Sorry it took a while... I needed to get back in a Yu Yu Hakusho mood... Slayers is so addicting... and the time is so short.

Quote of the Week: "Oh, God, I'm gonna be this old lady driving down the street, head banging and listening to Metallica and schtuff... that is gonna be SO AWESOME!" -Nickie

The funny thing is, imagine those people about forty years from now who turn on the ol' CD player and try to share the charms of Jarool and the Ying-Yang twins with their grandkids. That is gonna be freakin' scary...

Despite playing host to a cat demon and the same thief who had stolen a priceless piece of art just last night, Yusuke didn't lose any sleep. It seemed he had barely let his eyes close when the alarm clock shattered his well-earned rest.

And thus, now he was sitting on the corner in the way back of the industrial park, a large backpack by his feet and his two companions similarly packed (Well, Lionel claimed that he had gotten his bags on the bus much earlier), and it was only five in the morning. The silence surrounding the three of them was awkward, to say the least, and it didn't help that the sun hadn't even come up yet.

"Oi, Yusuke?" From somewhere in the trees up above, the cat shifted his position and called down to the spirit detective. When Yusuke let his gaze wander, he caught the tip of a golden-furred tail twitching among the dark green leaves, and the edge of the cat's olive-green shirt. "What is it?"

"Have you seen any of the others during the summer?"

"I told you that already; no." Yusuke was already annoyed, and repeating answers was starting to grate on his nerves. "Kuwabara didn't even show his face at the arcade. His buddies told me he was taking summer classes."

Rogerik, shut off in his own little world while sitting at the curb, chuckled. "Now that's something you wouldn't expect."

"You're one to talk." The response was out of his mouth before he could stop it, and Yusuke watched the grin fade from Rogerik's face. More silence followed, and cars passed by as the early risers – janitors, most probably – drove into the various parking lots. A bird or two chirped, the sun slowly rose, and the sky turned a shade somewhere between peach and lavender.

Somewhere, off to the right, footsteps sounded in the dark; all three waiting students tensed, Yusuke saw the tip of Lionel's tail disappear into the leafy branches, and Rogerik suddenly became very interested in the stitching on his sneakers, all the while his aura faintly simmering.

"Well, it seems like I'm a little late." The words flowed smoothly, and calmed the tenseness of the other three. Yusuke turned to face the speaker, his smirk turning into a genuine smile. "Kurama, where have you been all this time, you dog?"

The kitsune was wearing casual clothes instead of his Meiou high uniform, an average-sized backpack settled on his shoulders, his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "It's been a while, Yusuke." Kurama had a gentle smile on his face, his green eyes bright and full of life. "I was busy; my mother has gotten married, you see, and I was busy in reikai for personal reasons." Personal reasons – a way of avoiding the topic of Givanni around others.

There was a violent shaking from the tree, and Lionel's head poked out from the branches, his corduroy hat jammed over his feline ears. "Cool." He disappeared for a second, then swung down from an overhanging branch and landed on his paw-like feet. "Hey, have you heard anything about the bus schedule?"

The fox pulled an envelope from his jacket pocket and handed it to the cat, still smiling. "Yes, your sister e-mailed me an extra copy. She was guessing you'd lose yours." Lionell grimaced, and begrudgingly took the bus schedule from Kurama's hand. "Thanks..."

"Hey! You guys!" all four of the teen boys looked over, and sweatdropped at the scene before them. Kuwabara, the big lug, was running as fast as he could, a large suitcase in tow and a familiar white snake-like creature diving in mid-air around his head. The redhead screeched to a halt before them, hands on his knees and breathing heavily, while the white dragonling took its perch on the top of his over-sized backpack and let out a merry chirp.

"Uh..." Well, there wasn't really much to say, was there? Although Yusuke was definitely sure that wherever the little dragon wandered, she was never far from her "mother". Now where could the little punk b-

"Hn. Mara, get away from that oaf." It was as if a black shadow had suddenly appeared on the wall, so silent was the demon's arrival. Hiei gave his charge a demanding stare, which, despite his blood-red eyes, seemed less harsh than the spirit detective usually saw; Mara let another happy trill escape her maw, her bright blue eyes illuminating in the dim morning light, and fluttered over to Hiei, where she took a comfortable roost in his mess of pitch-black hair.

