Along Came a Kitsune

:Kurama:

Youko

'Hiei'

Thoughts (as indicated)

Chapter 6: Old Friends, New Enemy

Stepping through the portal the cheery transporter of the dead opened to Koenma's office, he made sure that Youko used his plants to remove all traces of Kagome from his person. It was better to be safe than sorry, and Hiei had excellent senses—better than he would ever let on. It was unspoken knowledge between them that as long as Koenma didn't know of all their abilities, it was like they were doing nothing for the pay.

He let out a soft sigh. It had gotten so boring lately. The only jobs available for the Spirit Detectives required no more than two of them at a time—only one if it was for either of the youkai of the team—and that was more because of the amount of youkai that had made it though the barrier separating the worlds, not the strength. Kurama could not help but wonder what kind of job would require the entire team. Though he suspected it was probably not as big a problem as he was beginning to suspect—Botan had been her usual bubbly self and had done nothing more out of the ordinary than lightly scold him for "misplacing" his communicator.

Kurama gazed at the scene before him in Koenma's enormous office. On the large-screen television on one side, Yusuke and Kuwabara were playing some kind of fighting game. Even digitally, Kurama mused, Kuwabara has no chance of beating Yusuke.

Y'know, I feel a little sorry for the guy.

:Yes, as do I.:

Hiei leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, smirking. Anyone who knew the forbidden child knew that that was never a good sign.

He shifted his eyes slightly to follow Hiei's line of sight and his gaze fell upon the young prince of Reikai, who was pinned to the wall by several daggers.

Koenma's eyes welled up with tears of joy as he noticed Kurama. "Oh, Kurama, thank the heavens you're here! S-save me from him!"

At a movement from the shadows, Kurama instantly sprang into alertness. "Who is there? Show yourself," he demanded as he drew his rose whip.

A chained sickle sprang forth with no warning from the darkness. Kurama parried with his whip and the sickle's blade became imbedded in the one perpendicular to the one Koenma was still stuck to.

A dark chuckle sounded from where the weapon had come from. "I'm glad you haven't lost your touch, Kurama. That human body has not slowed you down after all."

Said kitsune's eyes widened in shock. No, it can't be. I thought he was dead. "K-Kuronue? Is that you?"

A pale, smirking figure dressed in black emerged from the shadows. "In the flesh."

"But how?"

"You can thank the greatest genius of all the worlds for that," a haughty voice boomed throughout the room. It finally brought the two humans from their game. The lights dimmed and smoke filled the room before a blindingly intense light flashed, leaving only a puff of smoke from which a young man appeared. His eyes were and aqua color and his red hair was spiked in the popular fashion for boys—and some girls—at the time. In black pants and a forest green dress shirt and accessorized with a single hoop earring in his left ear, he was dressed to impress.

If it were possible to die from too much sighing, Kurama would have been six feet under. "Still as overly dramatic as ever, I see, kit."

"Me? Overly dramatic? What about you!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Kurama. "If you had just believed me when I told you I could save Kuronue instead of getting all depressed, you wouldn't be stuck in that weak human body!"

Kurama's eyes flashed gold and his hand found itself around the younger kitsune's neck in a second. "Care to repeat that?"

He held up his hands in a calming gesture. "N-no, boss."

"Good."

Koenma cleared his throat. "If someone could let me down, we can begin." Kuronue obliged and Koenma hopped onto his desk, as far away from Kurama's old partner as he could possibly be without falling off. "Now, if you would all draw your attention to the screen." Once again, the lights dimmed, but now light was provided by the large screen. "As you have all probably guessed, because all of you are required, we are faced with a new foe. These are some of his latest victims." He flipped through several images of both demons and humans. When the screen stopped flashing, it turned off and the lights turned back on.

"Koenma," Kurama began, "you said 'some of his latest victims'. What do you mean by this."

The prince closed his eyes briefly and nodded. "I should have known you would pick up on that. What I mean is that, those are the only ones we found. It is possible that this opponent—we do not know the race as of yet—has been in activity for years and only chose now. And, before you ask, I believe this may be so because it's not the first time that I've seen wounds like these, but there weren't enough deaths to get any interest. And if this person had struck before, and then appeared to disappear, but then show up again so suddenly, it is possible they are capable of hiding their kills, and there could be more than what he let us find. It is also possible that he could pass through the barrier between the worlds at will." Koenma paused to let everyone soak in the information.

"As you can see, there are very few physical links between the victims. The women were bitten in the side and their souls were sucked out through this wound, and the men were decapitated and the result was the same. However, when the Reikai Intelligence teams looked, we found some similarities that might be the reason the victims were attacked." He paused. "The women all had some miko power, though, as can be expected, not very powerful. The men were all either human with traces of youkai blood, or youkai with traces of human blood. Unfortunately," he said as he placed his head on his hands, "that is all we know."

"Which is nothing," Hiei mumbled.

"Are you sure there isn't anything else you could tell us, toddler?"

"No, Yusuke," Koenma said gravely, ignoring the toddler comment. "I'm sorry, but I've used all of my resources, and that was all that came of it. Believe me, you're not the only one that wishes there was a little more known about this enemy, but there is nothing else."

"Oh, hey, hey!" the kit shouted, jumping up and down. "What if we use Kurama for bait? I mean, he has youkai and human blood. Then we can jump this guy and kill him!"

Kuronue hit the kit on his head, leaving him to nurture the wound. "Haven't you learned anything about not underestimating your opponents yet, kit? We must've wasted hundreds of years trying to teach you that!"

"He's right. If this guy hasn't attacked the fox yet, that means he either doesn't know about him, or he can't use him," said Hiei. "After all, if he's powerful enough to mask his presence, then that means he can't be weak."

Koenma put his hands firmly on his desk. "That is exactly why I called you all here today—to tell you to be alert. If there's anything suspicious, the problem needs to be taken care of immediately. If anything else pops up, I'll have Botan contact you all. You are dismissed."

AN: Well, that was kinda a fun chapter to do. Now we have a bad guy in here. I think the next one will be split between Kagome and Kurama.

I noticed I spelled Botan's name wrong in chapter four, but it's so minor it wouldn't be worth reuploading, so I'm leaving it as is. It will be spelled with an A from now on.

I hope everyone had a merry Christmahanakwanzaakadon and wish you all a happy New Year!

Review Responses:

pt bear: I hope this chapter relieved some of your curiosity.

Kittypup13: Thanks for understanding. That's what I believe too.

crazy-punk-girl: Your guess is as good as mine. I'm just playing it by ear.