Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Note: I wanted to know if most of you got why Hiei's Jagan wasn't working. I'm not going to spell it out for you, but I don't think I made it clear enough. There is a reason it's not working and it's in the second chapter if you really look for it. I just didn't want anybody to think all of the sudden and out of the blue Hiei couldn't use it properly.

Also, I know there hasn't been much HB in the story thus far. It's a bit hard when they're not even near each other, but I did manage a nice little thing for this chapter! I'll try and keep them coming, but I can't just have them suddenly realize now that they're apart or something they love each other. No. It would be so... I don't know. But be aware that's not how things are going to happen.

Finally, I'm so sorry for the long wait. You have no idea how hectic these last three weeks have been for me. I made a promise to myself I would update this like ten times faster than I did my other stories to keep up interest, so I'm really trying! Now that my research paper is over, I should be able to keep that promise! So again, sorry for the wait and I'll try not to let it happen again.

Wild Goose Chase
Chapter Three: Traveling with the Enemy

Botan woke as the first rays of sunlight hit her eyes through the open curtains in the inn room she and Yukina had bought. She groaned, pushing herself out of the surprisingly cushiony bed (it wasn't too common in Makai. They'd really hit the jackpot). After stretching, Botan wiped her eyes and blinked, looking out the window. She supposed they really should have closed that; they must have been too tired to think about it the night before.

She looked over to Yukina's bed and saw her still soundly sleeping. The poor girl must have been completely worn out. It was really understandable though; Yukina had made her first kill. It must have really upset her because Botan knew Yukina was always up at sunrise, even when she was sick. She decided to let the koorime sleep for a while longer before they left, she wanted her to be on guard when they left and Yukina wouldn't be if she were tired and emotional. Not to say that Botan wasn't either of those, but Yukina was even more so after harming another being; something she ought never to do.

Botan didn't have to get ready or anything, there was nothing to get ready with anyway and she'd already taken a shower and dressed in her purple kimono, so she sat on her bed and stared out the window while thinking some things over. She had no idea how far away they were from Hiei's territory so she and Yukina had no idea how long it would take to get there. They also couldn't keep using Yukina's hiruseki stones unless it was absolutely necessary, it would attract unwanted attention. She'd already made up in her mind to use one today to get things they needed, such as food since they'd already gotten clothing, but get as much money back as possible so they didn't have to keep using them.

Let's see… we already got clothes, so we need food, I suppose some camping supplies would help. I wonder if they have lighters in Makai… Anyway, we should probably get a map if they have one.

Botan nearly jumped out of her skin when she looked to her side and Yukina wasn't in her bed. She quickly got off of her own bed to see where she went when she heard a giggle next to her. Smiling at her own stupidity, she turned and there Yukina was, trying to smother her laugh. She didn't like laughing at other people.

"Lost in thought again?" Yukina asked, straightening out the wrinkles in the green kimono she'd just put on. She'd woken up to see Botan staring out the window, not really paying attention to anything. Letting her be, Yukina just went into the bathroom to get dressed. When she'd come out again, Botan was still staring outside.

Botan tightened her ponytail and nodded cheerfully despite their situation, "Guilty as charged."

"Should we start buying our stuff now and then come back and get ready to leave again?" Yukina asked her, also looking out the window into the bustling town. It was as busy as the day before, demons running around and trying to get things done.

Botan nodded and beamed, already making her way out the door, "You read my mind, Yukina, dear!"

"Aw, what the hell? This thing smells nasty!" Yusuke growled, kicking the demon carcass the small group had looked at the night before. They all had come back to finish their examination of it to see if there was anything on it that could lead them to Botan and Yukina or who had attacked. They found nothing. Keiko smacked the back of his head and stared down at the thing, wrinkling her nose.

"Man, what a waste of time!" Kuwabara complained, staying as far away from the thing as he could. There were birds flying around the clearing, waiting for the Reikai Tantei to leave so they could eat their 'meal'.

