A/n: Alright, I'm pretty much caught up now, which means no more updating every/every other day. I need to work on my other story too, plus I have to write an original fic for my creative writing final project, which is going to be difficult in only...3 months. The fastest I've ever finished a story was about 9 months, so I have a lot of work to do!! -hides-

Chapter 5:

"Ryota, is it true that you lost the human girls Lord Hitoshi ordered you to capture?"

The brawny green demon groaned, folding his arms over his chest. "That's right," he said. "And now he's probably going to kill me for it."

The young looking woman sat down cross-legged beside him, flipping her waist length blue and silver braid. Her golden eyes narrowed. "I can't understand what he wants with some puny humans anyway," she muttered.

Ryota shrugged. "What's it matter anyway, Naho? We do what Lord Hitoshi asks, if we succeed he rewards us, if we fail, he kills us. His reasons make no difference."

Naho glanced up at him briefly. "You could run now instead of just standing here, waiting for your death."

He shrugged. "He'll just send stronger demons to capture me. Who knows, he might even send you."

Naho snorted and tugged on her braid. "Fine, do what you like. What do I care if you hurry your death further?"

Hope followed Keiko down the crowded street to a clothing store, and they went inside. A clerk greeted them as they came in. Keiko nodded for her to start looking around, and with a glance at the racks, Hope began browsing through them, checking the tags for something cheap. She wanted to spend as little of the Yukimura's money as possible, especially since she was already imposing on them enough by staying in their house.

She grabbed a red, pleated miniskirt, a pair of Capri's, and a few t-shirts and headed into the dressing room to try them on. Normally she hated trying on clothes and usually just bought them and hoped they would fit, but since this was a foreign country and the sizes were different, it would probably be a bad idea to do something like that. When Hope and Keiko were both finished, they paid the woman at the register and went back outside.

"Do you need anything else?" Keiko asked.

Hope thought it over for a second then shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Do you want to get ice cream?" Keiko pointed to a vendor handing out ice cream cones to a line of people.

"Sure," Hope said, and followed Keiko to the line.

"I will buy them, so you wait here," Keiko told her. "What kind do you want?"

"Chocolate."

"Okay. I will be back!" Keiko smiled and hurried over to stand in line, pulling some money out of her purse.

Hope leaned against the wall of the clothing store while she waited. While she was standing there, beginning to get lost in her own thoughts, a hand suddenly snatched her shopping bag. "Hey!" Hope exclaimed, turning to the man who was running quickly down the streets. Frowning, she started to run after him. Keiko's parents had spent good money on those clothes; she wasn't about to let some dumb bandit get away with them.

The man was already pretty far ahead of her. Hope put in an extra spurt of speed, and soon she was gaining on him. Even though she wasn't athletic, she could run fast when she really wanted to. "Give those back!" she yelled. Reaching out, she tried to grab the bag away from him, but missed and lost her footing, falling onto the pavement.

The man glanced over his shoulder and smirked at her. "Crap," she muttered as he disappeared into a crowd. There was no way she would find him now. Groaning, she stood back up, brushing off her pants legs. "This is so stupid, it sucks."

"Excuse me," a gentle voice said behind her, in English. "Is this yours?"

Hope turned around to see a boy standing there, holding her bag out to her. He was dressed in a magenta school uniform, and long red hair hung down his back. She blushed as she met his emerald green eyes and quickly looked at the bag instead. "Um, yes," she said softly, taking it from him. "Thank you."

"You should be more careful," he said. "People can be very rude."

"I will, thank you," she said again. He smiled at her once, and then turned and walked away, leaving her flushed and her heart pounding. A handsome young man, rescuing a helpless girl on the streets—it was so romantic, like something straight out of a fairytale.

"Oh no, what am I standing here daydreaming for?" Hope cried. "Keiko's probably wondering what happened to me!" She turned and hurried back to the ice cream stand.

Jessa flopped down on Botan's bed. "Ugh. I'm tired," she moaned.

"You'd better get used to it," Botan told her as she fixed her ponytail. "You may be doing this for quite awhile."

"Great. More work," Jessa said. She sighed and rolled over onto stomach. Who would've guessed guiding souls to the Spirit World could be so hard? She'd thought it would just be a matter of taking a bunch of dead people back with them, but no, there was a lot more to it than that. Many of the souls were still attached to Earth, for various reasons, usually because of a loved one, and Botan couldn't take them to Spirit World until they felt their life had been resolved. It sure was a pain in the butt.

