Double, Double, Twins And Trouble

I stared in horror at the figure before me. But... it can't be... can it? What set him off? And what happened to...? I shook my head. It was just too... no.

"How nice to see you again," he said, almost mockingly.

Shut up. I felt my fists clench as I turned my face to the floor, eyes shut tightly. Maybe I'll wake up and this will all be a dream. It's got to be a dream.

"This is real, sweetheart."

My eyes flew open, and I blinked a couple times. What an odd dream.

I paused, going over those words in my head.

Ugh, what a clichéd thought. I sat up and looked around to see Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Botan, Genkai, Yukina, Kuronue, and Panther Guy. "Hello," I said vaguely as I regained my bearings. Ah, yes. The reverse-y thing and the Ku-something potion. Mm. I felt my head for wolf ears, but instead found my normal human ears. "Guess it worked, huh. Why are you looking at me like that?" Hiei's expression was unreadable but undeniably odd as he looked away wordlessly, while Yusuke and Kuwabara snickered and Botan looked a bit flustered. Kuronue smirked in a way that gave me the impression that he was suppressing a laugh. Kurama was smirking slightly, as well, which was somewhat unnerving.

Genkai just rolled her eyes. "That painkiller had some interesting side effects."

That didn't sound good. "Like what? Did I grow an extra nose or something?" I felt my face to find only one nose. What a disappointment.

"It effects the user's behavior," said Panther Guy boredly.

Uh-oh. "...What did I do?"

"Oh, not much," said Yusuke, wearing that annoying I-know-something-you-don't-know expression.

I looked to Yukina. She would give me a straight answer, right? She giggled. "Aya-chan said some very strange, funny things."

Oh, dear. "Like what?" I repeated. There was a brief silence.

Kurama broke it with, "So... I'm sexy, am I?"

I blinked a couple times as that registered before falling backwards, eyes closed and arms spread-eagle. "Oh, hell." Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kuronue burst into laughter. "What... what all did I say?"

"As Yusuke said," answered Kurama, "not much. Just what you think about us."

"Oh, hell."

"You also said Yusuke-kun, Hiei-san, and Kuronue-kun were hot," continued Yukina. "But I don't know what you meant. They aren't any warmer than usual."

"Oh, hell."

Kuwabara stopped laughing. "Didn't say anything about me, though. Why's that?"

Silence.

"So, the interrogation!" said Botan loudly.

I sent her a look of gratitude and sat up. "Oh, yeah. What'd you get out of him?"

"I'm right here," said Panther Guy irritatedly. He was ignored.

Kurama's smirk had vanished. Thank you, Inari! "Someone put him up to it, but other than that, he won't talk."

The large cat growled. "What do you mean, I won't talk? I don't know! He didn't give me his name! I didn't even see him! He just came to me and asked if I wanted to try the experiment, offered his funding, and I agreed! End of story!"

"What would you get in return?" I asked.

He blinked. "I just said. He'd fund the whole thing. Any self-respecting demon scientist would have jumped at an opportunity like that."

"But why? What was your motive?" pressed Kurama.

"Motive? I need to have a motive?"

"Yes!" exclaimed several people at once.

He shrugged. "I mainly wanted to see if I could."

"That's it?" asked Kuronue incredulously as the same several people facefaulted.

"Um, yeah."

"Well," said Botan, "he is a scientist. They're allowed to be weird like that."

"I take offense at that."

"Hey, what's you name, anyway?" I inquired suddenly.

"What?" He looked at me. "It's-"

"Botan!" Everyone except Genkai jumped as Koenma popped into the room. "You need to bring that demon back to Reikai immediately!"

"Oh! Right, sir!" The ferry girl bowed as he popped back out. She dragged the still-nameless demon onto her newly-materialized oar and flew off before anyone could protest.

Everyone just stood/sat there for a moment.

"Well," said Kurama, "I should probably get back home before Mother gets suspicious. You, too, Aya."

I sighed and rose... and... we... went back home. Yay. Time for another brilliant scene change. Wait, what?

About an hour after we got back found me on the couch with Shuichi, watching Inuyasha.

"I love Kouga," I stated, as the wolf demon kicked the anime's namesake in the head.

Shuichi snorted. "How? He's so annoying."

"Maybe, but he's still awesome." The doorbell rang, but we ignored it, hearing Shiori hurry to answer it.

"You've got some odd taste in men, then."

I shook my head and sighed. "I guess Shuichi-chan is just too young to appreciate-"

"Stop calling me that!"