Every one of them was frustrated with their findings. Nothing helped at all, and they didn't even have breakfast yet. It wasn't too easy for Genkai to make food for so many people without the help of Yukina. The old woman actually seemed to be taking everything the worst, which really surprised them because she always seemed to take things in stride; she was strong.

Kurama sighed and ran an aggravated hand through his hair, "I believe I'll head to the library in Reikai to get that research done. We're not finding anything here and I doubt there would be books on anything helpful. Besides, I'm sure Hiei would like to know why his Jagan was of no use, he must be very irritated."

"I'll go with you. I'm good with that kind of stuff," Shizuru offered, and Kurama nodded. He didn't mind help if it was the right person; and Shizuru just happened to be that person. They started walking back to the temple together and decided to eat and go, leaving Yusuke, Keiko, and Kuwabara in their wake.

"What the heck are we supposed to do, then? Hey! Are you even listening?" Yusuke shouted and shook his fist at them, "Oh, I see how it is!"

Keiko sighed, "Be quiet, Yusuke."

Hiei walked down the streets of one the demon cities in the southern parts of Mukuro's territory. After looking at the message Botan left again, he concluded they were somewhere south by where the sun was at the time she'd left it. He was about to leave the town, after spending two hours there and not finding anything useful.

Hiei made sure to check any bars that were in the city, seeing as that's where people with information tended to be. As he expected, nobody in there knew anything. They could be anywhere. Nobody had seen anybody who looked like them together.

He made a decision to see if anybody knew something in the next town south of the one he was currently leaving. Hiei clenched his fists, knowing he could have found them hours ago if his Jagan had been able to locate them. And the fact that it couldn't bothered him even further; it meant something powerful was with them or after them.

As he was walking on the outskirts of the city, he saw a small demon girl chasing a demon boy. The boy looked like he wanted nothing to do with the girl, but the said girl seemed resilient in her chasing.

"Please! It'll be fun! I promise!" Her childish voice called out to the boy who'd finally just stopped and sighed. He obviously wasn't losing her any time soon and maybe if he'd just play with her she'd leave him alone. The girl giggled happily when she reached him.

The boy was muttering sarcastically about how he couldn't believe he gave in and he knew anything he did with the girl wasn't going to be as fun as she claimed it would be, but the young girl didn't seem to mind.

As it was, it reminded him of that one day in the park Botan wouldn't leave him the heck alone and after a while Hiei realized Botan may not be as bad as she seemed. He definitely didn't like her, he just didn't hate her. It had bothered him at first, when he thought about it, but after a while he just let it be. There was nothing he could do; she'd be around as long as he was doing work, work that he was forced to do not work that he wanted to do, for Reikai.

"Hi-ei!" A voice called from down at the bottom of the tree he was sleeping in, dragging out the syllables in his name. It was that happy-go-lucky, bubbly voice that he'd had the displeasure of hearing for the last few years of his life. Oh no, the woman just couldn't let him sleep, could she? She had to come to his tree in the park and bother him when he thought he'd finally had a chance to get away from the people who called themselves his 'friends' for a day.

Hiei decided to ignore her, hoping she would just go away, but having the damndest feeling she wouldn't. Another five minutes of her calling his name (the most annoying way she could, he figured, she knew he hated it when she dragged out the syllables in his name like that), and he finally responded, starting to feel the workings of a headache, "What?" he snapped, opening one eye to look down at her.

The bright smile she sent him nearly made him sick. It's not that it was an ugly smile, it really wasn't, he just hated how happy she was all the time. How could one who worked with Koenma so much be so giddy? ...It annoyed him.

"You're so grumpy! You should be happy today! Don't you want to celebrate? You're off probation, just like I said!" She told him, waving the one of the ice creams in her hands at him. He was gonna go out on a whim and guess one of them was from him.

Indeed he was off probation. Finally he wasn't confined to just Tokyo, but he didn't feel the need to celebrate. He was still stuck in Ningenkai, working for the Reikai prince he despised. At least the ferry onna had kept her promise to get Koenma to take away his probation after helping Yusuke with the Sensui case.

"Hn. Go away, onna."

