Hey, y'all. I apologive for the time that's passed between the previous update and this one. Had a pretty nasty couple of days at work, but I've gotten that straightened out. Anyway, enjoy the next chapter of Angels and Devils.

-Terra Drake

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Chapter Thirteen: Civilians and Demons

"Why me, Kurama?" Hiei sighed, without turning his attention away from the sky above the windowsill. He had asked himself this question time and time again, and so far, he had yet to find an answer for it. "Why would she choose me?" He couldn't understand what would compel her to love a demon like himself. Why she would care so strongly for him.

Kurama was quiet for a moment, uncertain what to say. He didn't know quite what they were talking about, and so he thought it best to listen. But when it seemed that Hiei wasn't going to say anymore, he decided to ask his question. "Who?"

"Botan," Hiei spoke without a moment's hesitation, but he didn't say another word.

Kurama was attempting to piece things together, but one thing in particular intrigued him. "You've seen Botan?" Her disappearance was as of yet unexplained, and this made him curious the moment Hiei said her name.

"Not since the attack," Hiei responded. "Koenma's orders."

Kurama blinked his eyes for a moment, He was clearly out of the loop on something. What attack? And why would Koenma order Botan not to have any contact? There was definitely something more to this than what he knew, and now he really wanted to know. "What attack? And why would Koenma order that?"

Hiei finally turned his head, to look at Kurama sitting on his bed inside the room. "Tsarakino made an attack on Koenma's palace almost a week ago. Several of the ogres that King Yama has serving as guards were made into Tomorrow cultists, and they fought a civil war while Tsarakino ripped off a Jigan from the Vault." Kurama's eyes widened when he heard this. There had definitely been something major going on.

"What would he want with a Jigan?" Kurama wondered aloud, but Hiei said nothing and returned his gaze outside, so Kurama assumed it best to drop the subject. "I still don't understand, though. What did you mean about Botan choosing you?"

Hiei was hesitant to speak for a moment, trying to organize his thoughts. Finally, he spoke, although his voice was only slightly softer than it usually was. "Tsarakino tried to take her with him when he left, as his host." He fell silent again.

Kurama was confused now. Was that where Botan was? Had Tsarakino taken her? "What happened?"

Hiei tilted his head back against the window frame and now stared up at the top, in thought. "I took her back." He wasn't certain why he had done it, and that confused him. Why had he cared so much if Botan was taken? And why had it felt so good that he had managed to keep her safe? Something wasn't right.

For Kurama, however, this was the best news he had heard all night. "You can fight Tsarakino?" Hope started to fill him, that perhaps they had found a way–

"No," Hiei responded. "At least, I haven't found a way to yet. All I did was telepathically enforce her and help push him out of her body."

And that quashed it. Kurama had been hoping for a way to hurt, maybe even defeat Tsarakino. "So what happened? I don't understand."

Hiei turned his head back down, taking a look at his own hands. Hands that had been stained with the blood of many, hands that wielded enough dark power to immolate a powerful flame elemental without a trace being left. Hands that had taken apart Bui, the powerhouse warrior with a nasty battle aura composed entirely of his massive spirit energy, during the Dark Tournament. The hands of a killer. A cold, ruthless warrior who fought with deadly accuracy. "She said she loved me." His voice was lighter than its usual dark tone, and carried confusion and a lack of understanding within it.

"Hiei..." Kurama's voice was filled with a tender intrigue, because now he was definitely curious. But, remembering his mother's words, he knew he had to wait. "Hiei...Yusuke has something important to tell. I think he probably wants to call a meeting at Kuwabara's house. I hate to do this, but can we discuss this later? I really want to talk about this."

Hiei looked at Kurama for a moment, then turned his attention away, back to the wilderness outside the house.

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Shizuru kept herself locked tight inside her room. She listened to the sounds outside her door, waiting for her visitor to return, but knowing he wouldn't if there were people in the apartment with her. She paced back and forth, too excited to go to bed but too angry to go outside, simply settling for locking herself in here with her thoughts. She almost couldn't believe it. She'd never been this excited about anything before.

