Quote of the Week: "Winter is nature's way of saying, "up yours"." - Unknown

W00t! Everyone got the "figure's" identity right! Then again, it is very difficult to misplace Victoria, isn't it? A reason why he/she/shim is a personal favorite of mine.

Whenever I think of him, a picture of Isabella from Paradise Kiss keeps popping into my head...

They all made a lovely little racket upstairs. If his head wasn't so muddled up by... by whatever it was he had taken the night before, he would have gone up already and hollered for them to be quiet.

"Holy..! Ack!"

"WHERE!"

Something crashed upstairs, and he groaned, then finally jerked the blankets from over his head. The room was dark - someone had hung a blanket of some sorts over the tiny high-up window. Pointed ears twitched, and he slowly looked over at the bed on the other side of the room. Rogerik was asleep, the blankets slowly rising and falling in time with his silent breaths.

He ruffled his red hair with one clawed hand and swung his feet onto the floor. For once, the sheets weren't all in a knot; when he passed out last night (for reasons unknown to him - he couldn't quite remember anything at the moment) it must've been pretty bad. Almost every night he shifted around in his sleep enough to turn the blankets and sheets into one knotted mess. One blue eye lazily saw the time on the computer desk clock, and he swayed uneasily on his feet.

What had happened last night..? He couldn't recall anything, and he had never woken up so woozy before in his life. Another bout of noisemaking, and he supposed that he might as well venture upstairs to see who was fighting. Usually Kurama or one of the two teachers would break it up, and he wondered where they were at the current time of day. Jin used the railing to steady himself as he trudged up the stairs and grabbed the door handle.

The door fell over, off it's hinges, all on it's own, and he blinked tired eyes at the sudden overload of sunlight. He heard the soft padding of footsteps and wasn't at all surprised to see Kurama coming down. The fox didn't even acknowledge Jin, but he supposed he could let it go. Right now, there was a rather violent scene going on in their kitchen.

"URAMESHIIII..." Wind whipped the hair of the speaker about their face, not like he could tell their gender. It seemed almost like a male voice, but it was slightly too high for it to be so; the speaker's back was turned, and whoever it was was wearing a long coat that, besides cutting down the wind chill, made their frame indiscernible. But the height, easily nearing six feet, cleared things up a little.

The glowing green eyes helped too, he had to admit. Jin had seen them focused upon himself many a time during the warmer summer season.

"May I ask what you are doing in this house, early on a Sunday morning?" Kurama had made his way down the stairs, and was now leaning against the railing stand, hands in the pockets of his pajama trousers. Jin twitched his left ear, as the figure that currently had Yusuke pinned between the wall and counter in the kitchen turned and focused glowing green on them.

"OH, SO YOU'RE INVOLVED, TOO?" He didn't even have a moment to flinch as the person was suddenly vacant from Yusuke's side and had pinned the youkai to the wall. Manicured nails digging into his shoulders, Jin gave Kurama one last desperate plea of a look, and faced his attacker directly.

If he hadn't spent the moment over the Landon's house for the summer, the sight that greeted his eyes would have made him twist and squirm away.

"They" turned out to be a very upset Victoria Landon. Or Victor... whichever he preferred being called at the moment. Between the poorly-done cover up and men's business suit, Jin couldn't tell which alias the older sibling was at the moment. Whatever had happened, it must've been pretty bad to drag the normally exquisite dresser out in public while half-done.

"Tell me... what happened to her?" The insane screeching yell was gone, replaced by a calm and steady tone that frightened Jin more than Victoria's loud screaming. His reddish hair was pulled into a braid, but some loose wavy strands managed to tickle the youkai's nose; self-consciously, Jin tried to pull away from the upset man. Victoria was getting too close to comfort, and a wall prevented the wind master from escaping.

