Disclaimer: Okay, seriously, no longer able to be perky when you guys come into the room.
"Genkai, where is everyone?" Yurika asked, tugging at the short skirt. She wanted to get what she had to do over with quickly.
Genkai eyed her from the couch. "It's Sunday. There is no school today, girl. Yusuke and the baka will be over soon."
Kuso. "I understand. May I use the human talking device?"
"You mean the phone? Go ahead." Genkai waved an uncaring hand, though Yurika knew that her interest was grazed.
She went back into the room and changed while Kato slept into her usual black tank top and pants. She frowned. Her collarbone stuck out pointedly. She shook her head. I need to eat more… without my powers; I'm loosing too much weight. She left the room and picked up the phone. Kurama's number (as well as Yusuke's and Kuwabara's) was on the fridge. She winced as it wrung in her ear, but swallowed her distaste for human appliances for Kato.
"Hello?" Kurama's cheery voice could be heard from the other line.
Yurika made a mental note to ask someone how the thing works. "It's Yurika." She said monotonously.
"Did something happen?" Kurama said, slightly scared.
"Not what you are thinking. I need your help."
"Why is that?" Kurama asked, slightly suspicious.
"Kato. Are you coming or not?"
There was a moment's silence. "Let me ask my mother." There was some calling on the other line until he came back. "I'll be there in an hour."
Kurama entered the house warily. Yurika the ice queen, the homicidal maniac, asking for his help? It was an impossibility. It felt suspicious but… it also felt somewhat normal and nice. Yurika was standing against the wall in the living room, glaring at Kuwabara, who was currently yelling at the top of his lungs about he was going to beat Yusuke (ignoring the fact that television screen already showed him as the winner).
She looked up when he entered and signaled him with a curt nod. He followed her to her room, ignoring the catcalls and rather embarrassing comments that Kuwabara and Yusuke seemed to love to throw out. She closed the door quietly behind her as Kurama looked around the room.
He smiled inwardly at the little square marks in the carpet that were from where the bed used to be placed. Yurika had always liked to rearrange rooms and the furniture. The funniest time was when she somehow attached a table upside-down to the ceiling of her room and slept in that instead of the bed.
A mirror glared at him from the same wall as the door. It was large, a foot and a half off the ground and a foot from the ceiling. In each corner of the silver frame, there was a little design like a pinwheel, no bigger than three inches in diameter.
He noticed the sleeping boy, and the fire that was looking in his direction. Yurika nodded as if given some silent command and sat on the edge of the bed, looking at Kato. Kurama stepped over and reached for Kato. As his hand moved for the boy, it was at the same speed that Yurika's sword reached for his hand, which he saw, but didn't really register what she was doing. When his hand was an inch away, the flat of her blade rested on his hand.
Kurama looked over at her. She was holding the blade tiredly, and her grip was not tight. He could have pulled it right out of her hands, and probably would have, if he didn't know that he would be dead seconds later. He slowly moved his hand away. Yurika kept her sword where it was, sheathing it only when he had moved one step away.
"I'll be right back." She muttered. "Don't touch anything." She gave a pointed look towards Kato. She left the room and they could hear her talking to Genkai and Hiei. Kurama sat down on the ledge of the fireplace.
"You know, she really just saved you. Spells like that tend to spread through touch." Kurama jumped. He had forgotten that the fire could speak.
"Spells like what?" he asked, leaning in closer and fully expecting an answer.
"Erm…"
"That's what you're here for." Yurika had reentered the room.
"I… Genaki's a lot better at identifying spells…"
"There is no need to involve the humans." Yurika said. "We need your sense of smell. Come on." She said, turning away from him and to the wall.
Kurama grabbed her arm. The skin was cold. "Yurika, I expect you to answer my questions. All of them." He said, locking his green eye to her red.
Yurika sighed. "Fine. Thirty or forty years ago, I met a young Earth demon named Kato. He was running away from his family. He smelt strongly of bad alchemy and I fully expected something bad to happen. I waited three days and there was no change. So, like a fool, I decided to wait it out. Nothing happened except the fact that he never aged. By now he should have physically aged three years or so, but he remains the small boy I saved all those years ago. Still, like a fool, I watched and waited. Yesterday, I had to find out when his hundredth birthday was, or if he had passed it. I began the ceremony, Reseph should have been able to see into him and known. But… something happened and Kato's hand got much bigger. It's been spreading up his arm and I've given him a drug, to stop the pain. Growing bones and stretching muscles is not a pleasant process. I know how it feels, and so do you, if you remember as well as I."
Kurama nodded and self-consciously touched the back of his neck. "I remember, if only vaguely."
Yurika nodded. "I have something at the castle that will lead us to the last of his family, the ones who did that to him." Kurama tried not to gasp. In her red eye, she was looking at him the same way she had when she would tell him in the past about whatever it was she was determined to do. "I need you to lead us to them."
Kurama was slightly put out. He didn't like the idea of being a dog. "Why should I? You know I will help you, but what should I get n return."
Yurika smirked. "There it is. I was wondering when the real Youko Kurama would come out. Fine, fox-boy. I won't threaten to kill you anymore."
Kurama eyed her suspiciously. In the past, he had loved her mind. One of the ways he had gotten to know that she was as clever as a fox was the fact that she could twist words to suit her purposes, like in a chess game.
She gave him a grin, and fleetingly looked like she did so many years ago. "And I won't actually do it, either." She stepped towards the mirror. She took the dial on the bottom right corner and turned it half a rotation. She touched the mirror and it rippled, like the surface of water. Hand still on the mirror, she turned to him and held out her other hand. "Coming."
Kurama hesitated only a moment before putting his hand in hers, and being pulled into the mirror.
A/N: Review!