She frowned and he almost thought he had won and she would go away, but it only took a second before she was up and smiling again, "But I brought ice cream to celebrate with! Come on, you can't tell me you'd rather sit up in that stiff old tree all day instead of having ice cream."

Hiei scoffed at her comment. Ice cream with the annoying ferry onna or sleeping in his tree? Not a hard one, "Actually, onna, I can."

Botan bit her lip. She was just trying to be nice... well, that and the fact that she had the day off and everyone else already had something to do.

Besides, she thought, he really should open up more. Or at least try and enjoy himself!

Hiei seriously wondered why she was still standing there. He'd already told her he wasn't going to 'celebrate' with her. He didn't even like her. He mentally noted that this was one of the reasons he called her 'baka onna'. Anyway, Hiei wished she would leave already so he could go back to sleep. She always seemed to show up at the most inopportune moments.

When she still stood there minutes later he growled in clear frustration and turned his attention back down to her, "Why are you still here, Onna?"

"The ice cream's going to melt!" Botan answered him, already starting to eat her own vanilla cone. She held up the strawberry one she'd bought for him and shook it a little for emphasis, silently telling him to come get it.

Okay. Hiei could see why somebody would buy ice cream for a celebration (or at least that's what she called it), even if it was his favorite thing to eat. But what he could not see was how she knew what kind to get him. Strawberry; his favorite. Obviously she somehow knew about his old fetish for human ice cream. And that aggravated the hell out of him. He was supposed to hate everything and anything human. If she told anyone that he liked human ice cream (in particular a certain Spirit detective) he'd never hear the end of it. So with an angry glare set on his features, Hiei fissured down in front of her and made her jump in surprise, "Who told you?"

Botan gave him an innocent smile and rocked back and forth on her tip toes, "Oh, nobody really... But, I'll make a deal with you."

Hiei resisted the strong urge to wring her neck and stayed silent, urging her to go on. He already knew he wasn't going to like this deal of hers, but he would comply only for the sole reason that he didn't feel like listening to the detective's horrid laugh if he ever found out. Of course, Hiei figured, he could just kill the onna now and be done with it, but he didn't feel like being sent back to Reikai for a new sentencing.

"I won't tell anybody about you taking a liking to human ice cream, if and only if you eat the cones I bought for us with me," Botan giggled, and sent him another dazzling smile, knowing there wasn't much of a chance he would refuse. Well, not if he didn't want anybody else finding out about his fixation.

Thank you, Kurama!

"Hn," was Hiei's only reply before he grabbed the strawberry ice cream cone out of her hands and started walking down the path that led to what he deemed as his tree. She was quick to catch up with him, already talking about how Reikai was doing and all of the people she ferried the day before while licking her ice cream cone. He took a few licks of his cone, trying to tune her out. It wasn't working and she just wouldn't stop talking. Finally losing his patience he turned his head to look at her and snarled, "Shut up."

Botan instantly stopped in the middle of her sentence and frowned at him, "W-what?"

Hiei sent her an irritated glare before sighing and shaking his head. There was no getting through to the woman, "You talk too much."

"I do not!" Botan defended, finally making it to the cone of her ice cream. She didn't talk too much; she was just the only one holding up a conversation! It was hard talking for yourself and the stubborn fire demon next to you. She took an angry bite out of the cone and let his last comment slide. It wasn't everyday he talked to her on his own will, even if it was because she was annoying him.

They'd made it to a small bridge in the park that stood over a koi pond. Botan always liked looking at the fish so she stopped in the middle and looked down into the water at the swimming creatures and Hiei stopped next to her.

"You know, aren't the fishes so cute? Look at the little one in the middle-" Botan started rambling again after she took the last bite of her cone until Hiei interrupted her.

"I don't think you can go thirty seconds without talking."

Botan let out a half-offended gasp (she really wasn't that offended) and put her hand on her hip, "I can too!"

Hiei grunted disbelievingly. She could not. He sent her a challenging look accompanied by a confident smirk, "Show me."