"Wha? Who are you talkin' about?" Jin managed to make out the half-sentences, but Kurama stiffened, hair literally bristling. The fox soon had an unyielding hand on the shoulder of Holly's brother, and managed to make Victoria loosen his grip from Jin's arms. Looking at the marks from the manicured nails with interest, the wind master rubbed his arm ruefully. He didn't know why Kurama was so inclined to save him, but he frankly didn't really care at the moment.

"Let go of me, Kurama. I want to know where my sister is."

It was as if the floodgates had opened as Victoria spoke those words to the fox. The world suddenly became clearer; the abandoned broom with a long crack running down the shaft of the handle leaning against the wall next to the front door, the unmoving black cat in the doorway, the sullen quiet of the household...

Last night... he could still hear the frightened, panicked scream as she was carried away by that monster; spindly fingers closing about her waist as the scent of rotting flesh cloaked the monster as fittingly as the matted goat-skin cover. Cracked and curved horns, giant cloven hooves with which the creature could have dashed out his brains without a thought. A bit of white hair moved about in the wind, as a breeze emptied the air of the pungent smell of death.

Hanabi had been the cause of all this. Damn the boy to hell.

Both redheads watched as Jin suddenly fell to his knees on the carpeted floor, his blue eyes empty and unseeing. From over the kitchen counter, Yusuke and Kuwabara poked their heads out. The black-haired boy took one look at the normally cheerful demon, and allowed his forehead to fall to the countertop with a thunk. "Crap," he moaned.

Victoria seemed a bit fazed by the recent events, but nonetheless knelt down and forcibly stood Jin up on his feet. The demon fell back against the wall, and the witch's older brother sweatdropped.

"Please, leave him be. It's still... sinking in, I'm afraid," Kurama muttered, an exasperated sigh at the edge of his voice. Victoria blinked his green eyes - eyes that didn't have the touch of hazel like his sister's. Then...

"Oh, Jin, darling! I'm so sorry! I. Didn't. Know!" Victoria grabbed the demon in a tight, lung-crushing embrace, and the three tantei noticed that Jin had gained a rather blue tint to his face. There was a coughing sound and the wind master was soon fighting off Holly's older sibling, while said tantei stared wide-eyed at his sudden recovery from the scarring memories of last night.

Well, that definitely saves me the trouble of giving him more sleeping dregs... Kurama rubbed his temples at this new development, and watched as Jin seemed to come alive right in front of him. He supposed that the process would have been quickened if the elf-eared demon received some oxygen, but it was a miracle in itself that Jin had snapped out of it already.

Taking too many sedatives, even if they were natural herbs he had plucked out of the garden instead of the chemicals that humans used on an everyday basis, were taxing on one's body. Even the fox himself avoided taking any medicine, if possible.

Therapy-hugging? Well, he doubted it would catch on, but it had to be better than steamed and mashed-up herbs.

As Jin finally wriggled free of Victoria's hug and winced at the aching pain that burned through his ribs, Kurama thought better of said therapy hugging and decided to leave the wonders of modern medicine to the professionals. The redheaded, elf-eared youkai gulped in large breaths of the precious air that was now allowed him, and tried to pull himself up off the floor.

"Yeah, Holly, I don' know what happened to her," Jin quickly raised one hand to fend off Victoria as the long-haired man seemed to grow a half foot in height within the span of those words, and Yusuke and Kuwabara scurried out of hiding to latch onto Victoria's arms. It wouldn't do any good to have the older Landon sibling attack Jin, bring him back to his senses, and just as quickly knock him out of them.

"'Ey, 'ey, calm down." The vicious little breeze that had been tugging on the ends of everyone's hair died down for a moment, and Victoria calmly broke free of the two punks' grasp. "Well, speak."

"There's this one guy who prob'ly knows exactly what happened-"

"I do," the voice came from the doorway to the basement next to Jin, and Yusuke snorted. "You? What, did the voice of God carry down and tell you the answer while you were moping out back last night?" The comment was scathing, and Rogerik could clearly realize that the spirit detective was a bit closer to anger than just a short fuse would allow.

