Quote of the week: "One of the first things schoolchildren in Texas learn is how to make a simple declarative sentence without the word "shit" in it." – Unknown.

W00t! Hopeless happy stuff. Although it's pretty strange writing a Halloween-time section in January. . Er... this would have been up around Halloween, originally, if I hadn't been so lazy.

Reviewer replies:

AzureDragoness: He normally wouldn't notice... but Givanni is very slippery and hard to catch. Yusuke isn't one for tact and planning (as we all know). Hanabi won't do anything too evil… At least, not yet. ::huggles Grimoire:: Yay! KKC got her muse back!

Ebbster: Darn right I'm silent. Patience is a good thing, my friend.

Embyrflame: Finally! You're writing a fic, eh? I'll be there for it. I can even be your beta-reader if you want. Oh, and how was the NY trip?

Kurama's girl: Nice to know you like it, you unidentifiable reader, you!

Pegacorn: Me, high? Only on life, my friend. Oh, and you remember when Koenma did the lion-thingy in the tape for Yukina's rescue? That just keeps popping into my head when I think of the prince.

Ryuu no Furui Yami: Ne, you live! Don't worry; Touya/Yukimi fluff shall come next chapter.

So Bored: ::blinks:: Um... yay, me? Oh, and the more humorous stuff comes a bit later; this story is a bit darker than it's predecessor.

He ducked underneath a cascade of thin, pulled-out cotton, and pushed a few stray wisps out of his hair. "Erika, is this really necessary? All this webbing?"

"Of course, Kurama. Now, be a dear and toss me that bag of plastic spiders." The old woman caught the Ziploc baggie effortlessly, and immediately starting scattering tiny black fake spiders upon the false webbing. Climbing down the ladder, she stepped back a few meters and inspected her handiwork. "Well, what do you think? Is it a bit much?"

"Erm..." In truth, the fox didn't know how to reply. Fake Halloween webbing had been placed upon the house, and, although usually a quaint decoration, the elder woman had gone a bit overboard, in his opinion. Starting from the top of the roof, it shrouded the entire house in a swirling mix of white and pale glow-in-the-dark green; the fluffy mass even had engulfed the front steps and gone as far as the plum tree in the front yard. He was also fairly sure he saw the telltale black box of a strobe light hooked up on the front steps. Next thing, he supposed would be a number of-

"Oh, Koryu, so kind of you to get the fog machines out of the tool shed for me."

Bulls-eye.

The rat-like monster gently lowered the small machines onto the grass, and purred slightly as Erika gave him a quick scratch behind the ears. Kurama sighed and shook his head. "I take it this year you're going all-out."

"Of course. In fact, the girls are going down to the city today, so perhaps you would like to join them?"

The fox paused and thought. There was still plenty of work to be done, and the recent workings of Givanni had unnerved him – how could one relax when their enemy had a possible super-weapon? But, one day wouldn't kill him, would it?

"Actually, I think I might go," he stated. Erika nodded and finished checking the fog machines.

"Well, then, off with you. They're leaving in about twenty minutes."

"Knave, how dare ye?"

"Sit on it, furball!"

They ducked and wheeled around, steel flashing, barely skirting past the edges of the dining room table. Justin lunged forwards and growled as Lyonell leapt backwards in a graceful dodge, alighting on a chair. The neko demon, with a rather outlandish pirate's hat (complete with an overly large and fluffy feather plume that came from the hatband) balanced at an angle on his ears, balanced the chair on it's two back legs and continued to parry and block Justin's various attempts.

Just as the human was sure he had the upper hand, Lyonell leapt over his head and Justin felt a faint prick in between his shoulder blades.

"Care to walk the plank, sir?"

"Don't think so." He fell to his knees, swinging his sword, and pointed the tip at Lyonell's stomach. The cat grinned, and brushed a bit of blond hair out of his green eyes. "Two out of three."

"You're on."

Another lap around the table, and this time, Justin knew that there would be no way for him to end it in a draw. Unless...

