A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates. Got really busy with school and I have a senior recital to practice for and all that. College tends to find ways to keep one rather busy. ^.^;

O/C31: Misaki and Kurama spar; Kurama's white rose gift from Misaki breaks; Misaki provides him with a new rose and asks Hiei to join them in a three on three free for all. Meanwhile in Koenma's office…

"What news do you have for me Botan?" Koenma leaned back in his chair.

"Nothing you're going to like, sir." Botan stood in front of his desk, holding her oar in one hand.

"The source of the threat?"

Botan shook her head, "Nothing quite so promising. Not yet. However…" She hesitated, "There is reason to believe that whatever was behind the phenomenon of the blob-thing and Amureo's near-success at re-entering the Makai are linked. By what factor, we have not deduced yet."

Koenma frowned, "Do you think it could have been...?"

"Amureo himself?" Botan finished, "It is always a possibility sir, but we really aren't sure. Evidence would suggest against it, and that there is an outside, third party involved who instigated both events. Our records for the agency wouldn't note who was here that wasn't supposed to be on the day of the attack, but we've been reading the records for the Pool in the hopes that someone present is our guilty party. We've had a few likely candidates, but no definite suspects."

"Have you talked to Yusuke and Kuwabara yet? Perhaps they might have spotted something out of the ordinary while they were they. You might question Yukina as well."

"Frankly Koenma, they wouldn't really know anyone by name unless it was someone they met or faced before in combat or something."

"Talk to them anyway." Koenma ordered.

"Alright." She shrugged, "Anything else?"

Koenma pursed his lips for a moment before answering, "If you get a chance, go out and find Hiei and Kurama and Misaki. They should still be at the mansion. Bring them here."

"Yes, sir!" Botan promptly hopped on her oar and flew away out one of the windows.

…

Misaki parried Hiei's thrust, carefully moving her arm around the blade, starting at the flat of it, to alter his attack and put him off balance, and then she jumped back, ducking under Kurama's whip lash that came from behind. She swung a leg around while low to the ground, hoping to trip the fire youkai, but he moved up and to her right, bringing his katana up with him to slash her face.

Simultaneously, Kurama spun his whip for a thorn wheel which headed for the both of them.

Misaki pulled her head back so that Hiei's swipe missed and she reached around the blade and grabbed his wrist, pulling him directly in front of the thorns and using that momentum to swing herself out of danger.

Hiei leapt off into a tree just as the thorn wheel cut the air, missing his feet by inches.

Misaki's motion pushed her far enough away for her to recover her stance and survey the scene around her.

Kurama pulled the whip back towards his body and the length of it rested for an instant on the ground in front of him.

Hearing a rustle in the tree above her, Misaki dodged to the side, then, realizing that Hiei could have done that to make her move the direction he wanted, she dodged again, turning a back flip and landing on her hands, pushing off of the ground and into the trees to meet Hiei on his turf.

On the ground, Kurama's eyes shifted every direction, rose whip loosely held in his hand. Anticipating a move, Kurama snapped the whip out to his left, and then jumped away, turning in the air to spy a blur of color touch the ground and leap away again, another blur chasing after it. Feeling slightly irked at the battle that he knew was going on above him but that he wasn't participating in, Kurama lashed onto the branch above him and swung up into the tree, turning gracefully in the air, flicking his wrist to untie the loop and then flicking his wrist once more, striking out at a blur dashing among the leaves. He sped up, following the flashes of contact where the other two clashed and then forced apart.

When he finally caught up, Misaki stood with her back to a small lake, whose lining trees remained a respectful thirty meters away, and Hiei stood on his toes with his katana in front of him. Slowly, Kurama made his way to them until he was even with Hiei, though about five feet to the left of him.

Hiei shot towards her and the rose whip came over his shoulder with Kurama behind it. At the last possible second, Misaki faded off and Hiei came up sharply his feet in the edge of the water. He really didn't want to get wet.

He didn't even see the rose whip change directions as soon as Misaki began to disappear. The next thing he knew, he was thrown a few feet out into the water where he landed with a very surprised splash. When his head broke the surface, he saw Kurama grinning extremely Cheshire-like at the edge of the lake.

Of course, Kurama didn't see Misaki sneaking up behind him and Hiei smirked as Misaki easily threw the vessel into the air.

Kurama flew farther than Hiei and landed in the lake with a bigger splash.

When Kurama swam straight up to reach the surface, and after he took a deep breath, he realized that Misaki was doubled over at the edge of the lake, laughing her head off.

"You...you should have...seen your faces..." she managed to say between bouts of laughter. "Oh…so funny…" She fell to her knees.

Kurama smiled and looked over at Hiei. They both had the same thought at the same time and began swimming for shore.

