Rushing hurriedly across the landscape, blurs of greens, blues, and yellows, the silvered haired, tall and slender fox-demon Youko tried frantically to locate Kurounue—knowing that the demon should be somewhere near where he was now. But where was he? Youko had already tried to pick up the demon's aura signal again, but to no avail—Kurounue's aura was gone, but no—it couldn't be, that would mean he was….

"No, Kurounue, where are you?" Youko muttered his yellow eyes glistening in the soft twilight, something was definitely wrong—Kurounue was in danger, but Youko couldn't find him. Damn it, where was he? Now highly alarmed, searching frantically for any sign of the demon, looking through all the shadows, Youko ran around the area again watching carefully for any movement, hoping that he would find Kurounue soon.

However he spotted nothing that could point him to where Kurounue was—in fact there was no sign that anyone had been here recently, but Youko could've sworn Kurounue's aura signal had come from this vicinity. It didn't make sense that Kurounue wasn't around here still—unless whoever attacked him had taken his body away—that could mean Kurounue was still alive.

As Youko searched for Kurounue, from the shadows Karai watched the Spirit Fox, holding an unconscious Kurounue in his arms, the fox cub sitting next to him, eyes gleaming. Not a sound escaped from them until Youko left this part of the forest to search elsewhere for Kurounue, and then the only sound was the quiet footsteps and rustling as they left in the opposite direction.

After ten minutes, the three made it to a clearing with a few tree stumps sticking out of the ground that was covered by a recent growth of grass. Looking around the clearing in a calculating way, the fox cub stood on guard, and then turned back to Karai, eyeing the demon as Karai took a small crystalline orb out of the unconscious Kurounue's pocket. Crystalline and fragile in appearance, the orb glowed a dim white light, the letters NCRS were engraved in its glassy surface and the orb itself was cold even though the glow radiated with heat.

The Necros orb, ingenious. The fox cub thought as he eyed the orb and then studied Karai's reaction to the sight of the orb—the demon's eye widened in surprise and understanding, and then narrowed as he realized how intently the fox cub stared at him. Give that to me. The fox cub spoke with his thoughts, harsh, in a voice that expected to be obeyed. However….

No. Karai thought-spoke in response to the command, struggling to keep his body from obeying the order.

Do what I say, brother. The fox cub replied, staring at Karai with anger in his eyes, moving his mouth into a snarl.

Go to hell, Karasu. You deceitful bastard.

Heh. The fox cub, a disguised Karasu, took a step toward Karai, eyes glowing a dangerous red hue, and then Karai flinched and fell down as though in pain—the same red glow as in the cub's eyes appearing around his body. Even though I'm not in my normal body, that mark on your side ties you to me—you can't disobey your master.

"Urgh…." Karai bit his lip as the pain whelmed through him—but he had to fight it, he'd been too surprised and afraid before to fight when his reincarnated brother forced him to attack Kurounue, now however, Karai struggled wholeheartedly against the demon. Amazed at how he could struggle against Karasu—it must've been because Karasu no longer had his original body, the bond was weakened due to the fact that the bite Karai received was from Karasu's original body. Though, Karai couldn't help but wonder, he had received a bite from that fox cub, so Karasu should have complete control over him—but the demon didn't, why was that?

Please give him the orb, trust me. A new voice spoke in Karai's thoughts, surprising him by its presence. For some reason Karai couldn't disobey this new voice, and what's more he didn't seem to want to. Unable to disobey this new voice, Karai dropped the orb, letting it fall to the ground where the fox cub grabbed it, eyes glistening. Before Karai could do anything, the fox cub ran away into the dense forest clutching the orb in his mouth.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Hiei stood next to the unconscious Akiko, wondering how he would bring her back to the hospital when he didn't know the way from where he was. Though he could go to Genkai's, but would he be able to carry Akiko all the way back there? Realizing he had to do something, Hiei took a deep breath and then picked up Akiko, feeling the strain on his human muscles, and started walking in whatever direction he chose. Ten minutes later after stopping for a rest, Hiei stared ahead, toward the direction he headed, trying desperately to figure out where he was, when he heard someone walking toward him.

Freezing on the spot, moving only his eyes to stare at where the person came from, Hiei felt himself tensing up, wary of whom it could be. However, he needn't have worried, as one clear look at the visitor revealed the slicked-back, black hair of Yusuke Urameshi, who saw the fire-demon a split-second after Hiei spotted the detective.

"Hiei! Thank god, we've been looking everywhere for you!" Yusuke exclaimed rushing up to the still fire-demon, noticing only when he was a foot away that Hiei stood guard over an unconscious Akiko. Seeing the unconscious human girl, Yusuke stopped, narrowing his eyes as he stared at her and then at Hiei, trying to figure out what happened.

"Detective."