I was about to taunt him further when Kurama walked into the room. "The police are at the door, you know."

Quarrel forgotten, the two of us shot up and to the door, with Kurama walking at a much more dignified pace behind us. Shuichi and I poked our heads around a corner just in time to hear, "...suspect of a recent theft."

I turned my head to gaze mock-accusingly at a certain legendary thief, who held up his hands in defense. "Hey, don't look at me like that. You know I didn't do anything..."

("...totally freaked when they saw the vid. It was pretty funny, actually...")

"Uh-huh. Sure. Just watch them start questioning you."

("...don't need to tell her that, Ken...")

"You mean hear?"

("Well, sor-ry.")

"Shut up."

"Aya-san," interrupted Shiori's voice, "could you come here?"

I blinked. "Eh? Okay," I said, trotting out to stand slightly behind her.

The two policemen glanced at each other and nodded. "She's definitely the one."

I blinked. "One what?"

"But Aya wouldn't steal anything!" exclaimed Shiori.

"Steal? What?"

"I'm afraid she matches the girl on the security camera perfectly, ma'am."

"We gotta take her down to the station. You know, for questioning and stuff."

"Huh?"

I was too confused to resist as they put me in handcuffs and gently pulled me outside and into the back of a police car. Before we drove away, I glanced back to see three equally confused figures standing in the doorway. I looked forward at the two men and said the first thing that came to mind.

"What the hell?"

I plopped down onto a relatively clean spot of floor in my cell.

"So," came a familiar voice, causing me to jump. Kurama moved gracefully and dramatically out of shadows to stand just in front of the cell.

I blinked. "Kitsune? They don't let anyone back here. How did you-?" He raised an eyebrow. "Never mind."

"I take it you don't know what they're talking about?"

"Not a clue. I don't even know what it is that I stole."

"Hm," was all he said in reply before the two cops from before entered.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" demanded Cop #1.

"We put her there, remember?" said Cop #2.

"Not her! Him!" He gestured to Kurama.

"I talked to the chief. He let me back here," he said smoothly, though I was fairly sure he was lying.

"But he never-" started the other. Kurama's eyes flashed. "...Right. Okay. Just don't cause any trouble." It was my turn to raise and eyebrow at him, to which he just smirked and shrugged. He was Kurama, after all.

"Hey," I said somewhat suddenly, "what did I steal?"

Cop #1 scowled. "You know very well what you stole."

"Humor me."

He rolled his eyes. "You broke into a highly-guarded government facility and stole a uranium power core."

Kurama raised an eyebrow while I sported an open-mouthed gape. "I stole what?"

"A uranium power core, apparently," said Kurama.

"Gah!" I stopped concealing my frustration and yelled, "What the hell would I want with a uranium power core?"

"You tell us," said Cop #2.

"I'd love to, except I don't know! I didn't steal a damn thing! Hell, I couldn't break into, well, anywhere, even if I tried, let alone a government facility!"

"May we see the security tapes?" asked Kurama.

They looked at each other for a moment and shrugged. "I don't see why not," said Cop #2. "I'll go get it. Genosuke, you keep an eye on these two."

"I was going to anyway," mumbled Genosuke as his parter left. There was a brief silence.

"So," I said, "your name is Genosuke?" A nod. "Nice to meet you, Genosuke-san." I bowed.

He shuffled his feet and bowed. "Uh, nice to meet you."

"So." I paused, then gave him the most innocent smile I could muster. "May I call you Geno-kun?"

"No."

"Oh." I feigned a look of great disappointment before smiling again. "Do you have a wife?"

"Yes."

"Is she pretty?"

He was giving me a pretty odd look by now. "I think she's beautiful."

"Aw, that's sweet. Any kids?"

"Yes."

"How many?"

"Just one."

"How old?"

"He'll be three in August."

"Is he cute?"

"When he's not throwing a temper tantrum."

I nodded. There was another brief silence. "I'm going to be a teacher someday, you know," I said.

"Is that so?"

"It is so. I want to be a high school English teacher. Back in America, that is. And I'll drive all my students crazy by forcing proper grammar on them. But they'll love me anyway, because I'll be cool. And I won't make them do Powerpoint presentations if they don't want to. I strongly dislike Powerpoint presentations, you know."

"Mm."

"Once I get some experience as a teacher, I want to come back here and teach English. Maybe to grade-school students. I like kids. Kids are so cute and innocent and evil."

