In this one, I'm going to show you all the true meaning of Murphy's Law. Poor Kurama will never be the same LOL This story is starting out slow, (my stories usually do) but it's going to get funnier! I promise! I just like dragging out torture. As for Kai's involvement (very MINOR), well, she is my character (my readers know her already), you can see what I go through with my friends every year LOL. I'm pretty sure I'll get quite a few amens on this one.

PS- Thankyou to all the people who reviewed! That's the quickest I've ever got reviews! I was so happy! Keep 'em comin'! ;)

I own nothing. Enjoy!

Kurama looked at his watch and breathed a sigh of relief. Ten minutes till 5. He was still on schedule, despite his, ahem, setbacks...

He'd planned to drive to the store, but found it impossible to get the car out of the driveway with all the traffic. What was wrong with these people? Normally they were such courteous drivers. If they saw someone trying to get on the road, they would stop and make a place for them to get out. He had expected that this morning, but after letting the car idle for 20 minutes at the end of his driveway, and having a few choice words yelled at him in at least seven languages, he gave up, put the car back in the garage, and tried to proceed on foot. That went well, until time to cross the street. It seemed that they had all completely forgotten the rules of the road! He had ran to the crosswalk, still trying to make good time. The light changed to walk within a few seconds.

'That's good. I'll make it to the store with time to spa- WHAT?'

The fox had jumped back onto the sidewalk just in time to avoid becoming roadkill! The car on one side of him had given up the fight and pulled into a restaurant parking lot. The car on the other side of him saw a great opportunity to move a whole 8 feet! The driver had gunned the gas, apparently hoping the pedestrians were either fast or insured. White lines, yellow lines, orange cones, and traffic lights were merely a suggestion at this point.

Thank goodness that was all behind him now. Kurama tried to slow his breathing back to a normal pace. He'd had to take leaps and bounds through the branches of the trees and across the rooftops of the surrounding area to get here on time, and, well, alive. Now he was walking up a small embankment that led to the parking lot, once again thinking of how splendid it was to shop for his new fami-

"Don't tell me..."

Those two emeralds filled with terror at the sight of the parking lot. All those cars he had left behind were forming a haphazard line. Their destination?

"They are all coming here!" he said to himself in disbelief. And as if that wasn't bad enough, there were more cars than parking spaces. There were traffic jams everywhere, and even more scared pedestrians than he had encountered earlier! Then, there were the other pedestrians, the ones that didn't seem to be scared of anything! They just kept walking, not bothering to check where they were going or how many cars were coming at them! A three-car-pile-up was avoided by mere inches thanks to one of these. As he glanced around the lot, he started to think back. Had he ever encountered such insanity?

Kurama started walking toward the entrance of the store, paying close attention to all the vehicles around him. He may have been a human now, but he was still part fox, and he had seen too many "cousins" laying beside the highway to drop his guard. After regaining his wits, he formed a strategy.

"Aha," he said to himself. He could walk up the center of a row of parking spaces, where the noses of the cars faced each other. Good plan. It seemed he was back to his cool, clever self. This wasn't going to be that bad. Then the next thought came, and stopped him in his tracks.

'If there are this many vehicles, then how many people are in the store? Many of the cars I've seen were filled to capacity! Can this store possibly hold that many people? It's impossible! They would have to be standing back to back! Perhaps they were going elsewhere, and they only needed to find a parking space...'

There were so many sales this morning. Surely these people were in town for the other ones. The other lots must have been too small. This store had the largest lot, so they came here, thinking there must be an empty spot. His cool returned again.

'How foolish of me, thinking so many people could be inside that single building. It's unlikely that the structure has ever seen such a crowd. The stress induced by the traffic must have taken it's toll on me. Wait, is that-?'

At the end of the row he was walking, a motorcycle pulled in. It was a ladies' bike, small enough to fit right between the noses of the cars. He thought he recognized the lights on the tires. Blue and purple continued to flash as the driver got off and removed her helmet. Sure enough, there was Kairi, in full leather apparel. The pants, the boots, the vest, the riding gloves, and her biker jacket. He noticed that her hair was pulled up in a bun on the back of her head. But why was she dressed that way? Didn't she say that she only dressed that way when she knew she was going into a battle?

Before he could ask, something else caught his eye. There were two boys ... buggy surfing? Yes. That's what they were doing! Two boys were standing up in a buggy, one with his feet on either side of the child seat section, the other standing in the main section. A tall woman was pushing the buggy, and the boys seemed to be knocking people out of her way as she neared the door.

'Now who could possibly do something so ridicul-!' "Yusuke? Kuwabara?"

Sure enough, Kuwabara was standing in the deeper part of the buggy, pushing people out of the way, while Yusuke was standing, straddled over the lady's purse in the child seat. The lady? As a man came to near to her backside, Kurama figured out who she was. She turned, punched the man, then kicked him in the ribs a couple times as he lay on the ground. All the while, she never removed the Marlboro from her lips.

"SHIZURU! YUSUKE! KUWABARA!" he yelled, jogging toward them. He was thankful to see someone he knew in this mess.

"KURAMA!" Yusuke responded, waving wildly, as if trying to keep the fox from losing him in the crowd. Kurama laughed to himself, it would be kind of hard to lose them considering there current location.

"What're you doin' here, buddy? I thought you were smart enough to stay away from this place!" Yusuke laughed as Kurama drew near.

"What do you mean? Smart enough to stay away?" He put a hand on his brilliant red hair, as if to scratch his head. He looked truly bewildered by this remark.