"Hiei, what's Akiko doing here?" Yusuke asked stopping himself from saying 'that bitch' instead of 'Akiko.'

"Not now, detective. We need to get her to either the hospital or Genkai's, whichever is closer."

"Well, my apartment is the closest place around here, so let's go there and I'll get in touch with Genkai. On the way there, you can tell me what's going on."

"I only want to explain once, so we'll wait until Genkai arrives at your apartment," Hiei replied, paused, glancing once at Akiko, and then spoke again. "Could you carry her? It'd be faster that way."

"…um…okay." Yusuke agreed, remembering that Hiei had a human body now, though why he asked instead of ordered Yusuke to carry Akiko surprised the detective. "You're getting a little bit more polite, Hiei." Yusuke spoke, picking up Akiko even though he'd rather just leave her.

"Hn."

Arriving at Yusuke's apartment, the detective laid Akiko down on the couch, and then called Genkai's, informing the person who answered (It wasn't Genkai who answered.) very briefly what had happened, and telling them to get Genkai and come to his apartment. Only a brief time passed after Yusuke hung up before Genkai arrived, more worried about Hiei's condition than about Akiko. However, surprising them all, Hiei demanded Genkai look after Akiko before him, not letting the old psychic near him. So Genkai did what he asked, stabilizing the human girl even though Akiko still refused to awaken.

"There's no point in healing her really, she's fighting to die." Genkai stated afterwards, turning to Hiei, curiosity in her eyes. "Even if the child is Kurama's, there's no way it'll survive unless Akiko tries to live."

"It's Kurama." Hiei muttered, cutting Genkai off when she looked like she'd continue speaking.

"How do you know if it's Kurama's? How…?"

"I didn't say that." Hiei replied, cutting off Yusuke who seemed puzzled—not realizing he'd miss-heard what the fire-demon said. "Yes, you did, you just said…."

"What I said was 'it's Kurama,' as in the child is the fox." Hiei seethed; annoyed that he had to clarify what he meant just because the detective wasn't listening clear enough to what he said.

"Wha…?"

"You've got to be kidding."

"I'm not." Hiei replied and explained to Yusuke and Genkai how he found out about the child being Kurama.

"But what would Kurama pick Akiko's child?"

"I thought he'd have picked Ku-chan." Yusuke mumbled, staring at Hiei and scratching his head perplexed.

"To protect it from Karasu. He didn't want Karasu to possess it."

"…You're kidding…but why would Karasu try to possess Akiko's child?"

Hiei waited a few seconds before answering, forcing himself to remember every second of conversation he and Kurama had after he regained consciousness. Sighing a little beforehand, Hiei answered that question while staring Yusuke in the eye.

"Because…the child's father…is Karasu."

"WHAT! You mean that bitch cheated on Kurama with that bastard!"

"Idiot, I doubt if Akiko was given any choice in the matter. If Karasu wanted her, he would've gotten her no matter what. Those spells the bastard learned from Karai enabled him to overpower me, an A-class demon, easily, what chance do you think a human would have?" Hiei seethed, surprising the detective by coming to Akiko's defense—surprising himself by pitying her after envisioning what she might've went through with Karasu—even if it had been, by chance, consensual, Karasu was horrible in his lust.

"But…Kurama…he walked in on her with a stranger…he would've killed Karasu if it had been that bastard, but it wasn't…."

"The fox mightn't have known, Karasu could take Karai's form, who's to say he couldn't take others—and it's not just the form, he disguises his aura signal as well."

"AH! It could've been Karasu!"

"Not could, most likely it was. That must be why Akiko refuses to get better—she knew the child is Karasu's." Genkai spoke up, realization dawning on her. "Of course, Karasu must've used threats to get Akiko."

"Even if he threatened her, that still is not a reason to…."

"I doubt it was Akiko's life he threatened." Genkai spoke staring at the unconscious Akiko lying on the couch.

"But…."

"Kurama. He most likely threatened Akiko with Kurama's life, that's how he got her in his grasp. The bastard." Hiei grimaced, eyes narrowing as he thought of Karasu, hatred whelming through him, remaining silent until his thoughts wandered to Ku-chan. "Where's Ku-chan anyways? Is he still asleep at your temple?" Hiei asked Genkai, changing the subject abruptly.

"Wha…? No, actually he'd run off, right after we realized you were gone."

"What! You better go look for Ku-chan!"

"But, that fox-cub's not Kurama so…."

"So what? I don't care, and besides, he saved my life, in case you forgot, detective."

"Ah, oh yeah. I did forget for a second." Yusuke replied, taken aback by Hiei's fiery temper. "Looks like you've learned how to grow attached to others. You being human is rubbing off on your personality."

"Just shut up, and let's go find Ku-chan."

"Okay, okay."