He braced one foot on the seat of a chair and hopped onto the table, Lyonell following flawlessly behind. The swords moved even faster, but the both of them had ridiculously happy grins on their faces. All that could be heard now was the furious whistling air, chiming steel, and their footsteps as they tried not to topple anything over. Lyonell struck as sudden blow, and Justin barely moved far enough to the side; as it was, the corner of his jacket – a long coat in the ornate style of a ship's captain's – was speared and pinned to the tiered bamboo cuttings that took up space as a centerpiece.

Lyonell grinned , most devilishly, his lips curling over his unusually sharp canine teeth. With a grimace, Justin realized that he had lost, indefinitely, and he had only wait for the finale...

"What in the Hell are you two doing?!"

Both boys flinched at the sound of her voice. Yes, the finale, indeed.

"I leave you alone to root through the attic for a half hour, and what do you do? Tear apart the house!" Chrysanthemum fixed the seat cushion on the one of the chairs, and continued snapping at her two roommates. "—And why else, but because it's only the "logical" thing to do. And... and what in the world are you wearing..?" She cocked her head at the two boys, and they sweatdropped.

Searching through the attic, they had found their current ensemble in an old steamer trunk: swords and all. The female twin blinked owlishly and raised an eyebrow. It looked like the two of them had mugged Captain Hook for the Disney villain's clothing...

Lyonell was the first to react, as he pulled his sword free from the table centerpiece and Justin's jacket. "Now, Chrys, this isn't what it looks like."

He was met with a blank stare, and the sword dropped and its tip impaled itself in a place mat. Justin sighed, and hopped down from the table.

"Look, we'll clean up, okay?"

Chrysanthemum seemed to break her gaze away from her twin and huffed, crossing her arms as she did so. "Of course you will, after you run into town with me to get some stuff for Halloween. Then again, it seems like you two already have your costumes..."

Justin blushed and quickly shrugged off the captain's jacket. "Well, urm..."

"I thought so. Now hurry up so we can catch the shuttle into town." With a subtle smirk, the cat girl left.

Stone met skeleton, and the bones scattered across the cobblestone streets. Within seconds, firefly-eyes lit up, and the mess pieced itself back together, forming a canine-like skeleton that pranced about the sidewalk.

"Oi, Bones, if you're gonna tag along, at least don't fall apart."

The dog looked over towards its master, and trotted over, tail wagging. Kuwabara, carrying quite the load of shopping bags, sweatdropped.

"I told you bringing him with us was a bad idea." Lark walked by the carrot-top, unhindered, followed by her sister and Holly. Bones wriggled about the younger water manipulator, looking for a head-pat or scratch along his bare ribs, and she gladly rewarded the dog with a hug and squeal.

"A bad idea?" Kurama asked, sweatdropping at the sight. Kuwabara, however, was less restrained. "If you don't mind, I'd like it if you stopped hugging my dog."

Lark blinked, and cuddled the skeleton further. "But he's so cute."

"Now, now, let Bones walk on his own." Lyra graciously pet the canine skeleton on its skull, but almost lost her balance, thanks to the heavy bag that she was lugging around. As she struggled to regain her grip on the handle, though, Kurama plucked it from her hands. "Lyra, you should take a break. I'll take that."

The girl blinked as if trying to understand what was happening and latched onto the handle even more. What resulted was a minor tug-of-war match between the two. "No, you're already carrying too much, yourself, Kurama. Besides, I bought it."

"Ah, now don't argue..."

"Then please let go of the bag."

"You must be tired, though."

"Alright, you two stop bickering and I'll take it." Holly interrupted them, and scooped up the bag, balancing it on the handle of her broomstick. The broom floated behind her, with her own bags and Kyuro draped upon it. The black kitten turned a lazy eye to the humans, yawned, and draped himself in a new position over the broomstick. "Yes, leave it be. The girl can carry her own load."

"You're not helping much, Kyuro..." Holly grimaced at the familiar's bluntness, tweaking one of his velvety ears.

"In any case, do you know where Yusuke went? He's not really the type to go window shopping," Lark wondered aloud, looking about the cobblestone streets in search of the spirit detective. From underneath the burden of baggage, Kuwabara shrugged. "Urameshi can find his own way back." From Lark's arms, Bones' jaws clacked together in agreement, making Lark only cuddle the skeleton even further. "Ne, he's so smart!"