But having a pissed-off wind-controller break into your house could do that. Ya know?

The thief sighed, leaned in the doorframe, and just as suddenly recoiled back. A screw stuck out from the doorframe, from where the hinges had been ripped out; reminders as to why he didn't get on anyone's bad side at this school. With a sigh, he ran a hand through his blond hair. "Close enough. Koenma has a theory about what happened."

Victoria paled, and Kuwabara looked fairly satisfied at the answer, ready to leave it at that. But, no, Yusuke wouldn't leave it at that. "Sure, get pacifier-breath involved," the black-haired teen huffed. Kurama merely shook his head, and waved a hand at Yusuke. "Calm down, Yusuke. Any help is welcome."

Rogerik took a deep breath. He really wished that the others were awake at this time of the morning; it would save him the breath when he had to explain the junior kami's plan. But, really, he had no clue how the two sisters were dealing with it, and Hiei (being, well, Hiei) was probably off sulking in a tree somewhere. Making a mental note to himself to check on Lark later on, he started his long-winded summary.

He stood outside, one hand nearly touching the doorknob. He wished he could just go inside, but how would they react to his sudden reappearance? A slow-mo family sitcom welcome, drenched in the heart-wrenching melodies of John Williams music and falling cherry blossom petals, welcome was far off for the likes of himself.

No, he rather more suspected them to come after him with pitchforks and torches.

The smooth, coppery surface of the little artificial-looking creature perched on his shoulder bumped into his ear, and he felt the brought-to-life metal hum. If he could speak golem, he was fairly sure that his creation (originally brought to life for the purpose of grading papers) was telling him to get his ass in gear and just open the damn door.

So he did.

The door opened. Not in the classic easy swing that many doors opened in, but instead falling to the floor with a muffled thud. As he stared at the group of young adults inside the living room (and they just stared back, looking like a herd of deer stranded in the middle of a busy intersection) he vaguely noticed that the hinges on the door were missing. He sat there, lost for words, wishing that his leather jacket was a trench coat; a dramatic, coat-flapping wind would at least have given him a reason for knocking the door down and standing on the front steps, staring silently like some idiot faced with the jellyfish tank at the aquarium.

Sadly, he had no such wind. He awkwardly stepped over the door, picked it up, and settled it back on the doorframe as best he could. Seeing that the dismantled door wouldn't budge (unless another fool tried to open it), he turned back to the group (who were still gaping) and cleared his throat. "Ahem, uh... er..."

The words died in his throat, and he mentally smacked himself. Of all the times, why did he have to go dumb now? Wasn't Alzheimer's supposed to set in after the tender age of forty-something?

"M-Michealangelo..?" Kuwabara pointed dumbly at his former teacher, and Yusuke nodded in answer. The necromancer nearly let out a sigh of relief. Finally, someone who wasn't going to go on forever with the various titles he had been granted. Laird was enough for him; one village he had traveled to in the past had been so "gracious" as to add a whole string.

It had gone somewhere along the lines of "All-Seeing One of Luck and Prosperity, King of the Beloved Deceased, He Who Makes Blood Fall Like Rain... etc., etc..." All he knew for sure of the title was that it had been too bloody long for his liking. Although, anything beat his childhood nickname "Runs with Scissors".

But, back to the present. He had a portal to the past to open, bewildered teenagers to guide, a witch to rescue, a rendezvous with Koenma, and test papers to grade. First off, to make sure that he didn't have to retell the exposition. "Rogerik, you caught them all up, right?" He waved a hand at "them" and the thief nodded. "Uh, yeah..."

"Good." He nodded and rubbed his hands together, the golem on his shoulder purring at the reiki gathering in his palms. "The second passage to castle Lath is actually very easy to get to - it's just all a matter of how patient you are."

