Well, Kyo Hana, assuming you've hit the other two stories first, you should know by now that I'll be leaving soon and updates shall cease for a temporary while, so I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'd love to take up your offer on the DVDs, that'd be really cool, but not right now, as I will be leaving and they'd just end up sitting in the post office until I get back. But perhaps when I return, and the festival is over (yeah, a week or two after school starts the Renaissance Festival starts up and I work that every weekend for seven weeks), I may take you up on that, most appreciatively Let me know what you think of the meeting between Hiei and the Yoko, won't you? Later.

Yu Yu Hakusho Inversed
Chapter 6
May 22, 2005

A knock sounded on the door. "You may enter," he said. The door opened. "Ah, Toguro. What news have you brought me?"

The giant of a man watched the smaller body sitting hunched over on the bed, applying polish to his toes. "We have him."

"Was it hard?"

"Easy enough. Crashed the car, Yukina shot the chauffeur and the bodyguard, and my brother chloroformed the target. We left the rest behind to, ah, tidy up."

"Well done," Kurama praised. "And where is our rich friend now?"

"In the basement, tied up. He should be coming around anytime now."

"Brilliant. Contact our other rich friend, why don't you?"

"I'll get to it right away," Toguro replied, eying the redhead's long, slender, bare hairless legs, following the curves from the tip of his toes up to the hem of the tauntingly short skirt. Toguro was no homosexual, but Kurama looked so much like a woman both in physical appearance and apparel, a part of the time he forgot that the green-eyed beauty was in fact a man.

The transvestite rose and donned fishnet stockings, pausing when he noticed Toguro still standing there, watching. "You appreciate this?" he asked slyly, pulling on a thigh-length boot.

"Yes," Toguro replied honestly. "But I don't swing that way."

"Understood. Too bad, though. You're much more charming than Karasu. He-"

"What's this I hear about Jaganshi?" Kurama frowned at the sound of Karasu's approaching voice.

"I'm going now," he muttered to Toguro. He would rather not receive another belittling slap on the ass if he could avoid it. Kurama fled downstairs to the first floor, and then descended to the basement.

Dim lighting and a musty smell greeted him. He looked around the room, spying an odd profile in the corner. Upon further inspection, he observed that it was a young man clad in black, bound and gagged, slumped in a chair. At first, Kurama thought he was still out, but noticed the glitter of an eye peering at him through narrow lids. "Oh, so you are awake, Mr. Jaganshi," he crooned. "Or may I call you Hiei?"

Hiei bristled, and growled through his gag. "Oh, I'm sorry." Kurama loosened the gag. "What was that?"

"Who are you?" Hiei demanded.

Kurama smirked. "My apologies, darling. You may call me the Yoko, leader of the Youkai."

'The Youkai,' Hiei thought, beginning to regret not having listened to Yomi. "I take it that you're the one who sent the assassin after me?"

"My, my, how clever you are. And so handsome, too." He stroked Hiei's hair.

"Get your hands off me, Ma'am."

His eyebrows shot up, and he began to laugh. "You're amusing, I'll give you that." He withdrew his hands. "However, courtesy will not get you far here."

"Why go through all the trouble to kidnap me if all you want is to kill me?"

"Who said all we want is you dead?" Hiei looked puzzled. "Simply killing you would be child's play. Why do that, when there is so much more we could do? You're a billionaire beloved by the masses- why not make them and you suffer first?" He smiled wickedly. "Yes, they would mourn you anyway, but this way… Well, wouldn't it just smart even worse if we kept the public updated on your digress? Notes here, a photograph there, perhaps even a body part?"

"Sadistic bitch!" Hiei spat.

"Perhaps," Kurama said with a grin. "But why not? They deserve it."

"They're innocent!"

Kurama's expression darkened. "You know nothing of 'innocence'," he growled. "Those people-"

"So this is the infamous billionaire, Hiei Jaganshi?" Karasu casually approached the two. "Strange, you're much shorter than the media depicts you."

Hiei tensed. "And who are you, Dracula's understudy?"

"Amazing," Karasu said. "You're filthy rich, yet your retorts are poor. I suppose money doesn't buy everything."

"Touching statement, Karasu," Kurama said sarcastically. "Really. I loved the originality."

"What's eating you, my dear? Everything's coming together; our plan's running smoothly."

"Our plan?" he asked testily. "What part did you contribute?"

"Come now, that pretty little head of yours couldn't hatch a plot this intricate all alone."

Observing this squabble was Hiei, utterly perplexed. Was their fighting supposed to intimidate him in some way? "As much as I'd love to continue listening to this delightful lovers quarrel, what do you intend to do with me now, out of curiosity?"

"My, aren't you bold?" Karasu sneered. "Foxy, he has a mouth like you do." Hiei noticed the Yoko- or 'Foxy', as the man had called her- don a murderous expression.

"For now," the Yoko said, "we intend to leave you right here. Someone will come to better tend to you later."

"Well, what if I have to use the bathroom between now and then? Or I pass out?"

"Apparently, you haven't heard of my lovely companion's reputation," Karasu said. "He knows how to keep his victims conscious during torture until the very end. It's not wise to mock him."

'Something that perhaps you should keep in mind, Karasu,' Kurama thought grudgingly.

"He?" Hiei asked, astonished in spite of his current situation. The beautiful redhead, standing there in considerably less than modest fishnets and leather, was a man!

Both gangsters examined their hostage's face, and then Karasu began to laugh. "You thought he was a woman?" he jeered. Hiei didn't hear, he was too busy gawking at the cross dresser, who remained diffident.

There was a knock at the door, and the Toguros appeared. "Sakyo is waiting upstairs," the younger of the brothers said.

"Excellent," Karasu replied. "Come, my dear," he said to Kurama, resting his hand on the backside of the other.

Kurama pulled away from him. "I can escort myself," he said crisply.

"Of course," Karasu told him, his tone a little less than sincere. He left him, but not before stoking the redhead's milky throat. Kurama went rigid at the contact, and followed the other man out of the room, an aggrieved look on his face.

All of this did not go unnoticed by Hiei.

Sakyo glanced up as the door opened and Kurama entered the room. "I've heard you've procured Mr. Jaganshi," he said.

"Yes. You received our call?"

"Didn't have to; it's all over the news. Apparently, eyewitnesses reported that an unidentified armored vehicle collided with the limousine."

"What!" he growled.

"I'm not finished yet. They said that veiled gunpersons came out of the car, shot up the limousine, shot it up, tore up the roof, and then left with Mr. Jaganshi."

"No witnesses my ass," Kurama muttered angrily. "We'll continue our discussion later," he told Sakyo, rising and leaving the room.

"Where are-?"

"My orders have been disobeyed," he interrupted. "Punishment must be administered."