"Who? Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked, not able to see the subject of Lark's happy squeal. The girl narrowed gray-blue eyes at the much taller boy, and shot back, "No, you idiot. Bones." More happy clacking from the dog, and Holly rolled her eyes. "I'm just glad Yusuke isn't here to listen to you compare him to an animal without a brain."

Kyuro, from his perch, sighed and stood up, balancing on the broomstick as his spine arched and his jaws opened wide in a sharp-toothed yawn. Using one petite paw to wash his ears, the cat shook out his fur coat and jumped onto his witch's shoulders. "It isn't much of a comparison, really." The kitten ducked under Holly's haphazard swat, and dug his claws further into her shirt.

"Have pity, Holly. It's a holiday," The familiar mewed, and his witch gave him an odd look. "According to the school staff, Halloween doesn't count as enough of a holiday to call of class."

"But it's still on the calendar..."

With a roll of her eyes, Holly muttered, "I can't wait to pass you off to the next unlucky kid." The cat looked unusually hurt by this, and stayed silent. A new development all by itself.

"Is there a reason you called me out here?" Hanabi sat underneath the elderly maple tree, staring at the orange-red leaves that formed a brilliantly colored ceiling when compared to the deep blue of the afternoon sky. One such leaf floated down to land on his shoulder, contrasting sharply with the gray of his scarf, and he absent-mindedly brushed it off; the miniature burst of color joined it's other fallen companions littered about the green lawn.

At first, his presence had been carefully guarded, as if he expected an attack any moment. The more the youkai realized that nothing was afoot, however, he quickly loosened up and slumped casually along the tree branch over Hanabi's white-haired head. "Actually, there is. I'm not here to shoot the breeze or nothin'."

Hanabi could hear Him chuckle and tried to mentally swat the voice away. To tell the truth, he hadn't talked much or had been exceptionally close with the redhead; one half of him saw Jin as, ultimately, an obstacle to rid himself of. Blinking golden eyes, the boy thought; had that really been his original mental process, or had He somehow interfered somewhere along the way? Right about now he couldn't tell where he ended and He began...

And the other half... the other half pleaded that nothing bad would come out of all this.

He hated to let that half down, but... no, wait, he would listen to what Jin had to say.

Another minute and a half of silence. He could see some of the other younger students start a game of kickball on the lawn in front of him, and sighed. He remembered back when he was their age, in second grade or so, sitting on the sidelines as the rest of his team answered the opposing team's pitch. He had substituted for both teams, actually; as usual, the odd man out. And then she had come, with her incessantly cheerful and stubborn attitude. She hadn't been afraid in the least, had confronted him just because she heard he was trouble, and they had quickly bonded afterwards.

Hanabi frowned slightly, also remembering what had taken place in the five minutes during their confrontation, before said bonding. Being stuffed in a trashcan wasn't exactly number one on his list of fond memories...

"Hey, you listenin'?" The white-haired boy snapped back to the present, pushing the memory of blonde-ish hair and blue eyes to the far corners of his mind. His left eye prickled with pain, but Hanabi focused on Jin and shrugged.

"Yeah, I am. Still not getting your point, though." Was that him talking? To tell the truth, he was rarely ever so rude; the other two, however, weren't exactly masters of tact. Hanabi tried to process what Jin was saying and his current thoughts at the same time, no small strain on his tired mind.

Was he really himself anymore, or had they gained more control than he wished himself to believe? Whichever one won out, would he be able to fully adapt to them? That and the redhead above him was currently muttering something about some vague war.

Kid, you're thinking too much. Just take the back seat and leave me in charge.

Oh, the day you get full control is the day I get my body back for good!

Mentally, he sighed. It figured that They would pop up again as soon as they were mentioned. Always the voices...

Closing his eyes and furrowing his eyebrows, the teenager tried to block out the two arguing in his head. Why in the world wouldn't they just shut up? Wait, the long-winded war recall was nearing an end. Now if he could just have a few seconds of quiet to focus.

Okay, as much as I see it, we take out Jinny-boy, physically, and then go in for the girl. I know a guy who could probably help us out – for a bit of payment, of course.

Look, one more word about these "plans" of yours and you'll be out on your butt in the astral plane!

You've tried that before, toots.

Gaaarrgh! I hate you!