From among "them" he heard Yusuke snort. "We're short on patience, old man." Michealangelo forced himself not to twitch at the comment; he had been called worse, after all. And nothing quite said revenge like finding a severed head in one's bed sheets - with the body climbing into bed to take it back.

"You'll have to wait, or you'll end up being sent to Limbo."

Victoria blinked, then smiled. "Oh, I love that game!" The cross-dresser cringed at the varied looks he got, and shrugged. "Bad timing for a joke, I take it?" By the looks Victoria got from the assembled roommates (except for Kurama, who was trying to focus on the complex motions the Laird was doing with his hands), he had hit it on the nail. The redheaded human sighed, and gazed over at Kyuro, who was, as always, staring out the window. If he didn't know better, he'd think that the cat was a stuffed toy. Either that, or the familiar's eyes had dried to dust and been blown away.

A twinge of jealousy and guilt washed over the older brother. Kyuro had never been his familiar; by the time he had been old enough to even begin to gain a glimmer of his influence with wind, Holly had been born. And, by tradition, the family familiar was passed onto the newest witch. Girls were witches; boys weren't first in line for the familiar or title, and many witch families had a matriarch as head of family. Maybe that feeling of unfairness, as he had watched Kyuro carefully, if snidely, mind the younger Holly as she wandered about as a toddler, had carried through the years and struck the younger girl down now.

So he had been a bit more distant from Holly than he wished when they were younger. One day, his father had come home, caught him in the skirt and blouse he had hidden (with a stuffed bra and half-done make-up, as well) in his closet, and promptly kicked him out of the house. Victoria (or then, Victor) had run to his grandmother's, and Holly had followed. Supporting, mad as hell at dear old dad, and lugging all their stuff with them. Since that scarring event a good five or so years ago, they had been inseparable. Even the jealousy of not having a familiar had disappeared.

"Hey, you. Snap out of it." Victoria jumped at the Laird's voice, and noticed that the symbol the necromancer was trying to write in the air was oddly warped. "Whatever you're thinking, stop it for a few minutes. A bad mental wavelength can screw this thing over and I'd have to do the entire damn thing over again..." The rest of whatever the man said faded off into a mumble, as the symbol shuddered, then burst into life. The Laird wryly smiled, and barked over at Rogerik. "Hey, did Koenma give you anything?"

The thief shook his head no. "Nah. Unless you count a colossal pain in the a-"

"Stop with the attitude and just hand over whatever that "colossal pain in the ass" gave you."

The blond looked like he had been physically stricken, but quickly produced a rusted piece of scrap metal from his pants pocket. Kurama raised an eyebrow at the relic that the psychic produced, and tried to block out Youko's voice from within his head. Already, the spirit fox of the past was sniffing out the scent of silver, and was using the more advanced smarts that his current form, Shuichi, to calculate how much it would sell for if he pulled off a quick restoration. Kurama one time had wondered why Youko even bothered dealing with money, for it had little to no value in Makai and the fox seemed to be disinterested in the paper bills.

Yes, a paradise for Youko paid out in mounds of newly polished yen pieces and random other bits of change.

...I'm above that, you know.

Oh, I'm sure, Youko. I'm sure.

But the rusted watch was placed in front of Michealangelo (who had spent a good ten seconds barking at the boy specific instructions. Apparently, it had to be in the exact mathematical center of the reiki-outlined circles on the floor in front of the necromancer), and the "gift" from Koenma glowed an eerie white as the symbol floating in the air burned itself onto the watch's flip-open lid.

All was quiet, and the Laird picked up the watch, rubbing the still-warm lid with his thumb. "Good, the spell isn't as deteriorated as I had thought." He looked over the group with dark brown, nearly black, eyes, and let the watch dangle from it's chain before dropping it in Rogerik's hand. "You, take good care of that. It acts as a catalyst for the entry to the castle, and makes leaving a hell of a lot easier."

