Author's note (READ): I've used a quote from the Yu Yu Hakusho television series in this chapter. See if you can find it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or anything else that you recognize. I also do not own Yu-gi-oh, which will be appearing in the next couple of chapters.
Author's Note: I've got a little bit of a clue as to where this is going now. I doubt there will be any romance, just deep friendships. If you have a request for a certain couple though that you would like to see develop in this story, between the Yu-gi-oh characters or the Yu Yu Hakusho characters, then be my guest to tell me. I'll see what I can do.
A Rose with no Thorns
Chapter One
"Do you know when the Reikai Tentai will be arriving yet?" A soft baritone asked quietly, and the human like figure before him bowed respectively before answering.
"I'm afraid that I've not yet been able to gain access to the spirit fox's human mother, sire. She has been too close to other people for me to obtain her, but I'm hoping to be able to catch her unaware as she walks back to her house later today. I am certain that she will be alone then," The human disguise he wore now was that from a young child that had wondered away from his family and it was getting uncomfortable. Being a human was something he hated above all else. Still, he managed to bow once more before rising.
"You'd better be able to get her. We need that information," The soft baritone spoke again, his voice deadly this time and sending shivers down his servant's spine.
"I will not let you down, master," He lowered his gaze to the concrete floor humbly.
"You'd better not. I wouldn't want to have to . . . dispose of you."
The shadow child could only shiver.
"Alright, so what do we really know about this demon? And why isn't the toddler here to tell us what we need to do?" Yusuke asked finally, deciding that arguing with Kuwabara could wait a little while as they got onto more important matters.
They were all seated in Kurama's living room, and Kurama had taken the liberty to make a pot of coffee while everyone was getting settled. He figured that they would need it, as coffee helped with staying awake and they would no doubt be staying awake for some time.
"Koenma told me everything about this mission a couple of days ago, so it would be pointless for him to be here when I could just as easily explain," Kurama answered the second question before the first, taking a drink of his coffee before setting the cup down on the table. He briefly thanked any God willing to listen that the table was not broken yet.
"This demon, you said earlier today it would be difficult to find. Explain," Hiei spoke up from where he was sitting, his arms crossed and his eyes holding no emotion. Before everyone had arrived, Kurama had told Hiei a little bit about the demon they were supposed to capture for Koenma and Hiei had not liked what he was told. His jagan eye could find anything, and Kurama telling him that it would be pointless to use his jagan was just like telling him Makai was closed for construction. It was ridiculous.
"You won't be able to find this demon by just searching, nor will you, Hiei, be able to find it with your jagan," Kurama said at last for everyone else's benefit, as they didn't know that.
"Why the hell not?" Yusuke asked, his confusion reflecting in everyone else's eyes. Hiei could find anyone, anywhere, so why couldn't he find this demon?
"It is because of the demon's ability. We know only of a couple of this demon's powers, and one of them is the ability to hide. It is able to blend into the shadows, becoming nothing more then a shadow itself. There will be no logical way to track this demon," Kurama watched as Yusuke's confusion became something else, a mild form of desperation.
"Then how do we find it?" Kuwabara asked after a moment of silence.
"Although this demon is able to blend with the shadows, it can only blend with the shadows of humans," Kurama explained patiently, waiting for someone to catch on and understand.
Hiei rolled his eyes, "We can find it during the night, when the sun is down. Or at least get a lead as to where the demon is residing."
Kurama smiled, "Exactly, though some people enjoy staying outside even in the night, and they are still able to have shadows, we can rule out the humans that go to sleep and do not have shadows, as the demon will more then likely stick with one specific human to turn into the shadow of."
"Can someone explain this so I can understand it? This is making no sense!" Kuwabara said, still looking confused.
Keiko smiled slightly. Kuwabara wasn't very intelligent, but there were a lot of qualities that Kuwabara had that made up for that, "It means that you guys need to look for this demon during the night."
"Well why didn't you just say that?" Kuwabara grumbled, ignoring the glare he was receiving from Hiei, "Tell me something, what does it feel like, living in a constant haze of stupidity?" Hiei asked with a smirk, and Kuwabara had to be held back by Yusuke so that he wouldn't start yet another fight.
"Could we continue?" Kurama broke the tense moment, clearing his throat in obvious agitation. Kuwabara sat back down, wanting nothing more then to wipe the smirk off of Hiei's face but knowing that he would have to wait until later.