Botan stuttered for a moment until she saw the challenging glint in Hiei's eyes. So he thought she couldn't do it, did he? Well, she would show him! She could so do it, "Fine. Starting in five seconds, I won't talk for thirty."

Hiei smirked and leaned on the bridge, finishing off the last of his ice cream cone. After ten seconds had passed, Botan was already starting to get fidgety. She started poking her fingers together, tapping her foot, and biting her lip. It was the most amusing thing he'd seen in a while.

Botan rubbed her hands together and another five seconds passed until she finally couldn't take it anymore, "Fine, fine! Okay! I can't go for thirty seconds without talking! So what?" she burst out, finally letting all the pent up pressure out. Her eyes widened when she heard a deep (kind of dark), but really attractive chuckle next to her. Turning to Hiei embarrassedly she huffed when she saw his amused smirk, but turned away quickly and blushed when he started chuckling again. Botan found it odd how his laugh was so dark but so... well, she didn't know the word for it. But who cares. It was kind of nice to know even Hiei found things funny, even if it was at her expense.

Who knew Hiei had a sense of humor... no matter how screwed up it is.

When he started walking back down the path they'd come from her eyebrows furrowed, "Hey! Where are you going?"

Hiei stopped and he looked over his shoulder at her with a satisfied smirk, "I ate the ice cream with you. That was the deal, wasn't it?" he said before fissuring out of sight and back to his tree, leaving Botan to blink before realizing what he did, "Hiei!"

He got comfortable in his tree again and closed his eyes. Maybe the onna wasn't completely useless. She could be amusing if she tried. Hiei snorted at the thought and went back to enjoying the sleep that the onna had interrupted, quite pleased with himself.

Hiei found it annoying that he thought about her all of the sudden, but it was kind of to be expected since she was one of the two people he was looking for right now. He'd only wished it had been his sister he thought about. She'd better not be hurt.

By the time the voices of the two demon children faded away, Hiei was on the path to the next town. He flitted through the trees to avoid any un-needed confrontation, not that he couldn't kill anyone who even tried to come near him, but it would be a waste of time. Looking up at the sky, he deduced it was nearly noon.

Kurama and Shizuru were pulling out piles of books from the shelves of the library and shoving them onto the table behind them. Shizuru sighed and sat down after deciding they had all the books that could help them; it was going to take forever to go through them. Kurama sat down in the chair next to her, sorting the books into two piles.

"Find out anything you can about items powerful enough to block Hiei's Jagan. I'll go through the books about raw psychic power. They're the only two things I can think of that would be able to counter his third eye," Kurama told her, opening the first book on top of his pile. She nodded and opened one of the books from her own pile, reading about any item she thought fit.

They'd been going through the books for hours until Shizuru said something, "Kurama, I think I found something."

Kurama looked up from his book and slid his chair closer to hers, looking over her shoulder as she spoke, "It's something like an aura inhibitor. So it would hide Botan and Yukina's own specific energy signals. And that's what Hiei's Jagan uses to locate people, right? Anyway, it's some small circular device that attaches onto clothing. If it's pulled off the clothing by anybody other than the person who put it on, the one pulling it off is… zapped like a bug? Okay… so it's like one of those collar's people put on dogs for when they do something bad."

"That's most likely it," Kurama said, marking the page, "But keep looking anyway. There could be other things that would work."

Shizuru nodded and smirked, "Hey, Fox, you ready for a coffee break? We've been at this for three hours now."

"If you insist, Shizuru, if you insist."

Botan pushed open the door to her and Yukina's room at the inn, throwing the few bags of things they'd bought on the bed. She moaned and threw herself on the bed next to them, "Ugh… I'm so hungry…"

Yukina smiled and gently sat on the bed across from her, "Why don't we order some food from here at the inn and then start moving?" she suggested, pulling out the knap sack she'd bought the day before and putting the food they'd just bought in it. The two women had used only one of the hiruseki stones, just like Botan had planned. They'd gotten money back from some old merchant that was on the side of the road. Of course they didn't get half the money the hiruseki stone was actually worth, but it was enough for food and to still have money left over.