It was Misaki's turn to not notice the pair from where she stood. She had tears in her eyes and her abs hurt, but the laughter was dying down. When she looked up from her kneeling position, catching her breath, neither youkai was in sight.

From behind, she felt herself being lifted off of the ground and tossed out into the water. Her uncharacteristic squeal of laughter pealed through the air briefly before being interrupted by the water that covered her head and the splash that followed as she fell into the deep.

Giggling once beneath the surface, she clamped her hands over her mouth as a bit of air escaped.

For the first time, a memory of her brother did not bring sorrow as Misaki recalled him pulling the same trick on her after she had unmercifully pushed him into a pond.

She closed her eyes to better see the memory and smiled, sinking towards the bottom of the lake.

Feeling a peace she had not experienced in a long time, Misaki amiably fought the slight weight of her clothing and swan upwards.

Her head broke the surface and she pushed her hair out of her face.

Kurama and Hiei sat a few inches from the water, drying out. Kurama's whip was presumably in rose form and hidden away in his hair as it was no where in sight, and Hiei's katana had been sheathed.

Enjoying the water which she hadn't swam in for a long time, Misaki dove back under and swam to the bottom, sitting down cross-legged and looking around. The water was fairly clear, though fairly empty. One of the braver native fish swam right past her, one eye inspecting her as it moved by.

"She's been down there for a while." Kurama noted, leaning forward a little to look at the water.

There was no easy slope into the lake, just a deep shelf that dropped all the way to the bottom, as if the shore resisted any erosion the water might attempt to cause.

"Hn. She's a youkai; she doesn't have the normal human lung capacity of a measly three minutes at best." Hiei lay down and put his hands behind his head, listening to the water lapping at the shore.

"Well, I don't think she's…" Kurama shrugged. He had his own reservations as to whether or not Misaki was actually a youkai, his own suspicions putting her more in the Element category, but he supposed it didn't matter as she could probably still hold her

Hiei closed his eyes when Kurama didn't say anymore, feeling the sun through the clouds warm his clothes.

Kurama was mostly dry and lost in his thoughts when Misaki came up again, right in front of the pair.

Easily lifting herself out of the water, Misaki sat down on the other side of him, wringing her hair out onto the grass next to her, and flinging it over her shoulder to hang dry. She sighed, almost contentedly, and glanced around at the trees.

"Well, this is entirely too boring." she decided at last.

"I think it's rather nice." Kurama admitted, "Not having anything to do."

He thought of his mother and wondered how she was doing; glad that for the moment staying away was the safest thing he could provide for her. He thought of school as well, knowing he could catch up easily.

Misaki made a face, "Doing nothing is what I've been doing for the last few years of my life and I'm tired of it. At least, nothing is what it has felt like." she added, mumbling the last part almost to herself

Kurama sat quietly, wanting her to speak more, to talk of her past with Yoko, which intrigued him to no end.

Even Hiei, asleep but still aware of his surroundings, listened to see if she would go any further.

But Misaki's eyes were lost, she looked inward, and Kurama knew not to expect any more.

It was quiet a few moments more; a slight wind picked up and fluttered around and through them, moving past.

"Hiei, just how fast do you think you are?" she suddenly spoke up.

Hiei glared at her.

"It's just a question."

Kurama, between them, looked back and forth from one face to the other. He knew he wasn't in the greatest spot if they decided to duke it out.

"Fast enough." Hiei closed his eyes again.

Misaki cocked her head. "I'll race you to the other side of the lake."

Hiei's eyes narrowed, though he didn't move from his position.

Kurama watched both of them warily, seeing their muscles tensing.

As if to a marker only they could hear, the two disappeared.

Hiei ran to the left around the lake. In less than two seconds, he rounded the lake and stopped. There was Misaki, waiting for him.

He gaped in spite of himself.

"I never said you had to run around the lake." She smirked.

Hiei's eyes widened slightly. He hadn't thought of that one.

Misaki grinned and grabbed his wrist. She took off over the lake with Hiei in tow.

"Misaki?"

Misaki stopped and looked up, seeing Botan wheeling overhead. She waved happily at the oar-riding girl.

"Misaki..." Hiei's voice reminded her of their position, smack in the middle of the lake.

"Aw sh—" the water filled her mouth before she could say anymore.

Botan landed by Kurama and from just their few words, Kurama's face looked anxious as Misaki and Hiei climbed out of the lake.

Misaki stared at Hiei and he shifted under her gaze.

"What?" he finally asked, irritated at both her stare and her impudence.

"How does it do that?" she wanted to know, reaching out a hand to touch his hair, though pulling back as his glare became more intense.

It still stood straight up in spite of the water running down it.

"Lots of hair gel?" Botan provided helpfully, smiling.

Her smile faded under Hiei's murderous eyes. He wasn't happy about losing the race and being dragged across the lake, and then being forced to stop in the middle of the lake and fall into the water.

