Disclaimer: See chapter 2

Chapter 4: Finding a balance

Three days later...

(Kurama)

Morning

'I can't believe I'm actually going to go through this! As if things hadn't been bad enough, now I'm about to let them get worse! Oh whoa is me! Kami-sama give me strength!' I mentally ranted as I paced my bedroom with only a towel to cover me.

I had been able to fool everyone at school into thinking I was still me, but now I have to make them think that the new girl that Botan 'accidentally' told them about is a completely different person than me. When I catch that ferry girl I'm going to throttle her! There's no way I can be in two places at once, it's just not possible. On top of this, I don't have the girl's uniform. How in the world does she expect me to introduce everyone to a nonexistent person?

I shook my head and paced my room some more. This wasn't getting me anywhere. I needed to calm down and focus on the task at hand. Botan has only mentioned it to Yusuke and the others. Since Hiei has already seen me then I can just pull the same stunt then disappear. I have no reason to stick around after they've seen me. This will work; I just have to make sure nobody sees me after school. This means cross-dressing, but what choice have I got?

Afternoon

I went through school that day in a half haze. Everything I did, I did out of sheer habit. I was lucky that no one noticed my distracted behavior. I'll need to be careful in the future. I made it through school okay, so now all that is left is cross-dressing in front of my friends and pretending to be a new acquaintance of Yukina and Botan.

I had to do this very carefully or I'd blow my secret to all of my friends. I made sure everyone was out of the school before I snuck into the girl's bathroom and changed into the kimono I had borrowed from Yukina a few days ago.

I stopped to admire myself in the mirror then gave my reflection a salute and said, "Well...Wish me luck. I'm going to need it."

I then exited the bathroom and started down the hallway towards the place Botan had told me to meet everyone today.

As soon as I left the building I took a deep, steadying breath, then waved over at Botan and used my best girl voice to say, "Botan! Hey, over here!"

Seven pairs of eyes turned to focus on me. One of those seven glared at me as I approached. Hiei had never been able to catch me that day when he saw me at the shrine. I guess I burned his pride by being faster than he was.

Botan was the first one to approach me. She said, "Hey, Yuichi, you look nice today. How did your day go? These are my friends."

I nodded to each of them in turn and kept a fake smile on my face as I was introduced to each of them. I thought I might be sick when Kuwabara took my hand and proclaimed that I was the second most beautiful girl he'd ever met. I was so mortified.

Yusuke put a swift end to Kuwabara's flirting. Then he turned to face me and said, "Hiei told us somewhat about you. You're able to block him out, and yet you don't have any significant power. So, my question is who or what exactly are you?"

I feigned ignorance as I answered him. "What do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about. Block him out? And what sort of a person asks a girl what she is. I'm human, you idiot. What else would I be?"

Hiei growled at me from his place next to Yukina, but I didn't bother turning to look at him. Yukina would handle her brother. I didn't need to interact with him anymore than I had to. Hopefully, he won't want to talk to me today.

That notion was instantly shot down as Hiei's gruff voice broke the uneasy silence that had filled the air after I had told Yusuke off.

"Human my ass. There is no ningen alive that can out distance me over any terrain. And, you reek of the fox. Explain that, if you can, wench."

I felt my temper flare at his words. Hiei really got under my skin in this form. Usually, I could just shake off his words and continue on, but as a woman I couldn't even stand being in the same general vicinity as him. He got on my nerves so badly!

Putting a tight reign on my fury I turned my head halfway in his direction then said, "I don't know what your malfunction is, shorty, but you need to take it elsewhere. I have no idea who the hell this fox is you keep talking about, but if I smell like him then maybe it's because we go the same school or something. If you call me wench one more time, so help me Kami-sama, I'm going to punch you."

"Hmph, bring it on if you dare, ningen."

WHACK! BAM! I managed to land a solid punch to his face, but when I drew around to kick him he caught my leg and held it so that I was stuck balancing on one leg.

The look he was giving me was one I had only seen him use against someone that had hurt Yukina. He looked like he wanted to kill me, which he probably did.

Relying entirely on my instincts, I rotated my body around again and kicked him square in the chest with my other foot. Now free, I easily landed on my feet and backed away from the seething koormie.

Before Hiei had regained enough of his wits to come after me again Yusuke and Kuwabara grabbed him and restrained him. I could relax now; Hiei wasn't going to kill me, at least not today.

"It's not right to hit a lady, Hiei."

"Kuwabara's right. She hasn't done anything to you that you haven't provoked out of her. Leave her alone. She's only human."

"Only human! Urameshi, look at her! Her spirit energy is higher than any normal human could ever possess! Let me go!"

I didn't let my stance drop until Yukina had safely defused her fuming twin. Even then I made sure I remained wary of him while he stood near by.