"They have room service here?" Botan asked, snapping her head up. She'd only seen about two hotels/inns in demon world that had room service, and this certainly didn't seem like the sort of place that would have it. Yukina giggled and nodded, "Yes. Though it's a little less convenient, we have to go to the front desk to order what we'd like. And I don't know how good the food will be…"

"Oh, no problem!" Botan cried happily, jumping off the bed. She pulled her cloak back on and ran to the door, throwing it open. She disappeared from Yukina's sight for a second and then walked back scratching her head, "Do you want anything, Yukina?"

Yukina shook her head politely, "No thank you. I got something while we were out, remember?"

Botan bit her lip and put her finger to her chin, thinking about it. A smile broke out on her face when she nodded, "Right! Okay then, be back in a flash!"

Yukina giggled when Botan disappeared again, this time not coming back seconds later. She decided to finish packing their food and other supplies, like their blankets and such, and packer her own knap sack full before she finished Botan's pack for her. When she was done, she sat on the window sill and stared up at the Makai sky. It had been a while since she could do that…

I wonder how everyone on the island is… And I wonder how Kazuma is. Would he still care about me if he knew that I took the life of another being?

She didn't even notice she'd shed a tear until something small and hard landed on her hand. Looking down, she picked another of her hiruseki stones up off of the ground. She wiped her eyes softlyand told herself she wouldn't cry until she was back in the safety of the temple walls. She needed to be in an alert state of mind until she and Botan got out of Makai.

"I'm back!" Botan cheered, walking through the door quite pleased with herself. She didn't think she was noticed and she got food! Botan's face fell when she saw Yukina's slightly red eyes, "Hey, is everything alright?"

Yukina responded with a reassuring smile, "Yes, everything is fine."

Botan nodded and sat on the bed, "The food should be ready within ten minutes… Oh, hey! You finished packing for me! Thanks," she grinned and zipped her pack up.

"You're welcome," Yukina smiled back at her. She nearly jumped off of the windowsill when there was a knock at the door. She looked at Botan, who looked at her. Botan cleared her throat and stared at the door, wondering who was behind it, "Who is it?"

"Room service!" Was the muffled answer they received. Botan gulped and glanced at Yukina. It seemed way too early for room service, but Botan was pretty sure nobody knew it was her and hadn't heard her conversation with the demon at the front desk, so it had to be them.

Botan slowly pushed herself off of her bed and cautiously made her way to the door. She let her hand rest on the handle for a moment before sucking in a deep breath and opening the door, "…You're not room service!"

Botan backed away from the door and Yukina stood up instantly, freezing the room. Two demons threw the door open and moved in, blocking the way out, "Sorry, we lied."

"What do you want?" Yukina asked from behind her friend as Botan pulled on the knap sack. She knew that meant she was getting ready to run so Yukina quickly put on her own, still keeping her eyes on the demons who hadn't made any sort of move yet; they looked like they wanted taunt them a little bit before attacking.

The two demons finally moved in, leaving some space at the open door, "Well, we noticed that you're friend over there happened to be a ferry girl. After all, it's hard not to notice Koenma's top employee and the assistant of the Reikai Tantei. We're figuring you two here'll be worth a nice sum."

Shoot! I thought nobody saw me!

Botan laughed nervously, putting her hands up and shaking them, "No, no! You've got it all wrong! We're not worth a thing, really!" she defended, sweat-dropping when she saw it had absolutely no effect on them. She figured she should start working on her acting skills if she ever got out of this.

The demon closest to Botan finally jumped, baring his teeth at her and swinging his claws. Botan let out a surprised squeak and ducked, just missing having her jugular slashed open. She summoned her oar while she was crouched down on the floor and slammed it into the demon's legs. While it was distracted she quickly crawled away from him, stood up, and pulled Yukina away from the other demon who'd tried to attack the koorime.

Botan stumbled out the door with Yukina and quickly turned back towards it when they were a few feet away, "Quick! Yukina, block the door with ice! It'll distract them long enough for us to at least get a head start!"