Yusuke was about to ask what Hiei had been doing for the last three-or-so months, but gave it up, imagining the conversation in his mind...

'So, how're you?'

'Hn.'

'Uh-huh...'

'...nice weather, huh?'

'Shut up.'

Yep; that about summed up a "talk" with the youkai.

Lyonell sighed, leaning against the wall, and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Well, we're all here, so what's keeping the bus?"

"You're kidding me, right? It's only about half-past five." Yusuke looked over to the cat. Kurama took one hand out of his jacket pocket to check his watch, and stated, "He's right; it should have been here a few minutes ago, actually." There was an audible groan from both Yusuke and Kuwabara, and the latter moodily muttered, "Well, I'm sleeping on the bus -- whenever the darned thing gets here-"

The streetlights shut off in unison, and for a moment, everything was quiet; a total silence that, no matter how hard you listened, you couldn't even hear your own heartbeat, as if some invisible shield had blocked out every sound known to man. For a faint moment, Yusuke felt his mouth moving, forming some very creative expletives indeed, and then, where there was once an empty street, a large black coach bus with a flaming skull and crossbones decaled on the windshield and ebon-shaded windows was suddenly parked in the middle of the road. Five of them shared glances (Hiei was pretending as if the bus hadn't bothered him at all) and Mara gave a small shriek, burying her delicate muzzle into Hiei's hair.

They were still staring at the bus as the doors swung open, and the sound of talking and joking from inside could float out into the street. The bus driver, a rather intimidating middle-aged man with a thick mustache and beard, leather vest, and mirror-lens sunglasses, tapped his fingers on the eight-ball shaped clutch handle. He leaned back in the seat, scratched the side of his bald, bandanna-covered head, and pulled a clip book out from next to his chair. "So... let's see, here." His voice was deep, slightly gravely, and Yusuke was reminded of the old-fart bikers that hung around the beach roads during the summer. "uh-huh... Jaganshi, Kuwabara, Lewis, Minamoto, and Urameshi..." The driver flipped through the clip-book, marking off names until he took a look at Lyonell.

"Oh, you."

"Er... yeah. Hi?"

The driver gave Lyonell an accusing look, then jabbed a thumb towards the back of the bus. "Better go talk to your sister; she's been worried sick about you, and has been taking it out on the rest of us." The cat meekly slunk up the stairs, and out of sight, but there was a yowl and the familiar sharp hiss of "You idiot!", and Yusuke could imagine Lyonell being dragged towards the back of the coach bus.

There was a rattle, and a side panel of the bus' obsidian frame slid up to reveal a storage compartment full of randomly tossed luggage; getting them back out and returned to their rightful owners would be murder. Yusuke tossed his larger bag in, and watched as Kuwabara did the same with the hiker's backpack (with no small effort). With a sigh, he trudged up the steps, turned the corner, and nearly shielded his brown eyes at the sight.

The interior, seat covers, even the ceiling... they were... tie-dyed.

Tie-dyed in bold, bright colors; the fabric was almost enough to make one want to rip one's eyes out; with a glance behind him, Yusuke noticed, with considerable amusement, that Hiei had a distasteful look on his features, and Mara hadn't moved her face from the youkai's messy hair.

From somewhere behind him, the spirit detective heard, "Yeah, it feels like the academy already... Damn, that hurts."

"Oi! Urameshi!" A familiar blob of red appeared from the midst of other students, and the windmaster stumbled out into the bus aisle, where he and Yusuke clasped hands and grinned. "Heard you had a bit of trouble this summer." Jin's blue eyes focused on Rogerik for a second, and Yusuke shrugged it off.

"Nothing much, really. How was your stay at Holly's?"

Jin scratched the back of his red mane of hair, the tips of his ears turning red. "Ah, well, it was... interesting."

"Uh-huh..." Yusuke suddenly felt like he was being swept out of the way, as the demon greeted his friends with the same energy as he had Yusuke. A little black furball leapt up on the back of a tie-dyed seat, a brass bell twinkling around his leather collar, and Yusuke felt the cat's green eyes lazily motion over to a few rows of empty seats near its own. No sooner had the spirit detective tossed his backpack in the seat across the row from where Jin's was, the black kitten jumped on his shoulders and dug its claws in. "Well, that's a fine hello there, Yusuke."