"Mm-what?"

"Aya," cut in Kurama, "stop talking this man's head off."

"Okay."

"Found it!" crowed the other cop as he walked in, waving a VHS in the air. "Sorry about the wait. I'm a bit disorganized."

"I'll say," muttered Genosuke.

I looked around. "How are we going to watch it with no TV?"

"Oh! The TV!" He hit himself in the forehead. "Completely forgot about that! I'll go get-"

"No!" exclaimed Genosuke. "I mean, no, I'll get it, Kenji-san." He walked away rather quickly.

"How nice," said Kenji.

"...So, your name is Kenji?" Kurama sighed and shook his head at my inquiry.

"Yup. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you. May I call you Ken-san?"

"Sure."

"Yay! So," I asked, "where you from?"

"Okinawa," he said, smiling.

"Okinawa? Really? I thought I heard a bit of an accent."

"Yup. I was a cop there, too. Got transfered last month."

"How do you like it here?"

"Well, it was a bit quieter in the prefecture I used to work in, and there's more gang activity here. The kids from the Kasanegafuchi side of town do a lot of petty theft and stuff, but over at Sarayashiki they seem to have some sort of honor code. Except for that Urameshi kid."

I grinned laughingly. "Yusuke-kun doesn't count."

"You know him?"

"He's my video game sparring partner."

"Oh, hey! Are you that chick that beat his high score, and have been coming to the arcade with him ever since?"

"Yeah. Were you there?"

"Yeah, I was playing DDR. Off-duty, of course."

"Of course."

Geno-san pushed in the TV-on-wheels thing, like the kind they have at school. "Here," he said. "Kenji, put the tape in."

"Aye aye, Cap'n!" exclaimed Kenji, saluting, before doing as told.

I poked Kurama, who was standing right by the cell, in the shoulder. "What's 'Aye, aye, Cap'n' mean?"

He just shook his head and said nothing as the ever-familiar static came onto the screen before it was filled with blue. After a second, a soundless black-and-white image appeared. I watched as Genosuke fast-forwarded a bit, then gave the TV my full attention as a fuzzy-looking figure came onto the screen from the bottom-left corner. It was tall, with long, perceivably black hair in a high ponytail, and a leather jacket over a white t-shirt and jeans. He looked familiar somehow, but I didn't know anyone like that. He was soon followed by another, shorter figure, clearly a girl, with long, wavy dark hair, and wearing what seemed to be a long, black evening gown with those fancy-shmancy glove-things that go up just past the elbow. She gave an overall impression of elegant simplicity, or at least would have, if not for the slight halo of frizz around her head.

"Is that supposed to be me?" I asked. The two policemen nodded. "But that can't be me. I would never wear that."

She then turned around, and I looked into my own face. I stared indignantly as she turned back around and hurried off to follow the first figure as he strode off-screen. Genosuke rewound and paused at the moment she turned.

There was a brief moment of silence. Then, "WHAAAAAAAAAAT?"

"'What,' indeed," said Kurama.

"But...but," I stuttered, "I never dress like that. Ever. Never ever. I didn't do that. That's not me. That can't be me!" I pointed angrily at the TV, the other hand gripping a bar so tightly that my knuckles were white. "You! Girl! You stole my face! And my hair! And my body! Bitch! How dare you!" I collapsed onto my knees with a sound that resembled a sigh, absently removing my glasses and wiping them with my shirt. "Bitch," I repeated under my breath.

"Hmm," said Kurama.

"That was recorded at 2:30 yesterday," said Genosuke.

"2:30? Ah," said Kurama. "Would you mind giving us a moment to speak in private?"

"Sure thing," said Kenji. "C'mon, Geno-kun."

"Don't call me that," muttered Genosuke as Kenji dragged him out of the room containing the holding cells.

Kurama turned to me. "Yesterday afternoon, if you'll remember, you were in the Makai."

"Oh, yeah! Yes! An alibi!"

"It would be, if it were anywhere other than the Makai."

"...Shit."

"Never fear!" exclaimed a voice as its owner somehow came in through the barred window. "Misako is here!"

"Misako-chan!" I cheered. "Do you have an alibi for me?"

"Not exactly. Call your cop-buddies back in here, will you?"

"Oi, cop-buddies! You've been summoned!" They entered.

"How'd you get in here?" Genosuke was ignored.

"Hey! I remember you! You told us how to get that paisley graffiti off the wall using chocolate milk and a garden hose!"

