I'm such a horrible writer! I won't try to write suspense any more.

Ch 11 Stranger's Trust

Pink-shoed toes danced across a wooden floor. The slender pink ballet slippers tocked against the floor with each leap and tap. Bright windows shined across one wall, and a series of mirrors across the other. The cold early winter sky was gray but bright. The huge room was half of the top floor; wooden floors, and furniture arranged in clusters as if walls divided the room into a studio and a den. Music played from a stereo: flirty violins and a strong piano background. Gabi couldn't walk three steps with out tripping, but did that stop her from dancing? Well, eventually her backside started to hurt…

"Pup! Phone!" a dark haired man walked in the room, tossing a cordless phone to her. She caught it, fumbled it, dropped it, and picked it up again. "Talk to me." she said.

"Yo, Gabi, Yusuke here. Change of plans, moms having some party at my place. She's more plastered than a fresco, and her weird friends are unconscious all over the place; we can't meet at my house. Shizuru won't let all five of us over since we nearly got her and Kuwabara kicked out by the landlord. We'll have to meet at Kurama's place." Gabi plopped unceremoniously on the floor, stretching her legs with one hand. "He told me he was getting his carpet shampooed. We can't be there." She said.

"Well, where can we go?"

"Well… there's always my place. We got a sweet deal on a penthouse to a really nice apartment building. Don't ask me how he pulled the strings, but Daren's the landlord while the original is away for a year or so to visit family. It's got a great view, and a hot tub, and a plasma screen TV, unlimited pool access-"

"I hate you. You sure Daren will spring for having four boys in his home with you?"

"Hang on. DAAAAREEEN!" she bellowed.

"YEEES?" he hollered back.

"CAN YUSUKE AND HIS GUY FRIENDS COME OVER FOR A WHILE?"

"I'LL HAVE TO CHAPERONE YOU IF IT'S ONLY GUYS!"

"THEY'VE BEEN MY FRIENDS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF SCHOOL, HOW DANGEROUS COULD THEY BE?"

"YOU MEAN KUWABAKA, HIEI, AND WHAT'S-HIS-NAME?"

"SUICHI!"

"YEAH, HIM; ALL RIGHT THEY CAN COME OVER BUT I'LL BE IN THE HOUSE!"

"OKAAY! Yusuke, he said its fine."

"Gah! My ears are bleeding! Why didn't you just get of your ass and walk over to talk to him!"

"I enjoy torturing you."

"Once again, I hate you." Gabi told him where she lived and planned to see him in twenty minutes. Gabi made sure there were man-munchies in the pantry and went back to her dancing. She was stretching some more when Yusuke strolled into the room. "Ever heard of knocking?" she snarled.

"Nice to see you too, sunshine. Daren answered the door while you were busy playing Swan Lake." Yusuke said, plopping onto a couch in front of the window. She flipped him off and greeted the others. "Make your selves at home, y'all, kitchen's that-a-way, TV's over n'yah." Kuwabara stared at her clothes, "What?" she was in a black leotard with white tights, blue legwarmers and a hoodie-jacket.

"…Never mind." Kurama looked away from her clothes, Hiei rolled his red eyes and perched himself on the back of the couch. "Feet off the upholstery, mister." Gabi said. Surprisingly, he obeyed and slid down to the cushions by Yusuke. The dark haired man from before walked in, "Hello pup, having a little meeting or something?" he asked. The man had black hair, dark, twinkling eyes, and a neat goatee. He wore black suit pants, and a button up long-sleeved purple shirt.

"Daren, meet the guys, guys, excluding Yusuke, meet Daren." Gabi said. Daren studied them carefully; he pointed to Kurama, "Suichi," then to the Jaganshi, "Hiei," and lastly to Kuwabara, "Kuwaba-" Gabi cleared her throat noisily. "Kazuma." He corrected himself. He nodded and walked out of the room, "Nice to meet you all; pup, I'll be in the study."

"He calls you 'pup'?" Kuwabara said lamely.

"Yeah, so what?"

"That's a rather unusual pet name," Kurama quipped, biting his fist to keep from laughing. "I always thought you were a bitch." Hiei chimed in sarcastically.

"Shut up!" she snarled. "So what's the word?" she said in a softer voice.

"Pacifier-breath got a report of another disturbance. There's a territory in Makai that's giving off a lot of weird energy. The people living there are still there, unlike at Maze Castle, but they're acting weird: their yoki is jumping up and down like crazy, and they started killing travelers for no reason. " Yusuke reported, keeping his tone quiet.

"What does he want us to do?" she asked, sitting cross-legged on a large pillow. "He wants us to go investigate and eliminate the source of the disturbance."

Kurama interjected, "There is a considerably strong population of yokai; he fears there may be some civil discontentment or worse, a war."

"When do we leave on this case?"

"Tomorrow. The portal to the territory is not working; there is a disorder in the frequency of inter-dimensional travel. We'll take the portal closest to it and walk it from there."

"How far away is the nearest portal?"

"Thirty miles through uncharted forests."

"Peachy. Not to mention its fricking cold outside."

"Koenma enlisted in the help of some old friends for us." Yusuke said cheerily, "Jin, Touya, and Chu."

Daren listened intently on the other side of the apartment with his wolf hearing. The were-wolf wasn't too happy about his precious child traipsing about the Makai. The last time she had been there, his father tried to force her into marrying him.

Engraved on a leather bound book, his journal all his secrets were kept in, was an emblem with a human figure holding an arrow and a wolf with a bow in its jaws. He remembered…

Smoke, fire, screams, a burning body, his father, the promise he made, the chance the boy took, the control he had lost to him. Raden had nearly pushed his son out of his own body in an attempt to forcefully regain his golden fiancé, Gabriel. She fought with Raden and freed Arden from his soul. She went away, not knowing he was still alive. Arden watched her from the shadows, following her to ensure he would be able to repay her mercy.

She was attacked and a band of poaching goblins captured her. Arden went after her and rescued her; but he was too late to save her memories. He turned her into an infant, changed his name and raised her in the peaceful Ningenkai, ruling the kingdom his father left behind from afar.

Daren…Arden… one in the same. He knew of her powers as a shaman, he knew of her secret training with Genkai, he knew of her role as a spirit detective, and he was proud he had been able to let her grow up free and strong.

He would return her memories; one day when she was ready, and he would let her regress to her youko form, but until then, he guarded his charge like a wolf protects her cubs.