CHAPTER 8

THE SEARCH BEGINS

RING! RING!

The sound of a phone ringing woke Kurama out of a deep sleep. Who could be calling so early in the morning? he wondered as he got out of bed to answer it.

He walked in the hall and headed for the stairs. "I'm coming!" he said yawning.

Suddenly he was falling. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, flailing his arms to regain his balance. He wound up jumping off the stairs and landed on his feet at the bottom.

"Phew!" he sighed in relief. "That was close!"

RING! RING!
He reached over and picked up the phone. "Hello, Minamino residence," he said.

A woman's frantic voice could be heard on the other line. "Hello, this is Rioko Akari," the woman said. "I'm Minoly's Mother."

"Oh," he said yawning. "Hi, Mrs. Akari. How is Minoly?"

"I don't know," Rioko said. "She didn't come home last night."

Kurama was surprised. "She didn't?"

"No," the woman's voice grew even more frantic. "I thought she might have been over at your house." There was a hint of something in her voice.

What is she thinking? "I'm sorry, Mrs. Akari, but she isn't here," he told her. "I thought she went home after she left my house."

"But she isn't!"

"I'm sorry," the fox demon said. "Did you call the police?"

"Yes, but they said it's too early."

Minoly's Mother said a few more things but Kurama wasn't listening. He was thinking. Minoly left the house about the same time Hiei did. I wonder if they're together. I wonder if something had happened. I just hope Hiei didn't do anything to her... that was reckless...

"Mrs. Akari," he said.

"Yes?"

"Would it be all right if some of my friends and I helped you look for her?"

"Yes, of course it would," Rioko Akari confirmed. "That would be wonderful. I'm glad Minoly finally made some friends..."

What does she mean by that? Doesn't Minoly have any friends? "Uh huh," Kurama said thoughtfully.

Kurama talked with Rioko Akari a little longer then hung up. As soon as the phone call ended and Kurama set down the reciever (don't remember what it's called) he picked it back up and started dialing the numbers for Yusuke and Kuwabara. He also decided to call Genkai and somehow get in touch with Botan as well.

They can help too, he figured. And we might need Botan in case something happens...

Everyone met in front of Yusuke's house. As they all stood in the front yard, Kuwabara asked. "So what are we going to do?"

"First we have to look for Minoly and Hiei," Yusuke said. "Then we ask them what happened and figure out why they disappeared. Then we take them to their house or where ever they live..."

Kuwabara knew Yusuke was making him look stupid. He punched the Spirit Detective to the ground. "That's not what I ment and you know it!" he roared.

"Well we will have to split up," Botan replied, riding down to the three boys on her boat oar. "That way we cover more ground."

"Botan is right," Genkai said joining the boys in the yard. "In a city as big as Tokyo they could be anywhere."

Kurama sighed.

Everyone looked at him. "What's wrong?" Yusuke asked.

"I'm worried," the fox demon said locking his green eyes on everyone. "About Minoly and Hiei..."

"Why?" Botan asked jumping off her boat oar.

"I'm worried that Hiei might have done something to her," he replied looking away. I can't believe I'm thinking this about my best friend "I know how ticked off he was at her because she kept on bothering him. What if he..." his voice trailed off.

Everyone was silent for a moment thinking over Kurama's fears. They were well mounted and they all knew it. "I don't think Hiei would have done anything to her," Botan spoke up soothingly coming to Hiei's defence. "He might not be a nice guy but I don't think he would hurt her."

"He'd better not!" Kuwabara yelled. "If that shrimp as much as knocked on strand of her perfect hair out of place I'll-" he noticed everyone gaping. "Nevermind," he said, his face turning red.

Yuskue started laughing.

A red anger mark appeared on Kuwabara's head.

"I think we should split up in teams like Botan said," Genkai cut in before a fight broke out.

"Why?" Yusuke asked, now no longer laughing.

"Because if we did and ran into trouble we won't get all of our butts kicked," the short pink haired old woman explained.

"So who's going with whom?" Yusuke asked.

"Kurama and Botan, you and Kuwabara, and I'm going by myself."

"Why do you get to go by yourself?" Kuwabara demanded.

Genkai punched the orange haired boy into the wall of a nearby house. "That's why," she said.

Sweat drops appeared on everyone's heads. "Okay," Botan said, making her cat face. "Let's get on with the search now... heh heh heh..."