"Hey, Kenji-kun!" They exchanged a high-five. "Anyway, look at what I found!" Misako pulled out a spiffy-looking metal rod-thing from... somewhere.

"The uranium power core!" exclaimed someone. "Where'd you get that?"

"That's a secret." The small, purple-clad girl put a finger to her lips as she handed it to a stunned Genosuke. "But you've got it back, so you don't need to hold Aya-chan here anymore, right? All is well!"

"But we have to apprehend the thieves!" sputtered Genosuke.

"Oh, and I also have this." She pulled out, again from... somewhere, a light brown, floppy-eared puppy with a thick, red ribbon around its neck.

"How cute!" exclaimed Kenji and I, though not quite in unison.

"Her name is Mika. She's a gift for Kenji-kun!" she explained as she handed the puppy to him. "You said you wanted a puppy."

"Really? Wow! Thanks!" He held Mika up to his face and laughed as she licked his cheek. Then he fished some keys out of his pocket with his free hand, unlocked the door to my cell, and let me out.

"But the thieves-!" yelled a frustrated Genosuke.

"Ah, we got it back, right? No harm done. Aya, you should go home quickly, or you might miss dinner."

"Can't have that. Thanks! Bye!" I said happily as I walked out, a bemused kitsune and cheerful demon witch following me. "Thanks, Misako!"

"Oh, you shouldn't thank me," said Misako as we headed towards Kurama's house. "You should thank my brother. He just arrived and is visiting for a week."

"Your brother?"

"Hiya!" came a voice similar to Misako's, but deeper. A short man wearing blue jeans and a dark, royal purple t-shirt dropped down from... somewhere... to walk beside us. He was about two-and-a-half inches taller than Misako, and wore his lavender hair in a three-inch ponytail at the nape of his neck.

"Meet Mikado, my twin!" Misako held her arms out in a Vanna White-like fashion, presenting her brother. "While I go around confusing and annoying people messing everybody up, Mikado-nii goes around and helps everyone!"

He nodded cheerfully. "Yup. When we were kids, my imouto-chan would play pranks—she still does—and I would clean up after her."

"Mikado-nii was born three minutes and forty-seven seconds before I was," Misako decided to clarify. "Nee, have you met Hi-chan yet?"

He nodded again. "Yup times two. Imouto-chan was right. He is a cutie! It really freaked him out when I told him so, though. I tried to tell him not to worry, 'cause I've already got a boyfriend, but that just seemed to freak him out even more. Maybe he's homophobic?"

"No," disagreed Misako, "I think he's just short-purple-people-phobic."

Mikado sighed. "Your doing, I presume?"

"Yup!"

"So," I cut in, "if we dressed Hiei-san in purple and died his hair and everything, would he be afraid of himself?"

Misako shrugged. "Probably."

"If not, Kuronue certainly would be," said Kurama with a sweatdrop.

"Ah! Kuro-chan!" Misako hit her palm with a small fist and grabbed her twin's hand, shaking it excitedly. "C'mon, Nii-chan, you have to meet Kuro-chan!"

"Isn't he that guy you were stalking some years ago?" I heard him inquire, just before they disappeared.

We stood there on the sidewalk for a moment. Then Kurama shook his head and continued, gesturing for me to follow. "We should really get back."

I nodded, absently walking after him. "Yeah..."

A/N: Sorry about the wait. My computer completely died, and it took a couple months to get my files back. Then I had summer school. Also sorry about the length. Yes, this is mostly filler, I know, but necessary filler. Trust me. And yes, Mikado is very, very gay.

Nee, Kenji ga daisuke da yo! Yatta Kenji-kun! Wee, Kenji's great. I'm tempted to post a side-fic entitled, "A Day in the Life of Kenji the Cop." Because he's just that awesome. And he wasn't off-duty when he was playing DDR, by the way—he was in full uniform, in fact. He does a lot of stuff like that. The only reason they don't fire him is because he's actually a good cop, if perhaps only because the punks, delinquents, and criminals like him.

Kenji also gives good directions at the police box, even though he's usually playing on his Gameboy, usually Pokemon red version. His favorite Pokemon is Rattata—the first one he caught, not counting Squirtle. He takes Usachu (the Rattata) everywhere and is very close to him, and Kenji has not let him evolve. Usachu almost single-handedly defeated Misty on the third try. As of this chapter, Usachu is on level 54.

Please tell me about any quick-edit induced mistakes.