"I hope you're not ready for bed yet," Botan chimed into Jessa's thoughts. "We still have a lot to do!"

Jessa sat up, staring at Botan in disbelief. "Are you serious? There's more?"

Botan giggled. "Well, you did want to tell Koenma about your friend, didn't you?"

"Oh right! I forgot about that!" Jessa cried, jumping to her feet. The two walked to Koenma's office, where for once he was not stamping papers. In fact, he was sitting in his chair watching some anime while the ogres hovered around him, looking anxious and holding huge stacks of papers.

"Lord Koenma," Botan began as they came in.

"Just a minute, Botan, this is the best part," Koenma said. He was sitting on the edge of his seat now, hands gripping the desk and eyes glued to the TV screen. Jessa eyed him. This kid…he was sitting here watching cartoons instead of working. She grinned. Maybe she should see about becoming his assistant instead.

"Oh, noo! It can't end there!" Koenma screamed. "You!" He pointed to a blue ogre, who cringed away, looking frightened. "Go call whoever airs this show and demand they play the next episode."

"Um, sir, I'm not sure that will work," the ogre mumbled nervously.

"Do it!" Koenma shouted, and the ogre quickly ran out of the room. The baby sighed and settled into his chair comfortable. "Now, Botan, what did you need?"

"Sir, today Jessa saw one of her friends in the Human World," Botan told him.

"I see," Koenma said. "I'll keep that in mind while I'm doing research. Is that all?"

"Yes, sir," Botan said. She bowed, and Jessa followed her out of the room again.

"I'm guessing he hasn't found anything out yet," Jessa said.

"Apparently not," Botan agreed. She smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'm sure he'll find something soon. In the meantime, at least you know your friend is safe!"

"Yeah, one of them," Jessa mumbled under her breath. "I still have no clue where Din is."

Rrrrr….Din's stomach grumbled for what seemed like the hundredth time. She groaned inwardly. How long had it been since she'd eaten? She wasn't even sure now, but she was beginning to feel lightheaded. "Hey," she said to the demon boy walking in front of her. He paid her no heed. She frowned at him. "How long are we going to keep walking? I'm hungry." Of course, she knew he couldn't understand her, but he could at least pretend to be trying. Instead, he was just ignoring her, which was irritating her more and more. Just because this guy was a demon didn't mean he got to push her around! Okay, well actually it did, considering he could kill her at any moment and she'd have no way to defend herself. But still!

"Listen, shorty, I'm not gonna shut up till you listen, so you may as well stop ignoring me!" Din half-shouted. Still, he ignored her and kept walking. How could she get his attention? A smirk spread across her face as she prepared herself to do something which was probably very stupid. "Oi, Chibi-chan," she said.

He stopped, his shoulders tense, and all of a sudden his sword was pressed to her throat again. "What did you say?" he growled.

She backed up a step. "Sorry, sorry. Gomennasai," she said quickly. Yeah, that had been a dumb move. But hey, at least it worked. "Look, I need to eat or I'm gonna pass out, okay? I'm hungry." She rubbed her stomach. "Hun-gry," she repeated slowly, and mimicked eating food with a fork. Wait, he might not know what a fork is. She switched to mimicking chopsticks, hoping he would get the picture. Right as she was doing this, her stomach gave a loud rumble. She pointed to her stomach. "See? Hungry."

Hiei frowned, and sheathed his sword. "You humans are so weak," he said as he turned around and started walking again. "You can't even go a day without eating."

"Hey!" Din shouted, watching him walk away. "Did you not get what I just said? Not all of us can walk forever without food or rest, you know!" She frowned when he didn't stop and stomped after him. Stupid demon.

A few minutes later, Din noticed they were heading for another town. The boy led her through it, until the smell of cooking reached her nostrils. She sniffed and felt her mouth watering. She was so hungry. He walked into a restaurant and sat down at one of the tables. She sat down across from him, while he said something to the waitress, who hurried off. After another moment, the waitress returned, carrying a plate of three onigiri which she set down in front of the boy. He pushed them towards Din.

She grinned as she picked up one of the onigiri and bit hungrily into it. It wasn't much, but at least it was better than nothing. He wasn't going to let her starve after all. Once she was finished eating, the boy threw some money on the table and they left the village.

"Um, arigatogozaimasu," Din said, trying to sound polite. She didn't want him to think she was ungrateful after all that complaining. He just grunted and kept walking. She smiled a little to herself.