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It wasn't long before the guys had gotten themselves together. Yusuke was the first to arrive, bringing Keiko with him simply because he didn't trust leaving her alone where Tsarakino could get her. Regrettably, he also brought Megumi trailing along after. She wasn't even inside the house before she started bitching.

"Why are we here?" she pushed. "This is a civilian residence. This is not a place for plans or information."

"We're here," Yusuke snarled, "because this is where we meet. If you don't like it, go somewhere you do like, while we meet here."

Megumi narrowed her eyes at Yusuke when Kuwabara answered the door. "Hey, Urameshi," Kuwabara greeted him. "Who's this? Some demon captive?" His eyes turned up to Megumi.

Megumi glared down at Kuwabara and snarled her disapproval to Yusuke. "A civilian? You've involved a CIVILIAN in your work!" She was clearly very, very displeased. "What in the name of King Yama would compel you to bring a civilian into this!"

Yusuke ignored Megumi's outrage, but Kuwabara was put on the defensive. "Hey, I'm not a–"

"You," Megumi interrupted, "are not a Spirit Detective. You are not a Reikai spirit. You are not a Makai demon. You are a Ningenkai civilian, which has no place in this unit. What, pray tell, do you offer to the group?"

"My Spirit Sword can–"

Once again, Megumi interrupted. "Spirit Sword? Your spirit energy manifests in the form of a large, phallic instrument?" She rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

Kuwabara's honor prevented him from hurting a girl, but Megumi was seriously pushing him. "Who is this girl?" he shot at Yusuke?

Yusuke sighed, regretting ever meeting her. "She's the new Botan."

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It wasn't long before the team had come together. Yusuke had taken a seat on the bed, with Keiko seated beside him, resting her head on his shoulder while Kuwabara rested backwards on his chair. Hiei stood against the wall, near the window where he had sat the last meeting, with his arms folded and his head tilted down in thought. Meanwhile, Kurama stood in front of the closed door with his hands humbly folded behind his back, listening. Megumi stood against the door, and had already personally snubbed each of them.

She could not believe THIS was the team that had won the Dark Tournament. Her eyes passed from one to the next repeatedly, trying to comprehend how this had happened. An undertrained thug of a detective, an idiot manchild, a convicted felon, and a horsewhipped demon who probably didn't even remember HOW to fight?

"Alright," Yusuke turned his head to Megumi, while his hand ran softly up and down Keiko's arm to comfort her, "What's going on, Megumi? Where is Botan, and why are you here?"

Megumi had already become impatient with this group. She had volunteered out of the belief that she'd be working with a talented Spirit Detective who knew what he was doing and was serious about his work. So far, all she knew from this man was that he was a gruff thug, and frankly, she couldn't care less about him now. If she had known this, she never would have taken the position. "Botan is not here," she growled, "because she allowed her judgment to become jeopardized in a fashion which endangered not only herself but the rest of the Reikai government."

Kurama's eyes darted to Hiei. Did Megumi mean him? Was that the "jeopardized judgment" Megumi was speaking of? "What did she do?" he asked, without taking his eyes off Hiei.

Megumi shook her head. "I am not at liberty to discuss–"

Hiei cut her off. "She developed romantic feelings that she shouldn't have." Megumi glared at Hiei. She did not like being interrupted.

A wide grin passed over Yusuke's face. "Botan in love? Now, I gotta hear this. Who with? Anyone we know?" Megumi didn't respond, and neither did Hiei. Hiei's eyes passed towards the window, and silence was all that came from him.

Megumi spent a few moments composing herself before speaking again. As distasteful as this job was, she was going to carry it out. Perhaps she could even whip these idiots into shape. "In any case, she will not be returning. Ever." A silence fell over the group as they struggled with that. Botan was one of them. She'd been a part of the team the longest, for as far back as Yusuke had been Spirit Detective. She'd been there with them on every case they took, proudly doing her job as Yusuke's assistant. And now she was gone.

"That's stupid!" Yusuke insisted! "Botan is one of us!"