Yukina nodded in understanding and her eyes glowed as the door was slowly filled with ice. Botan threw Yukina her cloak which she'd grabbed when put her back pack on. The girl pulled it on as fast as she could and swiftly received a high-five from her blue-haired friend. The two women were out of the inn by the time they heard the ice blocking the door shatter.

"We've gotta go faster!" Botan panted, trying to run as fast as she could, which again was hard with a kimono on. Yukina would have suggested they rip the bottom, but they didn't have enough time for that. Though they did have some luck on their side, seeing as since the two demons were slightly large they weren't the best runners.

By the time Yukina and Botan made it to the outskirts of the village, the demons were right on their tails. It was hard for the two girls to push through the busy crowd that never seemed to die down in the town, and it slowed them down greatly.

Yukina pulled herself and Botan to the dirt as another claw sliced through the air on top of them. Botan hastily pushed her friend to the side as another claw flew in their direction. Botan rolled to the side, but the demon managed to catch her kimono, meaning she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. She glanced behind her to see the demon's partner was still trying to push through the crowd of people, so Yukina had a chance to get away, "Yukina, go!"

Yukina shook her head rapidly. She couldn't just leave Botan there! No, she wouldn't. If she did, not only would she be alone in Makai, but she probably wouldn't be able to live with herself.

Botan shut her eyes tightly as she saw the demon's claw coming towards her face, waiting for impact. It took her a minute to realize that the demon hadn't hit her and she opened her eyes, blinking at what she saw.

The demon from the shop they'd bought the clothes from the day before was standing in front of her and the demon that was attacking her and Yukina was crumpled on the ground. She took the hand he offered to her and was pulled back up to her feet. Botan was at a loss of words so Yukina piped up, "Thank you for helping us."

The man shrugged and smiled charmingly at them, "No problem. I saw you both running past and came to see what was going on. Looks like I came just in time."

"Wonderful timing! Really!" Botan grinned and shook his hand gratefully, "I'm Botan and this is Yukina!" she told him, pointing to herself and then her sheepish companion.

He nodded, seeming to take in the information. He scratched the back of his head with a smile, "So, what are you two doing out here all alone?"

Botan frowned, adjusting the pack on her back that had been pulled to the side when Yukina pulled her to the ground, "We're lost, actually."

Botan wasn't quite sure she should give away too much information to the guy, but he did save their lives. She didn't think anybody who'd just saved them could be that bad! Besides, maybe he could help them and tell them where they were supposed to be going.

"Really? Where are you two headed?"

"North. To Mukuro's territory," Yukina said with a small smile, thinking the same thing as Botan.

The man turned away from them, pretending to look north, but actually trying to hide the smirk that made its way to his lips. They were far too easy; far too trusting. They weren't making this difficult for him at all. All he had to do was set up two demons to attack them, save them, and then they would believe anything he said. Turning back around, he sent them a fake smile, "Why don't I escort you to your destination? If you get attacked again I don't know if you'd be so lucky as to find somebody to help."

"Oh, would you? That's dreadfully nice! Don't you have work, though?" Botan asked with a small frown. She wasn't one to turn down any kind of help in the situation, but she didn't want him getting in trouble with his boss or anything.

The dark blue-haired demon waved it off like it was nothing, "I was gonna quit anyway. It doesn't matter."

Yukina giggled gently, "That's quite convenient."

"Yeah. So, let's get going," He grinned, walking ahead of them. It was about three in the afternoon so they'd be able to make a little leeway before nighttime. Botan and Yukina followed soundly behind, smiling at each other. They had help now; that took a lot of weight off of their shoulders. Botan tapped the man's shoulder and he glanced back, "Yeah?"

"So, um, what's your name, anyway? It would be nice to know then name of our 'savior'," Botan giggled when he seemed to blush. It surprised him how easily it was to fool the two girls. That was the fakest blush he'd ever made.

"Call me Katsu."

Please read my notes from the beginning of the chapter. The first two are kind of important. Anyway, thanks for reading!