Botan, I want you to go out on a different search." He paused, expecting as usual that he would explain to her exactly what he wanted her to do. He waited for her sign that she understood what he had said and was well prepared to carry out the task needed.

"Yes, I'm listening." KoEnma nodded his head before he spoke again.

"You and I are both aware of the effects to the mind, body, and spirit of a reincarnation.. that they resemble in certain ways the person they were in their past life. Also, should they encounter someone of great importance in their past life, they will have memories return to them." He gave a moments pause again, allowing Botan to nod to show that she was following his train of thought. "I have decided to locate the easiest of the old spirit detectives to locate.. and that would be Kurama. His intelligence far surpasses the average human, which will narrow down our search by far. As he has experienced living two lives, both as Youko Kurama and Shuiichi Minamino, I believe he will remember much more easily than the others may."

Botan gave her nod, yet she still looked uneasy. She had no idea how to track Kurama down, although she did agree with KoEnma's reasoning. "Yes, KoEnma, but.. where do I start?"

KoEnma looked from Botan down to his desk, where he picked up a folder, and then he handed it to Botan. She hesitated for a moment before she took the folder from him, and then opened it to look inside. The contents included five sets of photographs and several papers attached to each one. Each photograph was of a person, who did have an eerily resemblance to Kurama to either his demon or human life. She looked back at KoEnma.

"These are the five candidates for Kurama. Three of them live in Japan, one in Germany, and one in England. You will be transferred to their schools and enrolled into all of their classes. You will try to meet them one on one and become as close as you need to find out which one is Kurama. It is most definite that he is one of these, and there is the possibility that his human and demon forms have separate bodies. Do you understand?" Botan nodded after a moment.

"Good. Then off you go. Your first visit will be to England."

It was an early September morning as Botan stood outside the school she would be attending for the next few days, in search of her first candidate for Kurama. As she looked down at her uniform of a plaid skirt, knee high socks, a white blouse with the school emblem and a coat she remembered posing as a girl from Yusuke's school a long time ago. A warm feeling spread throughout her as it felt like old times again, when the rest of the gang was still alive. She glanced behind her, almost as if expecting Keiko or Yusuke to run up to her. Not much to her surprise, no one was there.

She took a deep breath and walked into the building, pushing the front door open. She looked up and down the halls, then stopped a moment to think. "Hmm... so where do I go..." she tapped her foot as she looked for any indication of where she should go. The only problem with this was that she was completely lost inside the school, weather or not she studied it last night before coming here as well as brushing up on as much English as she could.

Looking down the halls, there were a few other students walking by in either the left or the right. On either side there were two more rooms. She looked at both of them, lacking to take the panels next to the doors into notation and walked to the left room.

The door was open, and a woman sat at a desk in front of a computer. A few more rooms led down in a hall, and a few students were in the room speaking with the adults. Botan looked at the woman noticing that she had a large amount of wrinkles, yet her hair was blonde and curly, dark eyes hidden behind large glasses with pointed edges.

She took a step towards the woman in the desk, a bright and optimistic signature Botan smile on her face. "Hello, miss, I'm new to this school. I wanted to know if you could please help me get a copy of my class schedule."

The woman continued to stare at her computer for a few more moments, then pushed her glasses higher up on her nose and looked at Botan. "Then you want to the main office. This is the guidance office," the woman said in a very sweet sounding voice and pointing to the room on the right.

Botan nodded and grinned. "Okay then." Feeling extremely stupid for walking into the wrong room, she walked over to the main office. There was a younger looking woman with chubby cheeks and very short dark hair sitting at the computer in this room. She took a sip of coffee from a mug before continuing to type away madly at her computer, barely seeming to notice that there was someone in the office.

"Hello there. I'm new to this school and I would like to know if I can get a copy of my class schedule." The woman took another sip of her coffee and looked at Botan. She nodded while she put the mug down.

"Right away," she said in a low, frog like voice. A few commands and the woman printed up a schedule and handed it to Botan. "Enjoy your classes."

Botan smiled. "I will!" And with that, she walked out of the office.

The first place to go would be to her homeroom. After walking around for a good ten minutes, Botan eventually managed to find the room. She took a quick glance around at the other students in the room, remembering the photograph of the boy who could be Kurama's reincarnation.

In the back of the room sat a black haired boy with emerald green eyes who was reading a thick book of leather. There was a great resemblance in the face shape between this boy and Kurama, although this boy had shorter hair that slightly touched his ears. It was very possible that he could be Kurama, but she would need to double check before making too many assumptions. The name of the one she was looking for was Fox Brinley, which she forced into her mind.

With a grin she moved to the back of the room and sat in a desk next to the Kurama-look-a-like. "Hello, my name is Botan." She smiled at the boy as he looked at her. he didn't look too pleased to have his reading interrupted by someone, yet he didn't look angry at her either. He simply sighed and put a bookmark on the page he was at and turned to look at her.

"Hello, I am Fox. Are you new here?" he said. He had a definite British accent.

Botan's smile grew wider. 'Yes,' she thought, 'I found the candidate!' She nodded to answer the question. "Yes, I am."

Fox simply nodded. "Oh. Where in Japan did you move from?"

"Uh.." She was a bit taken aback that he knew she was from Japan immediately as it was usually hard for someone who was not oriental to tell the difference between the nationalities. regardless, she kept her smile. "I'm from around the Tokyo area."

Fox nodded. "Oh. Tokyo is nice."

"Have you been there?"

"No."

She was now in a slump. She had found Fox with no problem, but she wasn't able to make any conclusions yet. His personality didn't seem to quite match Kurama's, although he did seem to be intellectual. She needed something that might make him give further clues.

'Oh, what does Kurama like,' she thought to herself. 'Hmm.. he was always fond of plants.' Botan smiled. "So, what do you people do around here?" she asked him.

The boy shrugged. "Many different things. It depends on the person."

'Not very specific,' Botan thought to herself. "Oh? What do you like to do then?"

Fox paused a moment before answering. "I am quite fond of chess, and I enjoy playing football."

Botan nodded, the look on her face seeming interested. Kurama didn't strike her as a person who was fond of sports, although she could picture him liking the game chess.

"Are you any good at chess?"

Fox nodded. "I am for the most part. What do you like to do?"

Botan thought for a moment. 'Hmm... if I tell him what I really enjoy doing, it won't help me at all.. but what if I said I liked the things that Kurama likes?' She smiled. "I like gardening. Anything in nature, actually."

"I don't like the woods very much. I'd rather be indoors."

Well, that settled it for the most part. Fox was not Kurama, as one of the traits that was most well known about him to Botan was that he loved nature and adored natural beauty. He matched up well other than that fact, but it didn't seem likely. If he was Kurama, he should have been able to start to recognize her.

"So, what have you gotten for me Botan?"

Botan was back in her kimono, again standing in from of KoEnma's desk. She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Fox Brinley is not Kurama," Botan stated.

"Are you positive?" KoEnma asked.

She nodded her head once as she spoke. "Yes. Very sure."

KoEnma nodded. "Hmm... she showed high signs of spirit awareness and from what else I know he has been taking martial arts for four years now and could be promising.. perhaps we may want to keep track of him. Did you obtain his contacts?"

Botan nodded. "Yes, I have his... e-mail address." She didn't seem to know what it was in the least, and it was unlikely that she had one either. Either way she still stated it as she always presented information.

"Good. Tomorrow you go to Germany."