Hooray for updates! And for reviews! And for owning Mizuko, Kasumi, Takeshi, Kiyoshi, and Akiko! And thanks to anyone who reviewed! Especially the person who told me that both of the bonus chapters were the same. It's fixed now, if you REALLY want to spend your time reading seven pages of nonsense. That's all! :)

Oh, some things in this chapter might be a bit confusing without clarification. First of all, there are too many humans for Koenma and Botan to personally keep tabs on all of them. Second, he didn't want to know anything about his new team members. Last, he basically kept a family tree and that is it, so that's how he knew how to find them and who they all were without knowing anything about them. This will not make sense now, but it will at the end (or by the middle of this chapter). I promise!

That's really all!

"Are you sure you're ready for this?"

Akiko's glare was more than enough of an answer to Kiyoshi's question. He held up his hands, palms out as if to surrender. "Fine. Whatever. It's only been two days, but if you think you're ready, then that's fine by me."

"That's what I though you said." She turned away from him before asking, "Where are Takeshi and Kasumi? And why aren't they here?"

"They got bored of waiting for you to wake up. I think they're downstairs gorging themselves on the food that wouldn't fit in our packs. I hope you don't mind that I filled yours; you might want to rearrange it."

Koenma was staring at what appeared to be a computer. In fact, it was an instrument that allowed him to view the pictures his team sent him. As well as being the screen that both showed them and videoed him to theirs. When their devices were actually turned on.

And staring back at him was Kiyoshi. It was a picture he had received from Kasumi two and a half days ago. And it was frightening. Not because there was anything particularly strange about it. But because there wasn't anything strange about it. Perfectly composed, his mouth gave no indication that he was doing anything at all. And his eyes, to put it quite simply, looked bored. It wouldn't have been remarkable or frightening at all, but for the note. Because seconds after he received this photo, Kasumi had sent him a picture of a note. It read:

Kiyoshi is watching his plants kill someone. At his request, of course. I felt the look on his face qualified as an emergency.

Koenma had agreed, but by the time he had attempted to contact Kasumi, her communicator had been turned off again.

Koenma agreed because, taking Kasumi's note into account, Kiyoshi's face wasn't normal. This was not the face of a fifteen year old boy. This was the face of a cold-blooded killer.

A few hours later, Kasumi nudged Kiyoshi's plants out of the way. She then made her way down to the kitchen as the others slept, before pressing the button that called Koenma.

The surprise on his face was evident when he saw her. "Kasumi? Where are you?"

"That I can't tell you. I know you'd try and stop us, and I understand how important this is to Kiyoshi. It's also important to me. And somehow to Akiko as well. But that's all beside the point. I want to talk to you about Kiyoshi."

Koenma nodded. Anything that made Kasumi look that serious was important. The only way it could be more important was if it made Takeshi look that serious. He understood he couldn't overlook it. "Go on." He said.

"The pictures I sent you…" she sighed, and looked away from the table where she had set the communicator. "I told you he was killing someone. That's not the entire story. Well, it was then, but not anymore. Obviously, it was a demon. But she had easily gotten to Akiko. And when I fired a Reigun blast at her, at full power, it did no damage. It knocked her over, that's it. Akiko made it so she couldn't move a great distance, but other than that, it was all Kiyoshi. She was class A."

"Class A?! How is that even possible? Kiyoshi is human; I have a team of underworld specialists who have to work together to take out a demon that powerful!"

Kasumi nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. "And what's more, she never laid so much as a finger on him."

"Then what were those cuts all over his face and arms?"

"Those were… self-inflicted."

"What?!"

"He created a hybrid, which tried to turn on him. He overcame it, and now it and all of its… descendents are completely loyal to him. As in give-him-their-undying-devotion-even-if-it-kills-them loyal. He killed the original before Mizuko saw what he was doing, then—"

"Mizuko? It was Mizuko he killed? Heaven help me."

A funny look covered Kasumi's face a moment before she decide just not to ask. So she continued, "Anyway, he then demonstrated the plant for her with one of its seeds. The plant moved its roots into one of Kiyoshi's wounds. It healed him, and now lives in him, despite the fact that its poison was strong enough to kill Mizuko. But my point is, I believe his creating the hybrid and it planting itself on him are causing his powers to truly manifest."

"What has Kurama done?" Koenma moaned to himself. "What have I done? Together, we've created a monster."

