Later, after a rather meager breakfast (we hadn't exactly been prepared to spend the night outside), we set off for Yusuke's house, which the others said was closer than Kurama's. Just before we left the alley, though, Kurama stopped me. I glanced back at him with a questioning look, wondering why he had stopped me.

"You've let your hair and eyes go back to silver." He told me. "You might want to change that; they'll get you noticed."

I nodded and concentrated for a moment before looking back at him for confirmation. He nodded and we set out. As we walked, I stared at his back, wondering how he had known my hair's natural color was silver and not the black it usually was. Then I remembered that I had more or less told him that I was a demon and it all made sense. About 20 minutes later, Yusuke announced that we were only a couple of blocks away from his house.

Under my breath, I muttered, "And we were sure his was the closest? My feet are killing me…" Kurama must have heard me, because he turned and grinned at me.

"Sounds like someone should go for walks more often." He said teasingly. I glared at him.

"Huh. As if you'd catch me doing that. I'll have you know that the only reason I'm walking at all is because I don't have the energy to change my shape at the moment." I informed him moodily. He just grinned even more and turned back. I continued to glare at his back.

Just then, Yusuke called back to Kurama, "Hey, Kurama! Where's Hiei, anyway?" I raised an eyebrow; I didn't know who this Hiei was, though his name seemed familiar, as if I'd heard it before somewhere… Kurama frowned slightly.

"I'm not sure." He said slowly. "I think he said something about going to the park, though."

"Oh. Should we go get him? Kuwabara's probably already back at the house, so Hiei'd be the only one missing." Yusuke said, actually being smart for once. Kurama shrugged.

"Sure. It's only a short side trip anyway." He said. I sighed deeply; I'd really been looking forward to putting my feet up and not having to walk for a while. Kurama noticed. "Oh, come on, Li, it's not too far." I glanced up at him, surprised to hear him using a nickname for me already. Then I shrugged, indicating my disinterest and trying to hide the sudden rush of warmth I'd felt.

"Fine. It's not as if my feet could hurt any more anyway." I said resignedly. Yusuke grinned.

"That's okay. If they hurt too bad, I'll carry you." He offered hopefully. I raised an eyebrow.

"Fat chance." I said sarcastically as Botan whipped out an oar and hit him over the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" He protested, rubbing the back of his head.

"Don't forget about Keiko!" Botan told him in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

"Fine, fine. I was just kidding anyway." He muttered as we set off for the park.

The park turned out to be a pretty large section of grass with a ton of trees scattered around it. Several paths wound their way through the trees and were dotted with benches and trashcans. Close to where we were, there was a hotdog vendor with a short line of younger children and their parents. Kurama was surveying the trees and their visible branches with a slight frown. I noticed and went up next to him, following his gaze.

"So, this Hiei is going to be up in a tree?" I asked him. He turned to look at me and nodded.

"Yes, he prefers to be alone and undisturbed if at all possible." He said before turning back to look at the trees. I bit my lip; unless I had some more specific information, I wasn't going to be able to help much more than Yusuke could.

"Is he a demon?" I asked. This time Kurama answered without looking at me, in a distracted tone of voice.

"Yes, a fire demon." That seemed to set off a bell in my head, but I couldn't put my finger on why.

"Oh, okay." I said, starting to walk off. As I strolled down one of the paths, I opened my awareness and searched for the aura of a fire demon in the area of the park. It didn't take more than five minutes before I smirked and muttered, "Found you."

Turning, I cupped my hands and called back to Kurama, who had started down a different path. "Hey, Kurama! I found him!" The fox demon turned and waved to show he'd heard me and started jogging in my direction. I continued walking along the path, keeping my eye on a large oak situated about twenty yards ahead of me and slightly to the left. As I drew even with it, I slowed to a stop and put my hands on my hips.

"You can come down now." I said to no one in particular. "There's no point in staying up there now that I know you're there."

"Hn." There was a rustling and a moment later a dark blur came down to land on the path. The fire demon, Hiei, turned out to be a short boy with spiky black hair with a starburst of white and crimson eyes that was wearing all black except for a white bandana wrapped around his forehead. I frowned when I saw him. Why did he look so familiar…?

Just then, Kurama joined us and smiled down at Hiei. "Thanks, Li." He said, looking at me with a smile. "That really saved us a ton of time."

"You're welcome." I said, smiling back as the warmth came back. "How long does it usually take to find him?" I asked, curious, pushing the warm, fuzzy feeling away.

"Oh, about an hour and a half, and that's our fastest time, so far." He replied casually.

"Not like it's my fault." Hiei spoke up and we both turned to look at him. "The idiots couldn't find a stick that was sitting right in front of them if they tried."

I stared at him, suddenly realizing why he seemed so familiar. "It was you…," I said slowly. "You did it…"

Hiei glanced at me with those crimson eyes, still so intense even after five hundred years. "I did what?" He asked, frowning.

"You gave me these." I said, holding up my wrists. His eyes went wide when he saw them and I realized he hadn't recognized me, either.

"You're…but you…I saw you…" He couldn't seem to find the right words or something, but either way, I had managed to shock him completely. Finally, he settled on, "But you died!"

I shook my head. "Well, obviously, I didn't." I noticed Kurama looking rather lost and confused. "He-" I pointed at Hiei. "-Is why I have these bands and why my power is restrained. He's the one who placed the curse on me." I explained. He finally understood and nodded, then turned to Hiei with a slight frown.