The thief stared wordlessly at the watch, and bowed his head to the necromancer. "Of course."

"So, how long you wanna wait before we leave?" Yusuke casually asked. To tell the truth, he didn't want to wait any more; but they would need some basic supplies - food, water, and most likely a first aid kit of some sort - before Kurama or Lyre would even let them step out the door. And then there was the problem of telling Rachel and Erica where they had gone.

Kurama looked over at the microwave clock in the kitchen, and then glanced back upstairs. "I'd suggest we leave in an hour or two. It'd give the girls time to wake up and get caught up, and leave time for some packing."

"Why not now?" The cat in the windowsill had been quiet for so long, it made the tantei jump a little when they heard the voice, now. Kyuro turned away from his constant watch, and glared at them with narrowed green eyes. "Two hours is too long. It'd be a hassle, and we can summarize to the sisters later. Same with permission from Rachel. Besides, our friend here," the cat jerked his head at the middle-aged man now standing a bit out-of-place in the living room, "has a strict schedule, no?"

"My plans are none of your concern. I was simply told to watch things while you left to find Holly." Michealangelo seemed to speak this stiffly, with as little emotion as possible, and it worked fairly well. Well enough to make Victoria bristle a little at the sudden tone of voice. "I can oversee this rescue perfectly fine," the cross dresser replied, and half the group (Jin included) blinked in befuddlement at the sudden announcement. Victoria, lead a rescue mission? That was just asking for trouble...

But it was his sister, so the wind master supposed it was only fair. In his own spastic way, Victoria had been more than tolerant of entire affair. Jin knew well enough that the choking he had been put through earlier was nothing compared to what the older brother could really do - reiki or no.

"An hour." The fox broke in, and Kyuro reluctantly nodded. "Very well. Not one minute less." With a swish of his tail, the cat disappeared to wander about the rest of the house. Most likely, he was off to rouse Lark and Lyra from their slumber. Michealangelo watched the cat go, and sighed. "I'm surprised he let you take control of this all." The necromancer took one last inventory of the living room, and quickly scuffed out the last remnants of the spell circles (the energy quickly fading and the symbols disappearing from the carpet) with his boot, and stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets.

"Well, you heard the cat. We both have little time to chat, and I have some other things to oversee at the moment. If you need to talk, ask Bones; the dog should be able to connect to this little guy here," the necromancer jabbed a thumb in the direction of the little golem perched upon his shoulder, "no problem."

Once again, the door was moved from its frame, and the middle-aged man went to step out of the house, but turned back to the living room. "Oh, Rogerik."

"Yeah?"

"Check your communicator. I believe Koenma had something private to talk to you about."

"Uh, okay..." The blond shrugged, and Yusuke gave the laird a hearty glare. "And what does wonder-baby want with him that I can't take care of?"

Michealangelo waved a hand lazily over his shoulder and walked out the door. "It requires thinking." Yusuke was about to lunge forwards at the comment, but Kuwabara grabbed his arms, sweatdropping as he did so. "Well, at least someone's felling like their old self."

Jin grabbed his bag. It was small, considering he didn't know how long they'd be out in the castle. But, considering it was only just one castle and the load would be split up between the group of them, he only tossed in an extra set of clothes and some travel-friendly foods. Lifting it with one hand, he found the pack to be pitifully light, but shrugged it off. Less work for him, and he could move faster.

Rogerik had connected to Koenma through his communicator, as promised, but the wind master didn't know where the thief had holed himself up for the "private connection". He was wary of the glowering green eyes of Kyuro, though, as the cat prowled throughout the house, snapping out at anyone who seemed to be a bit slow. Currently, this was the familiar's third visit to the basement bedroom.

Jin swung the bag onto his shoulder and grabbed a fleece-lined autumn coat. "Any reason why you're just hanging around here?"