"And I am not surprised," Megumi quipped, "that you people are in as much need of help as you are, considering that. Now, there's more. Recently, the palace of Reikai was attacked by Agents of Tomorrow. The agent known as Yoshi Tsarakino was able to infiltrate the Vault and remove an artifact from it. We don't know what–"

"A Jigan Eye," Hiei interrupted a second time. "He took a Jigan Eye in a glass jar."

Megumi glared hatefully at Hiei before she spoke again. "Well, then. A Jigan Eye. He took it and escaped back to their lair, after overpowering a considerable number of armed officials."

"He also tried to take Botan," Hiei spoke once more. "But he failed."

"What is he?" Keiko asked the question that Yusuke had asked before. She was as curious as the others. She didn't understand most of what was going on, but this thing had taken hold of her body once before, and she wanted to know just what it was that had invaded her so personally.

"We...we don't know," Megumi confessed. "He is not a standard ghost, that much has been ascertained. Botan seems to know, but she's been uncooperative of late. What we do know is that he is dangerous, and should not be–"

"Why are you even here?" Hiei glared at Megumi. He strongly disliked this woman, she was a very poor replacement for Botan. Something in him was offended at the very concept of replacing Botan, and only fueled his dislike. "You don't know anything. What was the point of this meeting? To reaffirm your ignorance?"

"Well," Megumi retorted, "If you really think you can–"

Hiei spoke without hesitation, reciting what Botan had told him. "Yoshi Tsarakino is an astral specter. A psychic whose power was astral projection. His power manifested at the time that he died, and his astral form manifested without a body to link to. This grants him the freedom to invade, influence, and even control the minds of others, regardless of whether they are awake or unconscious." Megumi snarled at Hiei for showing her up, and Hiei simply smirked.

Kurama's eyes widened when he heard this. Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Keiko were clueless as to what this meant, but Kurama understood. "An astral specter...I always believed that to be impossible."

"So did we," Megumi spoke curiously. She wasn't certain if the demon's information could be trusted. "So the question is, what do we do now?"

"We find a way to hurt him," Yusuke responded, taking charge.

"He can't be hurt," Megumi scoffed.

"They said that about Toguro too," Yusuke grinned. He had proven them wrong in the tournament. "I kicked his butt, and I'll kick Tsarakino's too."

Megumi rubbed her forehead. "This concept really is beyond you, isn't it? It's not that you can't kick his butt, Detective. It's that he does not have a butt to kick."

"The point," Yusuke clarified, "is that no one, NO ONE is invincible. We'll find a way to beat this guy." Keiko smiled when he said that. She hadn't really seen him in Spirit Detective mode, save for a few matches at the Dark Tournament, but she liked it. "Now, Megumi, I want you to go back and see if Koenma has anything useful. If not, then wait until he does to come back. And don't bring up any more meetings if you don't know anything." Yusuke sounded almost angry at this point. The communal dislike of Megumi was coming out through him.

After the meeting had adjourned, Kurama headed for home while Hiei left for parts unknown. Yusuke approached Kuwabara before leaving; he needed a favor that he couldn't provide alone. "Kuwabara, I need you to do something for me."

"Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked.

"I need for you to watch over Keiko tonight." Yusuke sighed. This was what he hadn't told the others. "Tsarakino came after me today using her as a body. You're the only one that can feel him coming, I'd appreciate it if you would keep her safe."

"Uh...sure..." Kuwabara nodded his head. "But, uh, aren't here parents going to want her home?" Yusuke only nodded.

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Hiei knew that Kurama wanted to talk more about Botan, but he didn't feel up to it right now. He had just spent the most pointless amount of time he'd ever wasted, delivering information to someone who should already have known it. Now, he simply wanted to be alone. Heading into the woods outside the city, Hiei sought out a good tree, where he could stop and rest for the night. A pair of eyes watched him from the shadows, glowing green eyes that seemed to follow his movements. His Jigan told him it was there, and his face began to lighten. Someone was following him, and he could use a bit of fun before heading for bed. Whoever it was, they were going to learn the danger of stalking the fire demon Hiei.