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Teardrop Two

THREE MONTHS LATER

If a normal person had walked into the room at that moment all they would have seen was a young man yelling at what appeared to be a briefcase.

"Hey toddler, hurry up and tell us what the hell you want. Keiko is going to kill me for ditching her again." grumbled Yusuke Urameshi, formally dead spirit detective of Ningenki

"Yusuke, if you would give the rest of the team a chance to arrive I will gladly inform you of your new assignment so I can turn off this damn thing and no longer have to see your face!" Koenma was screaming by now at a smirking Yusuke.

Yusuke was a tall well muscled young man. His stubborn jaw and slicked back black hair gave him the appearance of a typical badass with a chip on his shoulder. It was not until you gazed deep into his honey colored eyes that you realized just how misleading his appearance really was.

There was nothing ordinary or normal about this man. In his eyes there was a gleam of hardness and a determination to survive and succeed that was chilling to witness. A person would not think that someone so young would have that look in his eyes. Those eyes belonged to war survivors or people who had seen things that they should posses no knowledge of at all.

However, underneath it all there was sheen of softness that was barely visible if you did not know to look for it. Though most did not even try to look beyond the surface. If they had they would have seen the real him. Afterall it is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul.

In his eyes there could be seen the hope that somebody would come along and help to reopen his eyes to the good in the world. That maybe some person somewhere in the three worlds would be able to show him that the monsters he saw so often were not the only ones out there.

Yusuke had come close to giving up hope a couple of times in his life and yet in each instance there had always been someone who had pulled him back from the darkness. It was as if fate had been telling him that it was not yet his time to go, as if he had more that he had to accomplish in his lifetime. It had turned out to be correct. Yusuke could honestly say that dieing was the best thing that had ever happened to him, as strange as it sounded. While his life since then had been anything but easy, he could say in all honesty that for first time in history he felt as if he belonged. He had found a place for himself among the youkai that he had met along the way. For the first time he felt as if no matter what, there was someone out there that would accept him for who and what he was. No matter how dark or how weak he sometimes became.

Although he bitched and complained about his job and his boss, he and everyone else knew that he would never trade those days and those memories for anything. They were at times his light in the darkness.

The two paused in their juvenile and yet totally jovile argument at the simultanious opening of the bedroom door and the only window of the room.

Suuichi Minamino, or Kurama as he prefered to be called, walked through the door with a grace and elegance that only he seemed to posses. The tall figure was crowned with a stunning head of glistening red hair the color of the deepest roses or the color of a person's hearts blood. Both descriptions were hauntingly accurate. His eyes were the hue of the deep forest after the first real summer rain. They were seductively entrancing, and had the ability to make a person feel as if he was gazing into their very soul and reading their minds at the same time. What was even more amazing was his ability to make you love the feeling of telling all to him and crave the opportunity to do so again.

Hai, he was smooth. He could kill you before you even realized he had struck. He could turn a harmless piece of grass into a deadly needle, or a beautiful rose into an evil killing machine. He could steal anything before you even realized he was there at all.

He was a kitsune alright, hypothetically and literally.

Kurama was by far, no ordinary ningen male. Some twenty two years before, the great silver kitsune bandit Yoko Kurama was injured, and forced to take refuge outside of the Makai. In a desperate attempt to recover his spiritual energy he implanted his soul into the body of a ningen onna's unborn child. He had at the time all intentions of waiting ten years before leaving the Ningenkai behind. However when his okaasan fell ill he found that he could not bear to leave her side. That onna had succeded in gaining the love of one of the most illusive youkai in history. And as time passed the Youko found that his soul and the soul of the unborn child were somehow slowly coming together.

It is true that he and the soul of the child had always found themselves to be on the same spiritual frequency. Somehow the child had a spirit that ran parallel to his own. He did not doubt that even without his influence the boy would have been a powerful psychic, perhaps on par with even Genkai herself. Undoubtably he would have had a natural talent of sorts with locks and perhaps even an unexplainable affinity for plants. The boy would have been an exceptional ningen with the potential for genius.

However with the infusion of a kitsune soul that had seen over a thousand years pass by, he was extraordinary. He excelled at anything and everything he put his mind to. He was the model student, the perfect child, the perfect son, and yet there was always something missing in him. His okaasan could see it in his eyes, and his mannerisms. It was as if the boy was not whole. He kept everyone at a distance, letting no one close to him, not even his own okaasan. There was a coldness about him that was unheard of in a child. His okaasan dismayed of ever really reaching him and feared that she would lose him before she was ready. Things had changed slightly when she had saved him from being sliced on the broken plate. He had looked up at her with the most bewildered and confused expression on his face. After that instance things had been slightly smoother.

As an avatar Kurama had a more than slightly difficult time relating to anyone. Those of Ningenkai tended to place him on an altar, his physical features and his brilliant mind set him apart from all others. Those of the Makai tended to see him as below them. They believed that since he had sided with the ningen team in the Ankoku Bujutsukai he was himself a youkai traitor. They would never understand the reasons behind his decisions.

