Sitting upon her oar not more than an hour after dusk, Botan surveyed the two reincarnations. "I see, so now you are.. fully separate souls. I suppose it does make sense... after all, one soul may be reincarnated into several different beings, so the split between you would be more likely than most."

Shino nodded, pausing nervously. "What are the chances that.. we have a few different reincarnations for one of the reiki tantei?" he asked moments later, glancing up a few inches at the hovering Botan.

She shook her head. "I do not know, but I hope it is unlikely. I will ask KoEnma, though." She turned to look at Shugo. "Bummed about being human now?"

Shugo shook his head with a wide grin. "No, not at all. This time I didn't soften up, either," he added smugly as he grinned at Shino.

Shino frowned at that cocky smile Shugo now had. "I wouldn't say I am all that soft."

Botan frowned. "Settle down, Kurama, and.. Kurama. I'll just have to stick with your new names. Shino and Shugo.. even those name sound similar." She frowned, clenching her fists. "Fate does this just to frustrate me, I swear."

Shugo smirked. "Yes, because fate loves to make your life hell."

Botan pouted, ignoring the sarcasm in Shugo's voice. "I know... well, anyway, I am here to show you two the candidates for Kuwabara. There is Ringo, Hana, and Kaemon." She handed Shino a folder full of the pictures and information of them.

"Also.. if Ringo turns out to be Kuwabara's reincarnation, he will not be able to work with the rest of the team. Ringo is only ten years old."

Shugo raised an eyebrow. "A ten year old reiki tantei? Not a good idea."

Botan nodded. "Right, he would be too young. And Shugo.. you did not have much interaction with Kuwabara, so I am sorry but I do not thing you can help at the present time. Kuwabara would not recognize you."

Shugo shrugged. "Yes, I'm crushed," she said sarcastically and waved as he walked off. "You know where to find me."

Shino sighed, then glanced back at Botan. "Alright, so how shall we do this?"

Botan paused as she mused upon a split-up plan. "Well, I could visit Ringo, and you can visit Hana. Then we can both visit Kaemon after if neither of them are Kuwabara."

Shino nodded as Botan handed him a file of Hana. "Just out of curiosity, how did you narrow down the candidates?"

Botan grinned. "Oh, well, we looked at their spirit energy levels and moral readings... a unique combination that matched Kuwabara's, as well as any other additional characteristics."

"I see," Shino replied, glancing at the picture and paper to accompany it. "So, where do I go?"

Botan glanced at the file and pointed to the bottom. "See, there. She works at a coffee shop, so you can try to meet her there. It says she was a lunch break tomorrow, so you can see her there. As for Ringo, I signed up to work at the daycare center as a student doing community service."

Shino nodded. "And for Kaemon?"

Botan paused. "Well, I will be going to his school the day after tomorrow to see if it is him. As for now, simply prepare for tomorrow. Anything to bring out the Kuwabara." Shino nodded.

The next day arrived soon, and by noon Shino had walked to the coffee shop. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Shugo, who approached him. With a grin, he waved. "So, how is finding Kuwabara going so far?"

Shino shook his head. "Nothing yet. I am supposed to inspect Hana while Botan inspects Ringo, and tomorrow if today we do not find him Botan will try at his school."

Shugo chuckled. "Hana? You mean.. Kuwabara was reincarnated into a girl?"

Shino shook his head. "I don't know, but it looks like a possibility."

Shugo grinned. "I'll come for a watch. This will be amusing."

Shino shook his head. "I don't think that is such a good idea." As the two entered the coffee shop they looked around. There were a few people inside, but not enough of a crowd and no line. With a table free, they sat down at it and glanced around for the girl.

"I do not see the problem. So, where is she?" Shugo asked.

Shino shook his head calmly. "I do not know yet." A girl with wavy orange hair pulled back that appeared similar to Kuwabara's hair walked around at the back counter and hung up an apron with a name-tag "Hana" on it. She yawned as she then walked away out from behind the counter and sat down a few tables away from Shino and Shugo.

Shugo stretched out, relaxing back as he folded his arms behind his head. "Well, I guess we found her. She must have just started break."

Shino nodded. "Yes.. but I am thinking of a way to talk to her to find out if she is Kuwabara." Shino paused as he thought, yet before he could do much more the atmosphere of the coffee shop seemed to change. A thick, purple haze drifted into the room as the entire room seemed to chill and become icy. It seemed that no one really noticed the difference, yet Shino and Shugo were too busy staring at the purple fog to care.

Suddenly, everyone in the room fainted except for Shugo, Shino and Hana. Chairs were thrown around and tables as te occupants collapsed, causing a real mess of the place. Shino pulled on Shugo's collar and dragged him under the table. Before Shugo could ask for an explanation, Shino glanced at him sharply and made a "shhh" noise. After a second passed and Shino listened for any noise, he turned to Shugo quickly. "Whoever is controlling the purple fog may come in here to investigate what is going on, or rather who hadn't been affected by it for whatever reason."