"I thought you always got your mom a nice necklace or something for Christmas. Decide to splurge on a TV or something?" Kuwabara asked. He remembered Kurama telling him last year that he had never been one to do much Christmas shopping. With such a small family, he just bought a thoughtful present for Shiori, usually a piece of jewelry, either with their birthstones, or engraving, or a nice outfit, and something likewise for his aunt, and that was it. This year was different.

"I'm not just shopping for her gift this year. I have to buy for my new family as well."

"Oooooh," Kuwabara and Yusuke said in unison, now crouched down to talk to him, but still remaining in position atop the cart. It was then that Kurama noticed that Shizuru was missing. He turned to see her and Kairi, having what seemed to be some sort of strategy meeting...

"Did you remember to bring-?" Shizuru started, but was cut short when Kairi produced some sort of object from her jacket's inside pocket and handed it to her.

"Ooof course!" she giggled. Suddenly, the fox recognized that object, not only by the shape, but by the scent! The smell of cayenne peppers burned his sensitive nose! What did they need pepper spray for? This was Christmas shopping for crying out loud! And then there was something else that struck him as strange. Aside from Kairi being dressed for war, Yusuke and Kuwabara's clothing also looked more suited for battle. Kuwabara was wearing his white pants and white overcoat, the same outfit he'd worn to face down the younger of the Togoro brothers. Yusuke was wearing his jeans, with a long-sleeved white shirt. Over that, was a denim vest that was clearly once a jacket, before the sleeves had been ripped loose. He wouldn't have stood out if they were going to a street fight, but a sale? What's gotten into them? Is there a demon here that Koenma hasn't told me about? A secret mission?

The girls rejoined the group, giving out specific instructions about where each was to go and what items they were to grab. TVs, DVD players, Care Bears, a Tumble Time Tigger...

"Where should we meet up?" Yusuke asked, now starting push people aside so that Kairi and Kurama could follow the cart with Shizuru.

"How 'bout the electronics department?" Kuwabara asked, a grin on his face. He and Yusuke had spent hours playing the game demos back there when they were out of quarters for the arcade.

"NO!" came the reply from everyone but Kurama.

"Stay away from the electronics department at all costs!" Shizuru commanded. "Don't you remember spending Christmas in a cast a few years ago, all because you wanted that Nintendo 64?"

"Oh yeah, oops," Kuwabara grinned sheepishly.

"Did you park at the designated area?" Kairi asked.

"Yup."

"Yeah and I thought she jarred something loose when she did it!" Yusuke exclaimed.

"You tore something off your mom's brand new SUV?" Kairi gasped to Shizuru.

"No. Not the SUV!" Yusuke answered. "I meant from my insides!"

Shizuru smiled as innocent as she could, but she couldn't hide how proud she was to have scared the boys that bad. Kuwabara placed a thumb to his chin as he thought for a second.

"Ya'know, it wasn't all that bad until the landing..." Yusuke glared at Kuwabara for that comment. Kurama took that glare to mean that Kuwabara wasn't joking. Landing? Shizuru could sense Kurama's confusion, and concern.

"We weren't dumb enough to look for a spot in the lot. We parked on the grass just off the eastern side of it."

"I thought that was a hill! A steep hill..." This day kept confusing the fox more.

"Why do you think I drove mom's SUV?"

Kurama was getting more and more worried. Just what had he gotten himself into?

"We'll reconvene at the Bravada. Just complete your objectives and get back there ASAP, before anyone has a chance loot the carts."

Kairi's orders got nods from the other three. As they made their way past the second door and into the store, their expressions changed. Kurama hadn't seen them this serious since the last round of the Dark Tournament. And why was she speaking like this was a military procedure? These were just other people there to buy gifts for their loved ones! It wasn't like they were walking into a war zon-

"What?" Kurama's thoughts of love and family were shoved from his mind with the force of a freight train hitting a rag doll. He looked around the store and saw "So many people!" They were every where! Back to back! Shoving and pushing like cattle! And the smell! His sensitive nose detected at least 4,000 varieties of morning breath! These people hadn't bothered to brush their teeth! They'd just jumped straight out of bed and into their cars! And the noise! All these people talking, and some were yelling things at the people they'd come with, about what to get and where to find them when it was over, and children were screaming, and employees yelling into their walkie-talkies, and more people yelling into their cell phones! They were louder than the demon fans had been by at least a hundred fold! Not more than 5 feet from him, a man in a Santa suit was collecting money for some charity. He was waving a huge bell over his head and, even as close as he was, Kurama could barely hear it. "HO HO HO! HO HO HO!" he repeated a little louder. "HO HO ...OH THE HELL WITH IT!" Kurama could not believe what he had just heard as he watched 'Santa' toss the bell over his shoulder, then plop down in a green, Coleman, pop-up camping chair, and produce a flask from the inside of his suit's jacket. He was appalled!

His attention was torn away from the sot in the Santa suit by a sharp pain in his lower back. His instincts forced him to whirl around to see what hit him. A middle aged woman, with poofy blond hair, stood there, scowling as she pushed her cart forward again, this time catching him in the side of the hip. "I wish these people would move!" she said obnoxiously to the woman beside her.

Our meek little Suichi tried to keep his calm. He should remain courteous, and resist the temptation to say something to the woman. The part of him that was Yoko was having other thoughts, to say the least, but Yoko was just a shadow in his mind. He didn't have the run of the ship, Suichi did, and so, Suichi would be the one to handle today. For better or worse...

As they neared the end of the walkway that led to the mainstream of people, Kurama felt around in his pockets. Now where did he put that? Then, the horrifying realization came to him. He had left his shopping list at home...

He would have to navigate this place without it!

Next Chappie: 5 o'clock! ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE! Review if you know what I'm talkin' about LOL