Tossing my long, red hair over my shoulder I said, "Look…Hiei was it? I think you need to either take the pill or leave. Somehow you and I aren't getting along right now, and I don't want to upset Yukina by fighting with you. I have no real wish to fight you, but if you persist in this vendetta you seem to have against me, I will protect myself."

Yusuke came to stand next to me and placed his hand on my shoulder before he said, "Don't worry too much about Hiei. He's always in a bad mood, so don't take it personally. Those were some pretty decent moves you showed us, where did you learn them?"

Ah, now this topic I could safely manage. Hiei had actually taught me the variant of martial arts that I use, but I used to take judo classes before that. Hopefully what they just saw looked enough like judo for me to pass it off that way.

"I take judo at my mother's insistence. I guess when I felt threatened I just fell into it automatically."

Yusuke nodded. "You've got some good instincts. That probably saved your life just now, by the way. Hiei is a very powerful opponent for someone like you."

Gods, I hate feigning ignorance in these sorts of matters. I'm beating around the bush with something I know as plain fact. I can't even let them know that I'm in on the whole Spirit Detective thing. Well, wait a minute, maybe I can.

"Someone like me?"

"A ningen with little to no spiritual power."

"Ningen? Doesn't that mean human?"

"Hai."

"Does that mean that you're not human, Yusuke?"

"Nah, I haven't been human for a while now. Not really sure what to call myself now, but I'm most defiantly not human anymore. Hiei and Yukina are koorime."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Cause I think you can be helpful to us. I felt your spirit energy spike up drastically when you were fighting Hiei. That's not something most people can do. You're special, just like Kuwabara and me."

"Special? Special how?"

"Do you ever sense things that other people don't? Or see things that no one else claims to see?"

"Well, yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"You've got strong spiritual awareness like Kuwabara. It's useful to have someone with that gift around with what I do."

"What you do?" Almost there. I just have to keep him going on this train of conversation.

"I'm a Spirit Detective. I protect this world and the spirit realm from attack and corruption."

Bingo.

"You're the one Genkai was talking to me about."

Every single person jerked at my words. Yukina and Botan were glaring at me now, too.

"You know the old lady?"

"Well, yes." I realized I had just struck on an idea.

"She's been training me lately. She kept telling me that I had some sort of potential."

"I didn't know she had taken on a new apprentice. What part of her training are you on?"

I smiled faintly at his interest. This could also explain my fighting style if more than judo had shone through.

"She's trying to teach me spirit control, but all I seem to be doing is making her plants bloom."

Hiei's head snapped in my direction at my words. Oops, I forgot about him. Better cover this up fast.

"I did manage to make a small blue ball of energy come from my hand, but when I tried to throw it...Well, it sorta died. It went forward a few feet then disappaited and died out."

I could feel Hiei's cold stare boring into me. My attempt to steer the conversation away from the plants didn't work. I hope he doesn't figure me out. I can't believe I was so careless.

"Those are Kurama's plants. You leave them alone."

I blinked at him when he spoke. He was mad at me for messing with my own plants? True that he didn't know it was me, but still. It was strange that he hadn't gotten really all that mad. At the most he sounded a little annoyed. He must have finally calmed down enough to use civil speech. Either that, or Yukina gave him the puppy dog look that she uses when Hiei does something she doesn't like.

I turned my head to look back at Hiei for the first time since he and I had fought. He looked sort of distracted. I felt my body tune into his as I caught his mood. I wonder what could be wrong. Damn him, making me worry.

"What's wrong?"

Hiei's head jerked towards me. He seemed as if he was lost for a moment before he shook it off. He stared at me for a minute more before he answered my question.

"I'm trying to find my fox."

Everyone remained quite around us. It was as if they knew that interrupting him when he was being civil to me was a bad idea.

"You're worried about him?"

"He's my partner. When he doesn't show up to something like this then something is usually wrong."

"I'm sure he's fine."

I watched him carefully as his entire body swung around to face me. Hiei was getting really angry now. I could tell he was getting agitated with me and with the conversation. His hand was starting to drift towards his katana.

"You don't know anything about him, you stupid ningen wench!"

I flinched at the violence in his tone. Looks like I just hit a sore spot with my koormie friend. I had no idea the absence of my presence would make him act so strange. I would need to tread softly with him now, least he attack me again.

"Hiei..."

My voice came out softer than I had wanted it too. I shook my head then continued, "I know Shuichi. We go to the same school. I saw him today at school, so I know he's okay. He went home early today claiming to be tired."