Shugo nodded, and the two kept a look out. Hana now stepped out into the room center of the empty cafe, glancing around. She frowned, crossing her arms as she turned to look at the doors. "Hey! Who is out there! Come show yourself, coward!"

No reply. 'She certainly seems to be acting like Kuwabra,' Shino thought to himself, yet he continued to observe. Suddenly, three demons rouse from the purple fog and into the room. They had been green, appearing more reptilian than humanoid although with definite thin hairs on their skin. The eyes were very large, gold and catlike. They had been piercing in their gaze, as if to strike terror in anything that came near.

Hana was taken aback, gasping as she stepped backward. She frowned at them, taking some sort of stance with her legs apart and her arms crossed and angled. Whether or not it was a real stance or an act, it was unsure to either Shugo or Shino. "What do you want?" she called out.

The center demon snorted, then spoke sending spit everywhere as he did so. "Dispose of the spirit users." The three demons advanced on her.

"The what?" she called out, raising an eyebrow, glancing at the corner where Shino and Shugo had lie. She couldn't see them through the table, yet she must have been able to sense them.

"Dispose of the spirit users," the demon repeated.

The girl frowned, dropping her stance. "I heard you the first time! Stupid good for nothing monster."

Before she could say anything else, the demon leapt at her. With a yell, she ducked and dove under, holding her hands over her head as the demon missed her. Hana looked up, catching sight of Shino and Shugo. "Would it kill you to help!" she shouted over at them, getting back to her feet and falling backwards from shock as the other two leapt at her.

Shino and Shugo got out from under the table, each of them heading for a demon as Hana scrambled to her feet. Shino hit one in the back to push it towards the ground and then hit it with his knee forcing it back up, finishing it with a punch. It must have been a D class demon, as it was knocked out very easily.

Shugo simply punched it in the face and kicked it over incase the punch had not enough of an effect. It coughed up some blood, also of the D class and easy to defeat.

Hana squealed a little as the last one came after her and she pushed her wrist forward to hit the demon in the nose. She looked horrified as she heard a cracking sound, purple blood dripping over wrist as she shook it from pain.

But, she hadn't managed to knock it out quite yet, only make it dizzy and most likely broke the nose. She frowned, then took a step forward as she punched it in the face with her other hand. Now she had knocked it out, noticing that she had gotten blood on both of her hands with a look of disgust as she muttered "Eww" under her breath.

Now that the sudden interruption had occurred, Shino and Shugo were out in the open and had time to see if the candidate for Kuwabara was him or not. She turned to look at them as they approached. "What was that?"

"No idea," Shugo replied, shrugging.

"It was like some kind of demon," Shino added as he chose his words carefully. The girl just turned to survey the area and the damage.

She sighed heavily. "My boss is going to kill me," she muttered as she started picking up tables. "Second time this month."

Shugo raised an eyebrow. "This has happened before?"

"Yeah... why didn't either of you faint?" she asked.

"The same reason you didn't," Shugo replied. She didn't reply, just continued picking up tables as the fog continued to disperse. It was plain to see she wasn't sure why she didn't faint either.

After picking up another table, she glanced at them. "Well, if you are going to just stand there the least you could do is help."

"I don't feel like helping," Shugo muttered to Shino and turned to leave.

Shino shook his head and grabbed Shugo's sleeve to stop him. "We still need to be certain that she isn't Kuwabara. We need a reason to stay longer." The two walked over to different tables and started to pick them up, then Shino turned to Hana. "So what happened last time?"

"Oh... well I was in the bathroom right before and when I came back there was the strange haze in the room, everyone was out cold and some demon thing was about to eat some middle aged man, so I kicked it from behind before it saw me," she replied. She paused after, frowning. "Yeah... broke a good pair of heels... anyway, so it didn't really work that well so I punched it in the face as it turned around... then things were kind of fine except I had to clean up the place... like now."

"Do you get into fights often?" Shugo asked. It was obvious he could have cared less, but he was doing what was asked.

Hana gave him a strange look before she answered. "Sort of... I'm not very good at controlling my temper sometimes and I can be over-confident. But, I'm trying. I was thinking of signing up for a type of martial arts once I can pay for it, which is why my mom said I couldn't."

"Do you get good grades in school?" Shugo asked, knowing Kuwabara was not the brightest crayon in the box even if he could manage.

She shrugged. "Oh, usually. I'm used to being right so it adds to my stubborn nature."

Shino frowned. That definitely wasn't an attribute Kuwabara had been used to, so it was unlikely she could be him.

Hana glanced at him. "Is something wrong?"

Shino merely shook his head as a reply. "No. Everything is just fine, I just hate cleaning up." He continued to clean as he thought to himself. 'If she isn't him, then the search continues... I just hope it isn't Ringo.'