Riku stood up swiftly and Hiei followed, eager for a fight. Yusuke watched them for a moment, before finally deciding that he had to help out, as he was the one who'd been assigned the case and as he refused to let Riku take the glory. Kurama waited kindly for Keiko and then the two went out after the other three.

"You think you're qualified to find a demon hidden among humans?" Yusuke asked Riku arrogantly.

Riku shrugged and responded smartly, "Not necessarily, but I figured you would follow me if I got up…and I know you're qualified to find the demon."

Hiei laughed, creeping everyone out more than when he had the first time, "He knows how to work you to his advantage, Yusuke. You'd better watch out."

Yusuke glared but said nothing. For the next hour, they scoured the city mercilessly, and after finding no sign of the demon, they stopped in a park to rest.

Keiko sat down tiredly, dabbing at her brow with a cute handkerchief. Yusuke quickly took the seat next to her, before Riku could, and managed to make it so no one else could sit down. He didn't want to take any chances of her being nice and scooting him down for anyone—anyone meaning Riku.

Hiei was sitting lazily in a tree overhead, while Kurama leaned against its base, and Riku, recognizing Yusuke's unwelcome gesture, remained standing.

"That man…"

Riku's eyes lingered on a man crossing the street. He was a big, burly fellow with dark features and arms the size of Riku's thighs. The man looked rather 'shifty' and was behaving in such a way that made Riku suspicious.

Yusuke looked over to where Riku's gaze was and he blinked a few times, registering what he was seeing, "He's the demon…he's got horns, for Christ's sake…"

Hiei hopped down and wandered over, "Want me to tail him? I can find out where he's hiding and then come get you later."

"No, that's no good," Kurama said, shaking his head, "what if he doesn't have a definite hideout? We'd be stuck, and Japan's a pretty big place…"

Keiko nodded her agreement, "Kurama's right, only a few of us should go, lest he have friends. We don't want to all get lured into a trap of some sort."

"Good, I'll go," Yusuke volunteered, "and I'll take Hiei."

"Alright, then, but we should take the kid," Hiei jerked a thumb at Riku, "he could come in handy."

"No, I'm not taking some rookie into a dangerous mission!" Yusuke exclaimed angrily, proud to have thought up with such a great excuse, "he can stay here with Keiko and Kurama!"

"I'm not a 'rookie', got it?" Riku growled, "and we can dispute it here and now if you want to waste time, but I'm going to come no matter what."

"Hey, here's an idea!" Keiko said hastily, "Kurama and I will go get Kuwabara for backup and the three of you can go after the demon. Is that good for everyone?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Hiei said, before anyone could argue, then added, "let's go Yusuke, Riku."

The two followed him, Riku grinning and Yusuke sulking, towards the demon man, who headed down an alleyway. He wasn't aware that they were following him, yet, but it was probably only a matter of time, they were sure.

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Hours later, they weren't exactly sure how many, the demon man led them into an abandoned warehouse and then situated himself on a folding chair in the very center of it. Something was wrong about the whole thing, and all three of them knew it.

"I don't like this, he's just sitting there," Yusuke whispered nervously.

"Yes, it would seem we've most likely fallen into a trap," Hiei sighed, rolling his eyes, "not that we can't take them."

They all started as the demon stood up, smiling nastily, "Good to see you've all finally realized your mistake," he said aloud, looking up to the rafters where Yusuke, Riku and Hiei were hiding, "Now, I wish to fight Yusuke Urameshi, the spirit detective. Step down and face me, Yusuke."

Yusuke, hearing this challenge, exchanged a glance with Hiei and nodded, "I'm going to do it…" then aloud, "I'll fight you!"

He dropped from the ceiling, landing in a graceful crouch, and stood defiantly, "I'll take you on, demon"

Hiei and Riku also jumped down, landing on either side of Yusuke. The demon laughed loudly, manically, and then made a strange noise. It was low at first, but then it became a deafening wail. Yusuke and the others covered their ears, shuddering at the volume of the horrible sound.

Demons came, out from behind the crates and boxes that were packed into the warehouse, their eyes wild and their mouths pulled into spine-chilling grins. Hiei frowned, not having expected this many, and Riku's lips formed a neat smirk.

"I am Ronoad!" the main demon called, laughing again, "A disciple of Randoh! I will punish you, measly humans and blood traitor!"

"Wasn't Randoh the demon you defeated at Genkai's, quite some time ago?" Hiei questioned, looking confused, "well, let's hope this freak doesn't have any of his moves, too…"

"It would've been nice of Koenma to tell us about this…" Yusuke muttered under his breath.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Okay, I know that I've been getting slightly lazy, and I'm terribly sorry, but I travel all over the place over the summer and I'm gone a lot. Luckily, my writer's block has moved slightly to the left and I felt like writing another chapter to fleeting hope.

I dunno how good it is, but I tried to keep with the same kind of feeling I had in the first number of chapters. I know my styles changing a little, or it feels like it, so please bear with me while I mope about not being sure what to write…

Thank you for all your reviews! (They deserved four exclamation points) and I tried to make the chapter longer for those of you who are keeping up with the story. I really appreciate all the reviews; they make me want to write more even when I'm not sure what TO write.

Well, that's all for now, domo arigato!

Sincerely,

Amber Komasaki