And although the two souls were different, they had each come to find a sort of peace and comfort with the other. The Yoko had found a source of closeness that he had not had with anyone since his time with Kuronue embodied within the ningen soul. The soul of Suuichi had found what seemed like a missing piece of itself. The kitsune soul that shared its body had given it the ability to reach its full potential. They were each grateful to the other even if they did have their differences at time.

Yoko was not a typical kitsune, he was a silver. His grace and beauty surpassed all other races of kitsune and his skills in thievery and combat were legendary. He had been challenged by many in his time but had found few that completely over shadowed his strength. He was not so arrogant as to believe that he was all powerful and undefeatable. There were many that were stronger than he, that had been proven with Yusuke's second reawakening. However those that did wield such power would find it useless to challenge him. While his strength may not have been on the highest level possible his intelligence level far surpassed any he had ever encountered. On the few occassion that he had found himself out classed strength wise, he had no problem finding a way out through trickery. The Yoko was known for his cruel and calculating intellect.

Kurama was the neutral force between the two. A blend of some of the best traits of the two souls, he was most formidable. While he did not possess all of the strength of the kitsune he did posses a great deal of it. Mixed with the natural spiritual abilities of Suuichi, the avatar was brilliant when it came to controling his plants. As well as the strength of the bandit he also possessed his keen intellect and more often than not his cold, cruel, calculating mannerisms. They were made all the more deadly by the fact that they were hidden behind the calm and seemingly gentle facade that was their ningen body. With his eerie calm and smooth countenance he was a formidable and intimidating foe. However the one flaw in the make-up of what seemed to be the perfect blend between the two would be the uncommon amounts of pity and compassion that Kurama often showed. Even though he was still as deadly as ever it was common for him to allow his more ningen emotions to interfere and often cause him injury.

While the kitsune had used the door like any normal person, the figure draped acroos the window sill was the most unpredictable member of the team.

Hiei was a youkai of short stature, but he brought truth to the fact that looks can be deceiving. Even though Hiei was small height wise his power levels were extraordinary. The diminitive youkai had overcome cruel odds to become an exceptionally powerful fighter. His arms and legs bulged with muscles that were easily detectable through his loose black pants and his blue shorn shirt. He stood at about 4 foot 9 inches tall, and his gravity defying hair did nothing to distract from his slightly evil image. The hilt of the katana he wore strapped to his waist was worn and tattered, a testament of his unending attempts to strengthen his skills.

The two most interesting items of his attire was the white bandana that he wore constantly around his forehead and the white bandages that were ever present wrapped around his right arm from his knuckles all the way up to just slightly past his elbow.

The bandana could be played off for a number of different reasons in the ningen world. Some people would say that Hiei was in a gang, was scared on his forehead, wanted to look extra tough, and a few wiser ones might even say that he wore the bandana simply because he wished to. But as wise as their guesses would have been if Hiei was just a simple ningen thug, they were way off base with the real Hiei. Hiei wore the bandana because he did in fact like the way it looked but more importantly he liked the way it concealed his forehead, making the skin that circled his skull invisible to any passerbyer. Hiei did in fact have something to hide, something extremely unique.

Underneath that tiny scrap of cloth there was an eye. This eye was no normal appendage in the least; in fact this eye did not even belong to Hiei himself. The eye was called the Jagan, and it was extremely powerful. Granting him the ability to peer into the minds of others, it also gave him telekinetic powers, and after an extended period of weakness when first gaining the implant, it increased his more natural attacks ten fold. The Jagan eye was an extremely powerful companion, if one could survive the ordeal required to accquire it. When dealing with the youkai implant there was one important thing that could never be forgotten: control, true control is nothing but a dream, and even the most powerful must wake up sometime. The Jagan could never be fully under anyones control.

The bandages were just as, if not more, interesting than the bandana. Wrapped around his arm from below his wrist and up to just past his elbow it looked as if he had been badly injured. In fact it was just the opposite. If anyone with a bit of spiritual awareness were to gaze at his arm for a prolonged period of time they would notice that the aura around it was darker, and even more hostile than was normally associated with Hiei's somber and calculating form. The same could be said for the aura that surrounded the Jagan, except that that aura was wilder and more untamed than even Hiei's aura normally appeared. The bandage was in fact keeping something restrained, a creature that had the power to destroy its own master.

Resisting the urge to fry a certain detective for all of the yelling that could be heard seconds before, Kurama calmly spoke.

"Koenma-sama you asked to see Hiei and myself, and here we are. What exactly was it that you wanted to see the team about sir?

Aware that the time for business was at hand Koenma quickly resumed his appearance of unruffled ruler.

Clearing his throat he once again began, "Well Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke I am afraid that your lives have just got a lot more complicated.

"How in the hell did you fuck up this time Koenma?" Yusuke grumbled.

"I resint that implication Yusuke, I have done nothing wrong."

"Sure you haven't." The ever diplomatic detective snorted in disbelief.

"Now what I need for you to do is to track down and bring back two people..."

AN: I am aware that there have been some major plot changes in this story but please do not stop reading.