A/N: Fight scene! ^_^

O/C29: It rained. Karasu appeared with a youkai who dabbled in Heart-Strings to try and 'claim' Misaki. No such luck. The gang is transported back to Koenma's office, where they suddenly notice the missing pacifier…

Yusuke was the first to break the ice.

"Hey toddie, what happened to that stupid little thing you always have in your mouth?"

Koenma's eyes narrowed, "What did I say about anyone calling me 'toddie'?"

Yusuke, grinning, shrugged a shoulder.

"And it's called a pacifier. Anyway," Koenma became aloof, "We were having trouble locating you there for a while. Like you had slipped off the face of the planet or something. Yusuke, you are going to be sent back Ningenkai immediately. Keiko has been asking for you."

Yusuke slapped his forehead with a hand, "Not good. Can I leave now?"

"OH NO!"

Everyone turned to stare at Kuwabara.

"I have a test tomorrow! I gotta study!" He ran out the door.

"Go ahead," Koenma nodded to Yusuke, who turned and followed after his friend.

"As for you all..." Koenma's gaze rested on Misaki and his eyes burned angrily.

Misaki sighed and walked over to the desk. Leaning over it, she reached out to his hat and into the brim, pulling out the pacifier.

"My..!...My pacifier!" Koenma was a happy camper as he put it back into his mouth. He still glared at Misaki as she sat down on the edge of the desk.

"We had a problem up until now."

"And what was the problem, toddie?"

Koenma ground his teeth together and Misaki grinned back at him.

"You don't remember the attack that sent you all away in the first place?" He shot back at her.

Kurama and Hiei exchanged glances.

Suddenly, Hiei got a strange expression on his face and bolted out the door.

"Yukina."

Kurama looked up at Misaki and their eyes met. He nodded once to her, slightly.

"After it engulfed the agency, our friend the blob decided to stick around for a while. Just recently, it broke off after something else. I hope we don't see it again. We just got everything back online and running and were attempting to track the lot of you down when you disappeared." Here Koenma's expression grew wry, "As did I, I suppose.

"It isn't over, I'm afraid. We have reason to believe that it left to go after you."

" 'Reason to believe?' Sounds fishy." Misaki leaned back onto Koenma's desk.

He waved her off some papers that were caught underneath her and she obliged by lifting herself slightly for him to retrieve them.

"It told me so itself, if you have to know." He stuck his tongue out at her to the side of his pacifier.

"Oh dear. You know there's a problem when the Prince of the Reikai is taking advice from hostile creatures. Have you had your nap this week?"

Kurama's lips twitched into a small smile.

"It did! It told me so itself! I promise!"

"Do you have any recordings of the creature speaking? I think it would be an interesting idea to analyze them. Find out more." Kurama provided.

"…Well…no…No, we don't actually. Everything was offline, as I said."

"Convenient." Misaki added.

Koemna glared at her again and changed subjects.

"We would like you all," here he indicated Kurama, but paused in mid-thought, wondering where Hiei had gone off to. The fire youkai slipped into the door as Koenma's gestured encompassed the lot of them and the Prince continued, "To stay out of sight for a while. Your signatures will be easy to pick up and surrounded by humans as they are, Yusuke and Kuwabara are relatively safely hidden. We can transport you to Misaki's house. We'd like you to stay again there for the time being."

Misaki looked over at the other two youkai.

"I don't have a problem with that." Kurama spoke up, "I would like some time to talk with my teachers about it, if only to assure them that I'm not completely out-of-commission. And I won't want my mother to worry either."

Koenma nodded. "You would be more of a danger to her if you were around her, with Yoko inside of you."

"Safe and sound, I presume?" Misaki felt timid as she daintily extended the inquiry to Hiei.

He had been looking off in the distance, deep in thought, but when she called his name his eyes focused on her for a moment.

Hiei didn't answer her with formed thought as words, but an affirmative washed into Misaki's mind. Yukina was fine.

"Up for laying low for a while?"

The answer was delayed this time and Misaki almost asked again, but he responded in the same manner with a rather indifferent emotion. Don't care.

"I'd like the opportunity to check in the Zumi." Misaki admitted, "Once we were in the Ningenkai, there hasn't been a way to contact him.

Koenma nodded, "Your emblem." He fished in a drawer behind his desk that they couldn't see and pulled out a loop of hardy string with the teleportation brooch on it, handing off to Misaki's out-stretched hand.

Misaki got off the desk and stood closer to the others, "If you hear anything, let me know."

"I will."

There was a flash of blue light and the trio disappeared.

…

"Mistress, you're back!"

The blank, dark receiving room materialized around the three of them.