The cat sniffed, and stretched, the tiny black body arching and contorting. "There's someone outside for you. He's rather... ashamed. For good reason, too." The last bit was growled out, and green eyes flashed dangerously.

"Gee, I wonder who." Jin drawled, but trudged up the stairs without complaint. Sure enough, sitting on the front steps was a familiar white-haired head. Jin dumped his bag right behind Hanabi, and the boy spun around, trying to get to his feet at the same time. What resulted was a near spill from the other teen, and recovery from his stumble.

"Any reason you're here?" Jin had no patience for the golden-eyed boy at this time, and he doubted he ever would again. Although not directly, this little bugger was responsible for Holly's kidnapping.

"Ah, I-I just wanted to apologize. It was all my fault; I let myself become tempted." The boy dropped to his knees, and Jin leaned against the doorframe, trying to seem as uninterested as possible. If no one had been present in the house, he would have just blasted the boy away with one gale of wind. Witnesses... nasty things they could be.

"I have no idea what I did, to tell you the absolute truth, but I heard that Holly went missing."

"She did. You pulled this monster outta nowhere an'-"

"I know! I know! I didn't know what was going on myself, but I do want to help get her back!"

Jin scratched one ear, raising an eyebrow at Hanabi. "You do, eh? Ain't this a surprise. What's to say I can trust you, at all?" Hanabi looked up, his gold eyes desperate, and Jin noticed that the familiar orange strip in the iris was gone. With a shuddering sigh, Hanabi managed to choke out, "What can I do to prove you can?"

But, no, that had been enough, that one look. The orange stripe - that last remainder of whoever it was that had most likely possessed the boy earlier. He had heard the cursing, before they had been attacked, and although it had come from the same set of vocal cords, the voice ensuing from Hanabi's voice hadn't been his own. The real question was whether or not Halloween had been the last of the albino-haired teen's less-than-desirable side.

Jin tossed his bag to Hanabi, who caught it awkwardly. "Carry that for me. We're leaving to get Holly back in a few minutes."

Hanabi struggled to his feet, his head bowed to the wind master. "T-thank you!" Jin rolled his eyes and wandered back into the house. "Sure, whatever... jus' don' cause anymore trouble."

"Well, we all set?" Yusuke glanced about the group, which seemed oddly mismatched. Between their random luggage and the half-dead air of tiredness about them, the spirit detective mentally griped about how the current group was going to be the best he was going to get. Even Hiei had distanced himself from them, perching in the plum tree, as if out of embarrassment of the crew. And, really, who could have blamed him?

But someone was missing...

"Oi, Rogerik, what's taking so long?" Yusuke called down the basement steps, and was met with unusually gloomy quiet. Now his patience was running short, he narrowed his brown eyes and yelled down again. "Hurry up, you idiot. We don't have all day."

"I'm not going," the thief replied, coming down the steps above the group. He had a familiar brass key in his hand, one Yusuke recognized as the twin to Lyra's bedroom door.

"You're what?" Lark asked, blue eyes darkening at the thief. Rogerik shrugged, and rubbed his thumb over the jagged edges of the key before putting it in his pocket. "Koenma's orders. I still have some work to do, and there's no way I could leave now."

Lyra sighed and readjusted her backpack strap. In a gentle tone, she asked, "You mean you still have more artworks to steal for Koenma, right?" Rogerik, full well knowing his roommate's reactions, nodded. It wasn't as if he was proud of the position, but he had been hoping he could avoid all this.

Kyuro snorted at Rogerik, and paced at the feet of the youkai and humans. Over the last hour, the familiar had become positively livid. "Whether you're going or not doesn't matter. You have the watch, right? Hand it over."

"Can't; another "bonus" from Koenma. I'm here to make sure the path stays open."

Kyuro hissed at the short reply, but Kurama looked a bit bothered by it. "So, while we're looking for Holly, you're in control on whether we come back or not?" Rogerik shook his head, and stared at the watch in his hand. "Come back safely is more like it. Michealangelo is going to be around, so don't worry."

