To Kyo Hana, I believe I've heard of Robert Ludlum, but I don't believe I've read anything by him- I'll have tocheck him out sometime And I most appreciate your invitation regarding the DVDs, but wouldn't borrowing them prove difficult...?

"Hey Keiko, do you get that weird feeling when you go to detention? Like you're home again?"

"Shut up, Kuwabara," she grumbled. "Any idea where Mr. Hard-ass took Yusuke?"

"How can I tell you? You told me to shut up."

"Fine," Keiko said testily. "You have permission to speak. Where is he?"

"Hell if I know," he answered with a grin. She glared at him. "What! I never said I knew, you just ass-" The rest of his sentence was muffled when the door to the nurse's office opened, slamming into his face.

Keiko observed the incident carelessly, and then looked to see who opened the door. "What were you doing in there?" she demanded.

"Hiding," Yusuke answered, emerging from the office. "I swear that principal has some skeletons in his closet I'll bet his wife doesn't know about."

"You swear?" Keiko teased. "'Heck' isn't a swear word, Yusuke. What sort of skeletons?"

"Extremely perverted ones," he said traumatically. "He's messed up."

"Are you a homophobe, Urameshi?"Kuwabara demanded, pulling himself up off the floor.

"No!" he said indignantly. "I just don't approve of child molesters. I'd feel the same way if it was Keiko instead."

"Oh." He smirked. "'Cause I was gonna say, you'd be pretty hypocritical if you were one."

"Knock it off," Keiko warned. "When you stoop so low you have to make gay jokes, you're more pathetic than I thought."

"I'm only kidding!"

She ignored him. "Our detentions are over," she told Yusuke. "We can go home."

The three encountered the principal in the entry way. "Where are you going?" he asked.

Kuwabara stood up straight, back rigid. "Sir, we have served our detentions!" he said in an official tone. "I will probably see you again same time tomorrow, or next week at the latest, Sir! Permission to be dismissed, Sir!" He gave the principal a mock-salute.

He rolled his eyes. "Permission granted, Mr. Kuwabara. Get the hell out of here. And you," he reached out and squeezed Yusuke's shoulder. "Stay out of trouble, Mr. Urameshi."

"Uh, yes Sir," he said nervously.

Kuwabara managed to control himself until they were at the bottom of the school steps, and then he burst out laughing. "Yeah, stay out of trouble, Urameshi. Wouldn't want you to get in a situation where the principal has to marry you."

"And now we know why Kuwabara flunked biology twice," Keiko muttered.

"Hey! You'd better be glad I don't beat the crap out of girls, usually."

"Yusuke," she said, ignoring Kuwabara. "I doubt that hiding in the nurse's office will help anything. Just hit him in the crotch next time he tries anything. That's what I always do."

"Who in their right mind would want to touch you?" Kuwabara demanded.

"Like, almost all the guy teachers at school!" Keiko retorted. "The school board's full of idiots; half the people they hire probably aren't even real teachers."

"Hey," Yusuke said, pointing. A black limousine glided down the street, passing them. "I wonder who's that is."

"Probably that billionaire Jaganshi guy," Kuwabara said. "I heard he was in town. Don't know why though; I mean, if some masked girl came to my room-"

"Only in your wet dreams," Keiko interrupted snidely. "He's here because he is, there's really nothing more to say."

"Did you hear why he came here to begin with?"

"Oh yeah, I remember. Hey Keiko, you ought to try out to be the one he shares all the green with. You could finance Yusuke and the principal's alternative wedding-"

"Shut up!" she snapped. "Look."

Emerging from an alleyway was a vehicle that almost resembled an armored car. It lingered at the juncture of alley and street, as though waiting, and then pulled out in front of the limousine. The latter crashed into the vehicular juggernaut, its front half totaled in the process.

The three stared, astonished. "Whoa," Yusuke managed. "Uh, should we call for help or something?"

Simultaneously, the doors of the large car opened, and several cloaked figures jumped out, fully armed.

"Holy crap!"

"Mr. Jaganshi, are you okay?"

Hiei rolled his shoulders and neck. "I'll live, Shigure. What did we crash-?"

Gunshots sounded in the air. "Get down, Mr. Jaganshi!" Hiei was flung to the floor as bullets penetrated the windows. He felt something warm and sticky dribble down onto his neck.

"Shigure?" There was no answer; instead, the shriek of metal tearing greeted his ears. He struggled under the dead weight, craning his neck to look up. He widened his eyes.

A generous portion of the limousine roof had been peeled back, a crouching, spindly silhouette staring down inside the car. "I have him," a man's voice said. Hiei felt himself being lifted up by the back of his jacket. He snatched up his cane from the seat and tried to fight off his attacker, but lost his focus as an odd-smelling rag was brought to his face. His hand let go of the sliver dragon; his body grew limp.

"I have him, Brother," he repeated.

A mammoth profile took the unconscious body. "You all finish up here," he commanded. "Mr. Jaganshi is late for an appointment with our friend the Yoko."