"Is she right?" He asked quietly, surprised that he was learning something like this about a close friend. "Did you really put the curse on her?" Hiei nodded, but he was still looking at me.

"Yeah, I did, but she was supposed to die shortly after!" He protested. Kurama raised an eyebrow and the short demon turned to him in a defensive manner. "What?! I was with the Akai Ame group at the time and they were against her rule from the start! It was pure luck that I was chosen to go on the mission."

"Hmm." Kurama was quiet for a moment. "Well, if you guys can't get along, then I'm afraid we're going to have to keep you separated, though how we'll be able to do that if Li sticks around with us, I have no idea." He sighed in mock resignment.

"Hey!" I interrupted. "Who ever said we wouldn't get along? For all you know we could become best friends, though, with what I've seen of his temper, I seriously doubt it."

Hiei glared at me. "Who ever said I even wanted to be your friend, baka onna?" I turned on him, also glaring.

"What did you just call me?" I demanded, grinding my teeth.

"A baka onna, why?"

"Ooooh, you're so gonna pay for that!" I swiped at his head, but he ducked. Reaching out, I tried to grab him, but he started running so I followed. The next half-hour consisted mostly of me trying to catch Hiei, him running from me and me actually managing to somehow stay right behind him, even when he was going top speed, which was pretty fast. Finally, though, he stopped paying attention to where he was going and tripped over a small rock. Unfortunately, I was right behind him, so I also tripped. However, I landed on something much softer than the hard ground.

"Ooof…" Hiei exhaled as I landed heavily on him, pressing him closer to the ground. I snorted.

"Serves you right for tripping me." I told him. Suddenly I realized just what I was doing and got up quickly, blushing furiously. (Hey, just because I'm a queen doesn't mean I can't be embarrassed!)

"Well, if you hadn't been following so closely, you wouldn't have tripped and fallen on me!" He retorted as he also stood up and dusted himself off, seemingly ignorant of what had just happened.

"I wouldn't have been chasing you at all if you hadn't called me a baka onna!" I immediately shot back at him, completely forgetting my previous embarrassment in my anger.

"Hn." He said, starting to walk back to where Kurama was still waiting. I followed him, glaring at his back. Suddenly, I got an idea and smiled slightly.

You know, I'm pretty certain that there would be a fair amount of people wanting to learn just what goes through your head, Hiei. I said silently. Up ahead, I watched in satisfaction as Hiei stopped short, startled.

Who is that? He asked, a slight tinge of—was that fear?—coloring his 'voice'.

Oh, puh-leez. Like you couldn't guess.

Li-Sanya…?

Oh, bravo! You just won the grand prize! Woo-hoo. I'm so proud. Not. I said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. But seriously, I'm sure that there are plenty of people who would just about die to know what you think about on a regular basis. Yusuke, for example.

You wouldn't. He said, starting to walk again.

Oh, wouldn't I? I smirked. Let's see what you're thinking now…oh, my. You actually think about that stuff?! Honestly…

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!! He screamed silently, whipping around to glare at me. I just smirked; I'd found my insurance.

"Sure, whatever…shorty." I said as I walked past him to join Kurama. Behind me, I could almost hear steam coming out of Hiei's ears as he fumed at me. I stopped and, whipping my hand up to grab the sword, I turned to smirk at Hiei's surprised face, only centimeters from my own. "I wouldn't try that if I were you." I told him sweetly. "You know, you really shouldn't play with sharp things; they could hurt someone. Here, let me take that for you." Despite his protests, I pulled the katana from Hiei's grip and twirled it around, keeping the short fire demon at bay with my free hand. "Hmm. Nice balance…beautiful workmanship…where'd you get it?"

"None of your business, baka!" He growled, still trying to get his sword back. I raised my eyebrow.

"Oh, really? Fine, then." With a flick of my wrist, I dissipated the sword into fine black ash. Hiei's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"YOU BAKA! WHAT DID YOU DO TO IT?!" He yelled, glaring murderous darts at me and drawing the attention of several other people in the park. I looked at him calmly.

"I didn't do anything to it." I told him. "It's back in its sheath, which happens to be on your belt. The ash was taken from a fire about a mile away. Sheesh."

He glanced down to see his sword hanging from his belt as if it had never moved. Glancing up at me, he said, "Hn," and walked over to lean against the tree, trying to cover his momentary thick-headedness. Nearby, Kurama had watched all this with a slightly bemused expression on his face. Now, he walked over to stand next to me, a slight smile on his face.

"Okay," he said. "If you're ready, let's go get Yusuke and Botan and go to Yusuke's house so you can meet the others." I nodded.

"Alright. C'mon, shorty." I started walking back to where Botan was sitting on a bench and Yusuke was intent on some pigeons nearby, having given up on finding Hiei long ago. "Hey, you guys! We found him! Let's go!" Yusuke looked up and grinned as he saw Hiei.

"Hey, you know, I think Hiei got up on the wrong side of the bed today." He said as we joined him. Then he slapped his head. "Oh, that's right, Hiei doesn't sleep in beds, he sleeps in trees! So he must have woken up on the wrong side of the branch. 'Course, he's always in a bad mood, so I really can't tell the difference. Still-" Botan slapped him on the head before Hiei could permanently separate Yusuke's head from his neck with his sword. "Ow!"

"Come on, you. Let's get back to your house." She said, grabbing his jacket and dragging him after her. The rest of us followed at a short distance, laughing as Yusuke tried to reason with the blue-haired grim reaper.