"It leaves less room for you to screw up, then," Lark muttered, and crossed her arms, avoiding any eye contact with the thief. Lyra gave her sister a tired look, and sighed. Without Rogerik, if they were met with a lock of any sort it would take longer. She wasn't worried about attacks; the tantei were well equipped to meet any sort of adversary. But all that power would be useless if the front door was shut with a lock or kekkai. At least, she thought so; she had heard once from Kuwabara that his spirit sword was able to break through kekkai, but she didn't want to trust it just yet.

And, as much as her sister wanted to argue the point, Lyra knew that Rogerik was an undeniable member of the group; if he was missing, it wouldn't quite be normal.

Yusuke snorted, breaking the awkward silence of the room. "Whatever; if toddler-bitch is keeping you back here, there's nothing we can do about it. Just keep out of trouble." For all the tough-guy act was worth, Yusuke's last words were more of a friendly statement – the spirit detective truly meant it. Rogerik grinned, although it seemed forced, and leaned over the railing.

"Stop whining; we need to get you guys shipped out of here." The lid of the watch was flipped open, and The bloody smudged face began to blur. From the staircase, Rogerik held the watch out towards the group, and the crooked hands began to spin backwards.

"It'll be nice to have some peace and quiet around here you know; don't be surprised if I pawned some of your stuff off by the time you come back."

Lark was about to snap a reply, but everything had faded to white, and a wave of nausea hit her hard. She squeezed her eyes shut at the blinding void, and flailed her arms, searching for anyone else. When they were in the living room, she was sure that everyone was in a cramped group. Nothing touched her hands now.

Then, with an ungainly thwumph, her face was met with boggy grass, and she flipped over, coming to a rest with an overcast sky dominating her vision. With a groan, she closed her eyes and wished for sleep.

Koryu watched the blond teen slump down on the staircase, sitting on the steps and staring at the pocket watch with an unidentifiable expression. The creature had sensed the power surge from the house, and then the lack of energy signals from the other inhabitants. It didn't take long for him to piece events together; he had, last night, overheard the conversation between Koenma and Rogerik. Even tired and curled up in a hollow in the cliff wall, their voices had carried down to him.

"You really didn't want to be left behind, did you?" The rat-like monster asked, sticking his head in through the kitchen window and focusing all four eyes on the human psychic in an unnerving stare. Now that Yusuke had left, the water rat didn't care if he was seen infringing upon the student's home; and he was sure Rogerik would need someone to make conversation with.

There was a soft chuckle from the slouched figure on the stairs, and Rogerik stuffed the watch into his pocket. The laugh only lasted a second, however, and Koryu knew, as all animals seemed to know, that the human was putting on a façade. And a rather cheap façade, at that.

"Are you kidding? I'm not made for going against monsters; Koenma is usually right about the talents of his workers. Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, even Kuwabara, they're better off in that type of situation than me - I'm just everyone's favorite errand boy."

Koryu gave the thief one last ruby-hued look, and left the kitchen window, moving quickly and silently towards the ocean.

Okay, so it's not Sunday, but close enough. Please don't kill me. o o;; Too lazy to reply to reviews this chappie, so I'll take care of that next time.

Oh, and just so you guys don't get angry with me for suddenly disappearing, I won't be able to update again this week. I have a number of reports to take care of, and school comes before fanfictions (of course, if this were an original story for publishing, the parents wouldn't mind my grades slipping so much).

Next chapter!

-Behold, magnificent Castle Lath! But how to get inside..? Why, a horse, of course.

-So, why does this horse have sharp pointy teeth and is entangled in a chain? (brownie points to all those who can figure out the Scottish mythical creature I'm talking about!)

-And, egads, Holly's alive! And she's also found a little sister... of sorts... okay, not really, but she's gonna play along anyways. If she doesn't, she won't be alive for much longer.