"Um...Koenma wanted me to bring you three back to the office."

"Did he give a reason?" Misaki turned to her.

"Well," she bit her lip, "We have a slight break through about who attacked the office and he wants help."

"A slight break through?" Kurama repeated.

Botan nodded.

"Which is..." Misaki waited for her to fill in the rest.

"The one who led the blob to the agency and the one who assisted Amureo in his release are one and the same. There's a good possibility that someone at the pool the day you were there is our culprit."

"And Koenma wants us to try and remember who was there." Misaki finished.

Botan nodded, "We had trouble gathering documentation about the pool's visitors, but we would like you to go over it and maybe let us know if there was anyone who stood out to you."

"A lot of people went in and out that day." Misaki noted, "And despite the fact that, in relative terms, it wasn't all that long ago, I can't remember much before the actual attack. What evidence are you going on here?"

Botan shrugged, "The energy signature remnants of person who did the summoning for the blob matches those we found at the pool where the barrier was tampered with. The signature at the pool was less than a day old, so whoever it was had to have been there approximately around the time we went."

"It's troubling that two seemingly unrelated events were instigated by the same individual." Kurama spoke up.

"Indeed, vessel. Though it means we have not two enemies, but one. Have you run a check through Koenma's system, Botan?"

"Yup. No luck. Whoever it is hasn't been incarcerated by the agency."

Misaki frowned, thinking. "Did you keep a sample of the energy signature? I might be able to figure out who it is just by how it feels."

Botan grimaced, "It was decaying rapidly and I'm sure there's nothing left at this point. Koenma thinks that mapping out the attendees of the day may assist. There might be someone who stands out in particular that the three of you may be able to piece together."

"Let's go then." Kurama decided for everyone.

Misaki said something under her breath that no one caught, pulling out of the air the now-familiar pendant. They all felt a tug and the forest around them shimmered...

...to be replaced by Koenma's office. Koenma was behind the desk as usual, though a yellow ogre was hovering over his shoulder while he inspected a sheet of paper just handed to him by the oni.

Koenma looked up, "Ah, good. You're here. I was hoping that we would be able to converge about the attack, but I've just been handed another assignment. Since you two are handy, I'll just send you out." He indicated Hiei and Kurama.

Before either could get a word in, Koenma nodded to the oni, who snatched the paper away and proceeded to shove the two youkai out the door into the hall.

"What are you making them do, toddie?"

Koenma looked up in annoyance at Misaki as she leaned up against his paper-filled desk.

"Just a small scuffle. I sent them to inspect an area and bring me back anything they find, basically." He dismissed it with a hand, "More importantly, you're here and I need to pick your brain for information about who was at Amureo's Pool."

"Do you mind if I keep it in my head? I'm quite fond of it."

Koenma gave her a disapproving look that she faltered by patting him endearingly on the head.

"Erg! Stop that!" He fended her off, hating to have his head patted almost as much as he hated having her call him toddie.

"Wonderful! Thank you, Ogre." Koenma said as the blue ogre George came staggering into the room with a gianormous stack of papers in his arms.

Misaki's eyes widened, "Those had better not be—"

"For you," George finished, putting them down to the left of Koenma's desk.

"Maybe it'll be helpful to you." Koenma was smiling a little too broadly, enjoying the stunned expression on her face. He had to deal with that amount of papers daily; she could deal with that many too.

"What in the eighth level is this?" she demanded.

"These are records of those who visited Amureo's Pool on your assignment. You can start with that pile." George said.

"S-start?" She stammered.

Koenma reveled in her despair. He was finally getting back at her. Oops. He shoved that thought away, not sure if she was tuned in, listening.

Thankfully, she wasn't. The wavering stack had taken her full attention for a time.

"Remind me why I'm doing this again?" She sat down cross-legged next to the pile with a huge sigh.

"Because you're being helpful."

"Right. How could I forget." Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Misaki sat down next to the stack and grabbed a piece of paper from about her shoulder's height.

"No!" George and Koenma shouted, covering their faces. They peeked nervously through their fingers, expecting to hear the thunder of papers heading for the floor.

Instead, Misaki sat frowning as she concentrated on the form she held, ignoring the other two masterfully.

They flinched as she did it again, but her pull was so deft that the stack didn't wave any more than it was while being left alone.

"Oh, I did forget Koenma-sir. There are a few for you. Let me get them." George ran out of the door.

Koenma groaned, hoping to be able to enjoy the lack of paper a bit longer. He supposed it couldn't be helped.

Gianormous (ji-NORMOUS), ji pronounced as in 'jive', adjective, a combination of giant and enormous. Indicates extreme largeness of subject being described. :D

This has been another unnecessary announcement by yours truly.

-lotsm