"Yes, Zumi."

"I take it that everything turned out alright in the end."

"Yes, Zumi. It usually does."

Kurama noticed that Misaki's voice sounded tired for a moment.

"Can I get you anything?" Zumi wanted to know.

The room shifted and the three of them stood in the same room that they were in last time. Misaki turned to Kurama.

"Are you hungry?"

"I suppose..." he shrugged.

Misaki stared at him. "So, is that a yes or a no, vessel?"

"A 'yes' I suppose." He chuckled at Misaki's look of annoyance.

"Zumi, do you think that we can..."

Her voice wandered off as she took a step forward and disappeared. Kurama thought it was interesting that Misaki would do things like that as hostess. Then again, she wasn't human and likely didn't know or care to know what something like etiquette was.

Going to the open window, Kurama leaned out of it, taking a deep breath of the clear air and enjoying the small breeze that picked up and flowed around him. The tree-filled horizon seemed to almost glow in the sunlight. He had never stopped to take note before that there was a large radius around the house free of trees, a low grass shimmering the lawn with its earthy colors. The tree line started out slow, a few dotting the edge until, as the eye moved deeper in, they started to grow closer together, though remaining a healthy enough distance from one another.

"Here."

Kurama almost jumped. He didn't even hear Misaki come back. She stood at his shoulder, holding out a familiar piece of bread. He smiled and took it.

Misaki, seeing him take a bite, walked over to where Hiei stood, leaning against the wall, his eyes closed.

"Hiei?" Misaki felt strangely uncomfortable with the idea of speaking out loud to him, as if doing so would be more intrusive on his privacy than reaching out via thought.

He opened his eyes partially, acknowledging her presence.

She held out bread for him too.

Not quite registering the situation, he took it and began nibbling on the edge, recrossing his arms.

Misaki frowned at him as she turned away with her own piece.

"Mistress, I've checked for you. The area is completely clear. I don't know why but the systems weren't working properly the last time you were here. I believe that is why you had so much trouble. I still cannot believe that a dragon of such enormous proportions got past our systems, it's just—"

"Zumi." Misaki sighed.

"Yes?"

"You're rambling on again. I already know all of this."

"Oh. Right. Sorry." he apologized.

"When you're done, do you want to spar a little bit?"

Kurama realized that she was talking to him.

"I would really like to see the white rose in action. I've never before considered the possibilities a weapon made from it could have."

"Of course."

"Where would you like to do this, Mistress?" In spite of himself, the excitement leaked into Zumi's voice, "I think that one of the arenas would do quite nicely. And I...um..." He faded off as Misaki was staring up at the ceiling with her arms crossed, taping a foot impatiently.

"Thank you, Zumi, but it is just perfect outside and I prefer the wind and air."

"Yes, Mistress." Zumi responded with a bit of a pout in his tone, sad that he would not be able to watch the going-ons.

"Ready?" she asked as Kurama finished off the last bite.

He nodded.

Misaki went to the window and began to climb out.

Kurama chuckled at her idiosyncrasies. "And there's such a nice entrance door to the mansion."

"Meh. Too far. I rarely use it." She jumped down.

Kurama put his hand on the sill and watched her deftly traverse the side of the wall, shaking his head as she did so. Definitely not human.

Misaki landed on the ground and shot forward, enjoying the feeling of running for no reason. She disappeared into the trees as Kurama touched the ground.

"Misaki?" He took a step forward, catching a glimpse of her vanishing into the branches. Kurama walked out of the clearing into the widely spaced trees and glanced above him.

"Alright. Let's get started."

Once again, Kurama almost jumped. Misaki had dropped from a tree somewhere and managed to land silently behind him.

He turned and she stepped back a ways, noticing that Hiei had followed them outside and was up in one of the trees where he would have a clear view of the ground.

"You seem rather excited." He could practically feel the air around her vibrating as if her energy pulled at the reins.

"Really?" Misaki didn't feel any different than usual. Maybe a bit indulgent, but nothing more than that. "Now, I want you to fight me as if your life depended on it. Because it might." she added.

Before Kurama was able to respond, Misaki flew at him and delivered a bone-crushing punch to his jaw. He was flung back into a tree where he slammed into the trunk and then slumped to the ground.

Hiei sort of watched from where he sat. He'd followed them because they moved out here. And the air was nice, he guessed. Hiei tried thinking about other things, but his thoughts always came back to the same ones. The Essence.

Kurama shook his head once, prepared for the punch, but not the force she put behind it. When he stood up, she was no where to be found. He glanced around at the trees and space around him, but actually listened for any out of place sounds more than anything.

There.