It sounded like something of a mention of a truce of some sort, but he couldn't quite be certain. And those two idiots would have been throwing plates at each other, provided they had physical bodies and a good healthy supply of said dinner plates.

"Will you shut up?!"

"Eh?" Jin hopped down from the tree branch, letting himself hang by his arms for moment before touching down to earth. When Hanabi opened his eyes and the sound of the demon landing, he noticed that Jin's blue eyes were somewhere between annoyance and curiosity. The white-haired boy paused and thought back, then nearly slapped his forehead at his own stupidity. Had he said that out loud..?

Oops.

Well, isn't that a bugger?

The two stopped fighting for a second, readily taking in their host's screw-up. Oops, indeed.

"Ah, uh, just thinking... nothing, really. I never said anything!" Hanabi furiously tried to recall his last statement, and got to his feet, holding a hand out to the demon. "In any case, what was that last bit?"

Jin cocked his head at the smaller boy, raising one red eyebrow. "To stop with the fightin'. To tell the truth, I have no idea what your problem is, but it's a waste of energy..."

"Ah, right!" Hanabi hastily blocked out the inner voices, all too aware that He was nearly ready to tear his head off. "Well, a deal's a deal, then."

Noooo! Kid, don't ruin this!

Hanabi-kun, you didn't go over to the dark side!

And they shook.

Cyan and Lilac energy floated in a net about him, each hue a spider-silk strand to one of his various artificial pets. They were invaluable to him, the key to gaining possible years worth of knowledge in mere minutes; without their aid, he doubted he would be where he was now. Doubted he would even be alive, actually. When he had stolen off into the night, some odd five-or-so months ago, one of these self-same pets had warned him and bought him enough time to escape unharmed. Of course, that wasn't to say they were totally beneficial. It took a lot of power to keep them all running and linked to him at the same time.

He opened his eyes, letting the energy net grace his vision as one of his "pets" floated up and landed on his shoulder. It resembled no living creature; it's body was more like some strange abstract sculpture than anything, with skin that had the same texture and smooth look as water. It flew using it's own power, yet no wings adorned it. In appearance, it was simple, symmetrical, rational, like some sort of machine.

He supposed that, in all truth, a machine was really all it was. Although much more pleasing to the eye and less dangerous, they didn't have a soul like the dead. Unlike these creations, the dead had once been living thinking beings. Compared to a malleable human soul, his current pets had limited abilities, at best; there was no way they could ever be tacticians, or creative. They had never known what it was like to feel pain – they never would.

Helpful as they were, they could never replace living flesh. So, why did he surround himself with these soulless shells? To shield his own psyche? He sighed and rested his chin on his hand. Now wasn't really the time to think of this...

The catalyst for his recent train of thought, seemingly annoyed by its master's musings (although, it really couldn't have been annoyed... it didn't have a soul to begin with.), nudged up against its master's chin. He blinked at the little creation's aggressiveness, and gave the thing his undivided attention as it reported back to him. This particular little being was a more recent work, and he had had enough time and patience to work a primitive AI in with its core. Said intelligence failed greatly in the face of human emotion, but it had come in rather handy as a spellchecker and thesaurus in previous models.

All Hallows Eve, when the wall between the living and dead was at it's weakest. He had been waiting for this opportunity, and was ready to pounce on it immediately. With a single thought, he reassigned nearly all of his artificial accomplices to the gathering of information on this new topic. Whatever happened, he had to make sure that the battle didn't swing in opposition of his interests.
Ooh... and hark the mysterious exposition guy and his exposition...

Okay, I'll be honest: I didn't put as much time into this as one would think. Been a bit busy during the last week, but a blizzard came up the coast during the weekend and I've had a lovely five days to write this. Three snow days... ugh. Strange as it is to hear, I miss school. I miss my buddies at school. I miss trudging across the highway to go to lunch. I miss banking stalls. I even miss cleaning the fish thanks. x x If that doesn't give you a clue as to how bored I've been lately, then what else can you look for? The hand of God?

... I am so going to get some bad karma for that last statement...

Grimoire: Noooo kidding, you imbecile. -.-

::sighs:: In any case, review and make me happy! . Because reviews are good, and help fight scurvy!

Grimoire: ... it's been a while since you've been this random.

Snow.

Grimoire: Ah.