"Kyuro... so early, and yet you never miss a beat." He sweatdropped, scooping Kyuro by the scruff of the neck, and deposited him on the cat's seat. "Go find someone else, man."

"Oh, I plan to." The kitten yawned and kneaded his petite paws on a rumpled-up coat, then hastily jumped out of the way when a hand swept out via collision with his head. "'Tupid..." The mumble came from beneath a fleece blanket by the bus window, and Yusuke amusedly flipped the edge of the blanket off of the sleeping girl. "Rise and shine, Holly."

"Yusuke, you... j-j-jerk..." The witch fought back a yawn, gave Yusuke a nasty look, and curled back into a ball, the blanket tucked underneath her chin. "Leave me alone... I'm tired."

"Oh, I bet, with Jin hanging around and al-"

"Kyah!" A hand flipped up from the blankets, and there was a click as something rattled up on the overhead compartment. With another definite clack, the witch's broom floated down to levitate by her chair, then turned over on it's end and proceeded to try and beat Yusuke over the head with it's twiggy end until Kurama got between the two, tied the broom to the overhead compartment, and settled himself next to the bruised spirit detective; the fox placed his bag and jacket underneath his seat, and opened up a book. Ignoring the chaos of the bus around him, Kurama slipped into the world of his novel with an aggravatingly blank expression.

"C'mon, guys! Sing along! Sweeet Caroline --"

A miserable "Oh, oh, oh" chorused from the bus cabin, and Lyonell scurried up to sit in the aisle between Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Jin (Kurama had seen another "I Spy" game brewing between Kuwabara and Hiei, and had thought it best to separate the two.). How many more sing-alongs of "Sweet Caroline" would the bus driver force them to endure?

Apparently, an hour's worth. Yusuke had no idea just where they were at the moment; one minute they would be in suburbia, and the next they were picking up some kid who lived in a positive wasteland. At other times, the scenery out the window was a black void, and he remembered something about Chrysanthemum mentioning the walls between worlds.

Guessing by the time on Kurama's watch, nearly six hours had passed without event, although Holly finally did emerge from her blanket cocoon. When the spirit detective bothered to ask how long the trip took, there was never a straight answer - from any of the forty-something students. Again, this launched Chrysanthemum on this long tangent about different worlds and planes of existence (which most everyone tuned out remarkably) and tempted a short, snappish remark from Rogerik: at the very least, it made the cat sulk quietly in her seat, her eyes narrowed and practically glowing with anger.

And, when one just leaned back and let others make the snide comments, the ride was pretty darn amusing. Maybe Kyuro had something going for him after all...

Of course, to imagine jumping through different worlds (if Chrysanthemum was to be believed) was tiring, and if you thought jetlag was horrible... well, it was no surprise when the bus fell silent and the lights dimmed of their own accord. However, just a few rows up, even as his eyelids drooped, the tiny book light above Kurama's seat stayed lit, lighting the fox's hair a brilliant crimson.

"So... I take it Koenma hasn't had much luck finding Givanni, has he?" the question was barely above a whisper, and Hiei stubbornly staring out the window when he asked it; the fire youkai's ruby-eyed gaze stared back at him, reflected in the windows. Kurama didn't even bother looking up from his book, assured that no one else on the bus was awake.

"Oh, he's found plenty of Givanni; but that's the problem. They're all photographic clones of him."

"Clever, for a human." More silent staring out the window, and Hiei absentmindedly stroked Mara's feathery white mane while musing over the former headmaster. He himself had had no luck finding Givanni, and Koenma appeared genuinely clueless as to why the entire affair had occurred. Apparently, Givanni's files (and its copies) had gone missing years ago, and no one had thought of reporting it. Interrogations in Makai had proved fruitless, and there was nothing left behind that could clue one towards Givanni's location.

Kurama sighed, marked his place in his book, and gave Mara a scratch underneath her small chin. "We might as well get some sleep while we have the chance. The mess with Givanni can be cleaned up tomorrow morning." The fox looked at his watch, and shrugged. "Or later on tonight... I really should adjust the time on this; it's starting to run slow again."

A black shadow reached up, and the bus was pitched into total darkness.

"Just go to sleep, stupid fox."

I'll try and update as soon as possible, folks. But until then, check out Hakumei by Kohaku-san.

Gee, that was shameless advertising. ;; Review if you wish.