Kurama nodded. "Good idea," he took the blue haired girl's hand. "Let's go."

When Hiei woke he felt something warm resting against his left side. He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at it. The fire/ice demon discovered it was Minoly. She had her head rested on his shoulder as she slept.

So now he couldn't move unless he woke her up. He didn't want to wake her up.

What am I going to do now?
He closed his eyes again and tried to figure out something. Just as he started dozing off again the warmth left his shoulder and startled him awake again.

He saw it was Minoly. She was awake. She stretched and yawned but didn't look down at him. She didn't because she thought he was still asleep.

He watched her head back to the stream. Must be going to wash her face or something, he figured.

He figured she wouldn't be gone long. As it turned out she didn't come back. Hiei began to worry. Oh no! Noda has her!

The demon instantly was on his feet. He ran toward the stream worry creasing his otherwise clear face.

When he arrived, panting heavily, he saw something on the ground that gave him pause. A uniform. Minoly's school uniform. What? Noda stripped her and drug her away?

The sound of water made him glance up. Minoly's head popped out of the deep end of the stream. Her black hair fanned out around her head. He watched as she put her arms under it and flung it behind her back. Little droplets of water danced in the sunlight like tiny tear gems.

That's when he realized something. Why she wasn't wearing her uniform. His face flaired a deep shape or red. Oops! he thought when he realized she wasn't wearing anything!

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!" Minoly shrieked noticing him watching her.

Uh oh! He looked up. She stared at him with huge glowing purple eyes. She had her arms over her front.

Uh hello," he said, knowing his face was as red as a tomato. "Are you okay?"

She ducked her body lower in the water. Now only her head poked out. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

"I...uh..," he stammered. "I was just making sure ... Noda didn't capture...you..."

"GET OUT OF HERE!" she screamed, throwing a rock at him.

Hiei ducked. The rock hit a tree behind him. "Okay!" he shouted. He quickly retraced his steps. His face was still red with embaressment. Stupid me! I deserved that! I shouldn't have been staring.. But... she did have a nice figure...

A minute later Minoly came back to the camp site. She stared at Hiei who stared back. She saw his face was getting all red again. Serves you right!

She sat on the ground and opened her book.

An ackward silence hung in the air.

Hiei didn't like it. It made him feel nervous. He began to realize he liked her better when she was talking. I can't stand it! Please say something

"So," Minoly said after what seemed like forever. "What are your plans?"

"Huh?" he said confused. She's finally talking now?

"Your plans," she said. "Now that you know that Noda is after you what do you plan on doing about it?"

Hiei was a bit relieved. He was glad she wasn't going to talk about...that. "I'm going to fight him," he said. "And kill him."

"Why would you kill him?"

"Because if I don't he'll kill me!"

Minoly looked at him. "He wants to kill you because of what you did," she said. "Maybe I should want to kill you too."

Sweat poured down his neck. She is mad at me! I can see it on her face. He suddenly realized he didn't want her to be mad at him. "Umm why..?"

"Because," she said looking at him with her eyes half closed. She looked suddenly dangerous. "You were spying on me."
"Oh," he said as his face turned red again. "I'm sorry about that! I was just worried that Noda might have..."

"Did you see anything interesting?"

"What do you mean by that?"

She gave him a shark eyed look. "I don't like being spied on while I'm bathing."

"I'M SORRY!" he insisted. "I didn't know!"

She raised an eyebrow. "You didn't know?" she asked. "How could you not?"

"Look," he said looking away from her. "I only came out there because you were gone so long. I thought Noda had gotten to you or something..."

She blinked. "So you were worried about me?"

"In a way.. yes..."

She smiled. How sweet! "Okay," she said, satisfied. "I forgive you then."

Huh? He gave her a confused look. "You do?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

She just grinned at him. "Because I just do." was the only answer he got.

A/N

Actually I had a different idea for that part with Hiei and Minoly's bath but I changed my mind. I figured that wouldn't be a very Hiei thing to do so I changed it to what I thought he would do instead (I am not going to tell you what I was planning on doing!). I think I pulled it off right. Heh heh. I hope you liked it. If the beginning makes you think. "Kurama would never think that way about Hiei!" I'm sorry. I just thought it might work with how he acts too. I don't mean to offend anyone with my fic. I'm just doing it for fun.

Sorry for any spelling, grammer, or out of characterness.