It was almost amusing, watching the interest he tried to hide sparking in his eyes. Hiei nearly laughed at the look he was receiving from Kurama, how hard the fox was trying to hide the nearly desperate desire to know what he did. "It was very difficult to get inside of course. The house was well protected."
"I would assume as much."
Hiei considered him for a moment longer, then turned away from the disappointment that bothered even him, "Do you want to know what I found?"
"I would like very much to know." He blinked when Hiei tossed him something, caught it as a reflex, and knew from the texture against his fingers as well as from the weight of the two items that they were photos. After only a second to hide how badly he wanted to look at them Kurama glanced down, and promptly wondered why Hiei had thought this might possibly interest him.
The image was of two people, a man dressed as a monk with dark hair and blue eyes, a staff held behind his back and his other arm around a woman with brown hair who was dressed in a simple old fashioned kimono holding a kitten that looked only slightly odd. They were both smiling brightly.
"Hiei, I fail to see why this…"
"Don't get impatient. Try the next one."
Sighing he swapped the pictures, nearly rolling his eyes before going to the next. The first thing that stuck out to his eyes this time was the vibrant red of the subject's outfit, and then the silver white color of the young man's hair. He barely noticed at first the fuzzy years sticking up on the glowering young man's head. Before his growing curiosity could be fully expressed his eyes found what was sitting on the man's shoulder.
The child had brownish hair with a slight red tint and big green eyes that were practically shining with happiness as his mouth was closing over an already half gone sucker. He could tell despite the bow that this was a boy, and he could tell from the paws it stood on that it was no human. "This is… interesting." He heard Hiei laugh in response to his understatement.
"A distant relative perhaps? I heard once that you got around quite a bit as Yoko."
"Don't start spouting nonsense Hiei; you would hate to sound like a fool." The costumes were impeccable. If he hadn't known it was impossible Kurama would have sworn these were pictures of real demons… but how would Kagome have come across pictures of demons? Why would she have them? Did she maybe know these people? Had she just had some friends dress up, but then what about the boy's feet? This made no sense, and there were few things he hated more than something that made no sense.
"It seems you may have had reason to suspect her. She had several albums full of photos of these people, and the house was very well protected against demons. That coupled with her display in there… she may in fact be more dangerous than most normal humans."
"I doubt she would have meant to harm us, Kagome and Yusuke are alike, their power is strongest and somewhat difficult to control when they're angry."
"Isn't it for all of us." A statement, not a question. "The detective might be in over his head here… again."
"I suspect that may happen to anyone with a sister."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Even the hidden eye on Hiei's forehead seemed to be glowing with annoyance.
"Just an observation." He smiled, hoping to diffuse the situation quickly; he already had too much on his mind to be concerned with an angry Hiei. "It just seems that I am fortunate to not have one to cause trouble."
Hiei turned away with his usual noncommittal sound, likely thinking of the trouble that Yukina was still causing him with her search for her brother, who she still didn't realize was often standing right next to her when she mentioned him. Something that often led to very tense moments and many telepathic death threats.
"Hiei," Even as he spoke he couldn't help but stare at the picture, trying to find signs that it had been altered, searching for details that would betray costumes or if he was looking at pictures of the real thing, "have you attempted looking at her thoughts?"
"Is there a puzzle even the great Kurama can't solve?" Hiei was smirking as he issued the taunt. He would never have thought that Kurama would ask for telepathic helping hand in trying to figure out something as trivial as a human girl, "Or was the detective right about your feelings for his sister. If you're hoping she's having heated thoughts of you I'd rather avoid seeing them."
"It's nothing like that, though I will admit to having trouble following her trains of thought."
"Understandable, looking into that human's head is a nightmare. There's far too much chaos for anything to be clear."
"So you did attempt it?"
"Once… she gave me an odd look."
"Excellent justification. Could you make out anything of importance, I've had very little luck in learning anything about her."
"Have you tried asking directly? Or have you been too busy flirting?"
"Asking her directly would only make her defensive and ruin my chances of ever learning anything." He looked at the picture a last time before shoving it into a pocket, "This has to be handled carefully."
"Carefully? Pin her to a wall and demand answers. I'm tired of hearing about it." A momentary, and very un-Hiei glint crossed his red eyes, "Or is there something else you would rather pin her down for?"
"Hiei, that joke wasn't amusing to begin with." So it had been an intentional joke then. Kurama could see many outbursts from Yusuke in his future if Hiei got his way.
"I find it very humorous."
"Yes, you would." He looked down for a moment as he battled the smile. Hiei had a sense of humor that didn't necessarily involve death and destruction… who would have thought? Kurama arranged his face in an expression that he hoped made it look like he was suffering, but from the look on the fire demon's face he wasn't convinced, and when Kurama glanced away, by the time he looked back Hiei was already gone. Sighing he turned and made his way back into the apartment, chuckling a little at the way Yusuke and Kuwabara were fighting in the living room. How Kagome dealt with it on a daily, even hourly basis… it was unbelievable, she must have had the patience of a saint.