As Misaki few out of a tree above Kurama, he deftly turned to face her and brought his arms up in a block, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the melee range she forced him to counter. However, he wanted to scope her out before bringing forth his rose whip, hoping to glean more knowledge of how she fought before striking back.

Misaki's fist planted predictably in the middle of his block and Kurama shifted his arm fluidly around hers so as to counter-balance her punch, circling her fist and neutralizing it, leaving that side open and without defense.

Instead of attacking that side, Kurama jumped back, clear of a counter-attack. He noted that her stance had changed, the leg of her seemingly defenseless side slightly raised in preparation for an attack that hadn't come. It lowered until the tip of her toe rested lightly on the ground.

Kurama noticed the gleam in her eyes, unsure of what emotion to place with it. Just as her first smile after the encounter with the Essence had seemed to him so foreign, yet so much more true to her nature, this expression gave off the same aura. While it was in fact something he had no name for, Kurama felt that this sense of her was more like the real Misaki than any of them had ever known.

She shot forward again and he brought up an arm to block the incoming punch he anticipated. But she disappeared.

Misaki took two steps to Kurama's right, positioning herself behind him so fast that he was unable to see it. She shifted her weight and brought up a leg to deliver a kick that would be devastating. He caught hold of her leg and Misaki realized that he had turned around at some point. Misaki was surprised and pleased at the challenge he might present. It had been too long since the last time she had gotten a chance to stretch her muscles of her own will.

"I didn't expect you to see that coming. Impressive, vessel."

Kurama just smiled and Misaki noticed a sort of battle-readiness to his face that she hadn't seen before. She surmised that the longer the battle went on, the more dangerous this particular opponent would be, as long as she was the one who continued attacking.

His smile also aggravated her for some reason. She had moved fast enough that he wasn't able to see her, she was sure of that. Misaki dwelled upon the fact that he was at one time the infamous Spirit Fox. Briefly, she wondered what the relationship was between them. Could they talk to each other? Was it simply two people in one body, just the body was inhabited by another being? Or was Yoko locked away, deep within Kurama, slumbering? Or was he just at the surface? Waiting for a chance to break free? Could he ever break free?

Misaki supposed that the answer to the last question was no. There was only one body and two beings within. That meant they had to share, she guessed. While Misaki had met Yoko many years ago, that sort of thing hadn't come up. Of course, when she met him, he was still just Yoko Kurama. Not Suiichi Minamino. And did that mean that Suiichi would not have existed if Yoko hadn't gone into that human woman's womb? It was all very complicated and it fascinated her.

All of these thoughts ran through Misaki's mind in an instant, of course, but Kurama knew an opportunity when he saw one. Misaki felt Kurama begin to shift his arm that held her leg.

Despite having one leg caught, Misaki did have another one.

Hiei watched impassively as Misaki swung with her other leg into Kurama's head. That move seemed familiar. Oh yes. The long-legged walking insane asylum. Shinobu Sensui. He pulled that move on Yusuke when he was in the same position. Hiei frowned. What had made him think of that incident?

Kurama's neck cracked.

"Mm, thank you. I've been trying to get that kink out of my neck for months."

Misaki couldn't help the deep-chested growl. He was really starting to get on her nerves. Misaki released those feelings and smiled in spite of herself. There was no need to let him get under her skin. Clever kitsune.

Following up on her second kick, Misaki retracted the leg from Kurama's neck and pulled the other leg out of his hold, bouncing once on the ground with both feet before rotating her body in a circle to generate speed, aiming a kick at his shoulder this time.

Kurama let her foot make contact with his body, but reached up and curled his arm around her ankle, this time clamping tighter so that she could not get free.

For an instant, Misaki seemed to be suspended in mid-air. Then, she arched backwards and put her hands onto the ground in a hand stand, pulling Kurama off the grass and over her body.

Hiei raised his eyebrows in interest.

In his astonishment at her strength, Kurama didn't think to let go until after he started to soar above her. Coming to himself, he released her and as he flew through the air, he twisted his body around to land unharmed with his feet steady on the ground.

Reminding himself that he had not really seen her in battle before, Kurama allowed himself a moment to appreciate the aesthetics of her body in a new light. His eyes caught the slightly toned muscles in her arms and he wondered if she could simply pick up and throw him if she wanted.

Misaki deftly bent her elbows and pushed down on the ground from her handstand, creating enough force to allow herself to flip backwards and land up straight on her feet.

Kurama took in her body and stance, her every momvement well-calculated and not taking any more energy than necessary as she turned to face him and settled into a relaxed standing position.

Just as the moment passed where he started to think it had come to his turn to reciprocate, Misaki rushed at him again.

-lotsm