As soon as I was finished I turned away from those troubled red eyes of his before I betrayed myself. I hate seeing him like this. He's worried about me and I'm right here. Hiei has always been a little off balance, even when we were only partners because we were each after one of the three treasures. I can sense his spirit energy now since he's so close to me. His energy is all over the place. Unbalanced, uncontrolled. It hasn't been this bad since before he and I became friends.

I suddenly felt the strong need to be away from there. I couldn't stand by and be bombarded by his off set energy any longer. It would drive me crazy if I just left him like that. I had to get away. I needed to get out of these silly clothes and into my regular uniform.

A strong stab of pain in my head gave me my excuse. "Forgive me, all of you. I seem to be developing a migraine myself. Yukina, I'll see you at the shrine tomorrow. I have to go home and lie down."

Without waiting for a response from the confused looking ice apparition I took off towards the other side of the school. I knew I'd make better time traveling the rooftops to reach my locker, but I couldn't do that without giving myself away. I just have to hope Hiei stays with the others until I get back.

BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK

(Hiei)

I had to find Kurama. All of my senses told me that he had to be in trouble. Kurama never missed a chance to meet a new person, especially when it was a cute girl. The fox never missed meeting me at his school entrance on the days he knew I'd be waiting for him. I know he's not mad at me anymore. I visited him at home last night and he told me as much.

The girl had told us that Kurama wasn't feeling well. Did that mean he'd gone home already? If so, then I'd be leaving soon as well. I had to go see him. I don't know why, I just knew I had to. It meant leaving Yukina with Urameshi and group, but that would be fine.

I was just about to excuse myself when I caught Kurama's scent. The fox was still here! And he seemed to be coming this way. I no longer had to leave. Looks like Kurama didn't go home after all.

A minute later a very disheveled fox graced our group with his presence.

"Sorry I'm late, everyone. I had a bad headache and had to go home and take something. Did I miss anything?"

I approached the fox and nudged him forcefully. He hated when I did that, but he knows it's just my way of telling him I was worried about him. I swear, that fox is more danger prone that Yukina. That's saying something considering that Yukina gets attacked by a random youkai about every other day.

Everyone started talking to Kurama then so I backed off and went to stand next to Yukina. I could feel those green eyes of his on me. He must have felt my spirit energy going all over the place earlier. It's strange, actually. For some reason, when Kurama and I aren't in the same general vicinity and I have to fight, my energy does weird things.

The old lady told me once that it had something to do with Kurama having a balancing effect on my life-force. It was simply something he did. A lot of upper class demons had a partner to balance them. It was why most traveled in pairs. I don't care much for that sort of thing, but I would rather fight with the fox at my side than not.

I watched Kurama with the others for nearly an hour before I could tell that he was feeling sick. Kurama only ever messes with his hair when he's not feeling well. I guess I'll have to get him out of here now. Oh, well.

"Yo, fox!"

He turned to look over at me before speaking. "What is it, Hiei?"

"Let's get out of here. The ningen stench here is making me sick."

Kurama gave me a grateful smile then said, "Yes, alright. Let's go then. I'll see you all later then."

As we walked along towards Kurama's home I began to question him on his tardiness.

"You were late today, fox. You're never late. Something going on that I should be aware of?"

"Not really. I was just feeling light headed during my last class so I got excused early and went home."

"You're sick?"

"Don't worry, Hiei, its nothing serious. I'm just still a little weak from whatever that priestess did to me during the Cherry Blossom Festival."

I growled at the memory. That stupid baka wench could have killed him! I still wanted to go back there and kill her, but Yusuke told me not too. I usually didn't listen to the detective, but on this one point I had to concede to him. Whatever she had done to the fox was still having effects on him. Until Kurama was back to normal we didn't need to provoke the priestess again.

I shook my head and changed the subject. "You missed meeting Yukina's new little friend. I think you would have liked her, she's interesting. She makes me so mad though. I wish Urameshi would have let me kill her."

"Now Hiei."

"What? She pretends to be a normal human, but she's got spiritual power almost equal to yours. Being that you're a full demon and one of the strongest people in our little group that does say something."

"Maybe she's got Spirit Detective potential. Or maybe she's part demon and doesn't even know it. It would hardly surprise me if it were something to that sort. We've seen weirder things."

"Her name's Yuichi."

"That's a nice name."

"Whatever."

We continued on like this for sometime before we reached Kurama's house. I knew I'd have to leave him here, but I'd be back in the morning. I suppose I could walk to school with the fox just this once since he's not feeling well.

I gave Kurama a slight wave as I turned and took off towards my usual training spot. I'd have to come back, but for now I could just loose myself to my training. Training meant I didn't have to think. It meant I didn't have to worry about what had happened to Kurama. I didn't have to think about this Yuichi girl, didn't have to wonder what sort of power she had to use against us. For now, I could just keep everything at bay. It wouldn't last though. It never did.