"Alright, the other ability this demon has is the ability to emulate any human he so chooses. In other words," Kurama looked briefly to Kuwabara and gave a small smile, "This demon can imitate and take on the form of any human. As you can imagine, this demon will be rather difficult to find."
"So what does it look like when it's not a shadow or a copycat?" Yusuke asked nonchalantly, not seeming to care about it very much. He obviously didn't think this demon was much of a threat.
Kurama shook his head, "No one knows. This type of demon has never been seen in its true form. And, as it happens, the demon that we need to find is one of the most powerful of its kind."
"Well this should be a piece of cake!" Kuwabara said, trying to be the optimistic one. No one else seemed to be optimistic, and he figured that they needed at least one optimist, "I mean, it can't be any harder then Sensui, right?"
"Yeah, this demon probably can't even compare next to Sensui!" Yusuke added, sounding as if he truly believed that.
"I've not yet explained what it has done so far, and what Koenma wants it for. Maybe you both will change your mind once you know," Kurama spoke up, silencing both Yusuke and Kuwabara for the moment.
"Now what?" Kuwabara asked with a groan. The list on what this demon was capable of just kept growing, and all he really wanted to do was go to sleep.
Kurama sighed, "I'm afraid this demon has done more then just escape from Makai into the human world. Before it came into the human world, it was in the demon form of a prison for various crimes against demons, and now that it has escaped I'm afraid that it is going to give the humans the same fate his demon victims received."
"What did it do to its victims?" The question came from Keiko, although she sounded so unsure. It was as if she didn't really want to know, but knew that they would all need the information.
Kurama took a sip of his coffee and set it back down, "Well, it did numerous things. The end result was always the same though, the victims were all either killed or they disappeared. Koenma can't even track down the victims that had disappeared. By the scene of all of its crimes, it is perfectly obvious that the victims were tortured quite severally before death."
"Tortured?" Kuwabara echoed questioningly, not liking where this was going. Poor Keiko already looked sick to her stomach, and Kurama hadn't even gone over what was done to the victims yet.
"Yes, I'm afraid so. I doubt I need to go into all of the details, as it is, when Koenma told it all to me I didn't really feel too well. There was one thing that always ended up on the bodies of the victims though, one thing that made us realize that this was no ordinary killer," Kurama paused and gazed solemnly around the room.
"Every victim had a dead butterfly lying on their chest. It was no coincidence that a butterfly just happened to die there; those butterflies were put there purposely. I feel like there should be some sort of connection between this killer and the butterflies, but I can't put my finger on it."
"Dead butterflies? Now that's just sick!" Yusuke muttered with a frown, and Keiko nodded silently beside him, too disgusted for words.
"Yes, it is, and we need to leave as soon as we can to be able and find this killer before it decides to start killing here in the human world." Kurama looked serious, his emerald eyes narrow and his lips pressed into a thin line.
"So let's go now then!" Yusuke said, determined to kill the twisted demon they were up against.
"I was thinking that we should leave tomorrow. It should only take a couple of hours to reach Domino City, where Koenma predicts this demon to reside. Keiko, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and I need to tell our relatives about our prolonged absence still, and we all need to pack a little. Koenma gave me several thousand dollars for this mission, and I bought us a small apartment to share."
"You mean we're staying for that long? What about school?" Keiko asked, worried that her grades would drastically go down if she were to miss that much. In all honesty she didn't need to go, and would more then likely only slow the team down, but she couldn't stay here alone and worry for such a long time about everyone. She refused to stay and worry, and if she went with them she could make sure they were all alright.
Kurama gave a small smile, "I've taken the liberty of signing us all up to go to a school in Domino City. Well, all of us except for Hiei," He noticed that after he added that last part Hiei had breathed a sigh of relief, and Kurama's smile grew just a tab bit more.
"I figured that Hiei wouldn't want to go to a human school, and as he doesn't need to go I think that while the rest of us are in school Hiei should be scouting the city. Would you mind doing that, Hiei? To see if you find anything suspicious looking?" The question was directed to Hiei, who nodded to the arrangement in agreement. He would much rather scout then sit with several dozen ningens in a small room and learn things he didn't need.
"Damn! I thought this was going to be a chance for me to skip out for a couple of weeks!" Yusuke muttered, snapping his fingers in disappointment.
Kuwabara, Keiko, and Kurama laughed while Hiei could only snort in amusement.