She was standing by the window when he entered the room, her arms crossed as she stared through the glass, "Are you ready to continue?" He paused for a moment when she didn't respond, and slowly moved toward her, "Kagome, are you all right?" He asked just a little louder, trying to get her attention without startling her.
"Oh… I'm sorry did you say something?" She turned back for a moment, but her eyes were quickly pulled to the window.
"You seem preoccupied."
"Hmmm?" She couldn't keep her eyes off of the window, off of the night that was falling beyond it, but it was what she felt in that night air that made her shiver just a little, that kept demanding her attention. It was the feeling… that feeling. At first she hadn't realized what it was, she'd never expected to feel it here after all, but once the realization hit she was too shocked to do anything but stare out the window in the direction she felt it coming from. That was a demonic aura, and not one of the peaceful ones she'd been surprised to find she hadn't noticed before, after all there was a distinctly demonic aura around one of Yusuke's friends, and sometimes around Shuichi, who was still talking to her even though she couldn't make out what he was saying. The aura demanded too much of her attention for her to be able to focus on anything else.
He said her name again, a little more sharply this time. "Oh… sorry Shuichi…" She found her eyes going back to the window, and absently moved even closer to it, awe bringing her hand to the glass rather than sending her running from the room. It was… awful. She'd only felt that kind of evil a few times in the feudal era, though she'd certainly sensed stronger back then. Still, even if this wasn't as strong as some of the demons she'd faced with the others before it wasn't good. Kagome shook her head to shake herself into action. There was no one in the modern era ready to handle demons, only loons like her grandfather believed in them anymore… oh great, did that make her a loon? Swallowing Kagome made her way across the room quickly, not letting herself fall back into the strange habit of stillness that she'd recently acquired. There was no one ready to deal with it, and while she probably wasn't completely ready either, but she was the only one… the only one left that could do anything about it. She dropped to her knees, digging for the closet floor and the hidden bow she'd placed there.
"Umm… Kagome, is there a problem?" His voice made her jump and Kagome wondered how she'd forgotten he was there… again. She gathered the bow and quiver in her arms, careful to keep one of her long coats wrapped around it.
"No…no problem… I just… need some air." She inched slowly past him, smiling brightly all the way in an attempt to set him at ease and get past him, "So, I'm going to take a walk… I'll only been a minute…" Kagome was nearly to the door now, she quickly turned away, about to make the final run.
"Perhaps I should accompany you then… it's getting rather late you probably shouldn't be wandering the streets alone…"
"Wandering the streets alone?" She turned back with a slight hint of annoyance. Why did everyone always think she was helpless? But the slight look of concern on his face made her want to cringe at her own temper, "Oh, don't worry about me, I'll be fine." She paused for a moment longer taking in the confused and worried look he barely managed to keep in his eyes, "I'll only be a few minutes, promise. I just need to clear my head a little." She smiled and waved over her shoulder, "Be right back."
By the time he'd followed her to the living room Kagome had already vanished through the door. For a long moment he considered going after her, wondering what had happened to make her take off running like that, what had had her staring out the window like that. It had to be something, or maybe she was just embarrassed about Yusuke's earlier outburst still and needed a moment. Still there had to be something else…
"Hey Kurama, what happened? Why did Kagome take off like that?" Yusuke rolled his head back a little to look at him from where he lounged on the couch next to Kuwabara, who hadn't bothered to look away from the television screen.
"You know her Urameshi; she probably just forgot she dropped something somewhere. It's not the first time she's taken off."
"Yeah you're right." Yusuke yawned just a little and turned back to the television screen.
"Yusuke, don't you think we should at least consider pursuing her? It may be dangerous for her out there."
"Nah, don't worry about Kagome. She's pretty tough, hits almost as hard as Keiko so we don't really have to worry."
"I don't know Urameshi, I'm starting to get one of those feelings." Kuwabara followed Kurama's gaze to the door.
"You two are just being paranoid."
She knew she was going too fast, but Kagome also knew that she didn't have a choice. She'd wasted far too much time already, and this was far too important for that.
There was no guarantee that she would be successful of course, she knew that she probably wouldn't be, but she at least had to try. After all, it wasn't as if anyone else was going to take care of the thing. Humans didn't believe in demons, and even if there were demons here it wasn't likely that one of them was going to be some good guy vigilante killing off the bad seeds. She couldn't even expect one of them to help her. If she could find one that didn't want to kill her on sight what was she supposed to do, introduce herself and say 'hey there's some demon I think is going to cause trouble, want to help me take him out before he can hurt someone?' Yeah, that plan just screamed 'try me'. And so Kagome forced herself to run.
She was nearly to the bottom now, her feet going so quickly no more than her toe touched each stair. Her hair was blowing out behind her and she fumbled with the bow and quiver in her arms, trying to find a comfortable way to hold them and keep them covered at least until she wasn't in full view of the public just yet. That was all she needed, someone to stop her for having an odd weapon like that in her hands on her way to fight a demon. Kagome was certain that things just couldn't get any worse. But then, whenever she thought that something always did go wrong.
She felt the hard surface of the stairs fall away as her toe slid free and open air greeted it. Gasping in shock she watched the ground come rushing up to meet her.