"Not so. That's the other thing I wanted to tell you. I talked to Kiyoshi later and… well, taking the picture I sent you was bad enough. Had I taken one later, it would have invaded his personal privacy. And to have documented evidence of what he looked like then… I couldn't stand the thought of it. Koenma, looking into his eyes later, I felt I could see into his soul. The look he gave me then was the most haunted and tortured look I have ever seen before in my life. It ripped me apart, just seeing him like that. I can't imagine what he must have actually been feeling. And he had kept it to himself, quietly, without us ever noticing. To keep us from noticing. To protect us. It should suffice to say that, of the two horrendous looks I saw in his eyes that day, I would look at eyes like those in the picture every day for the rest of my life before I would willingly look into the pain and hurt and guilt that filled his eyes later even once. And the guilt wasn't mild. He absolutely hated himself for killing her, despite the fact that she tried to kill us first."

Kasumi's eyes were raging as she continued. "But that isn't all I wanted to talk about. First of all, you can't say anything to Akiko or Takeshi. I had to promise as well. In a sense, I'm breaking that promise by talking to you. Second, I saw, or felt, that this wasn't the first time he had suffered and badly. A person who hasn't felt serious emotional pain can't hide a pain like that so effectively. No one should be able to hide that kind of hurt at all. I want to know what happened to him, Koenma. I need to know. At least part of the turmoil wasn't from killing Mizuko. Part of it was from whatever was in his past. And I don't want to accidentally say anything that makes him endure more hurt silently."

Koenma closed his eyes, then nodded slowly. "I'll have Botan find out more about him. To be honest, I know little about any of you outside your school records and what I've learned from you personally. I've learned from past experience that our files here in the underworld aren't exactly reliable when it comes to determining whether or not a person can be trusted, or if they are cut out for this job. In addition, it allows me to be unbiased."

Kasumi looked down. "Thank you Koenma." Her voice was quiet, and before he got another good look at her, she had turned the device off.

But he got the distinct impression that she had been crying.

The next day Botan knocked on Koenma's office door and entered. "I have the files, Koenma, sir."

"Thank you, Botan. What do they say?"

"First, I think I should tell you something Genkai observed, that she mentioned before you arrived. Kasumi noticed something similar when they were traveling through the forest."

"The point, please, Botan."

"Genkai thought that you and she had underestimated how powerful he was at the time, as well as how powerful he could become. Kasumi thought he was far more powerful than anyone could guess, based on the self-assurance in his voice, but that he didn't want anyone to know about it. As you know, we have it from Kasumi that Kiyoshi, like Kurama, possesses a remarkable ability to conceal his emotions."

"This is related, I'm assuming?"

"Yes! We had believed Kiyoshi had no prior knowledge of the demon plane, except that which his sixth sense told him of. And his sixth sense wasn't thought to be particularly strong. Neither did he know of ways to enhance his spiritual abilities. But when that matter was looked into, it proved to be false!"

"What?!" Koenma found himself standing as Botan continued her report.

"When he was little more than five years old, his mother passed away in a car accident. He was in the car, yet somehow escaped injury. This seemed to have created in him a deep sense of survivor's guilt. On top of that, his sixth sense is actually stronger than Takeshi's! It's true that the family's has generally been weak, but his never was. For that reason he has been plagued by lesser demons and ghosts for his entire life. He told Kasumi and made Genkai think he couldn't make weapons out of plants—that's also a lie. Long ago he mastered that art in order to protect himself and his father. We aren't sure how many demons he has killed; there was never any evidence that it was actually him."

"No evidence?!"

"What's more is that he has been able to conceal the fact that…" Botan paused, unsure how to word what she had to say next.

"The fact that…?

"That fact that he was in fact responsible for his mother's death, and that is where his deep-rooted sense of guilt is derived. Not from merely surviving."

To Koenma, it seemed as if time had stopped. His next question was whispered, barely audible, "What?"

"His mother had several potted plants in the back of the car. A demon attacked him, and his temper flared, not surprising considering he was only five. What's surprising is that he had previously been able to hide his abilities from his mother. The plants responded, and she got in the way. She didn't have a chance; Kurama's genes lay in his father's side, not his mother's, and he didn't yet know how to call them off. This, in turn, caused the accident, which was the true cause of her death. The plants protected Kiyoshi. By the time emergency vehicles arrived, the plants had returned to their initial sizes, and his mother had died. The huge discharge of aura that day led to the attack of more and more lesser demons in the years to come, none of which have survived."

"So what you're saying is…"

"I don't believe Kurama poses a true threat to Kiyoshi. And Kiyoshi's grasp of his power is far above the level we thought it to be at."

Botan's eyes widened at Koenma's next statement. He didn't meet her eyes and his voice was subdued, because his words held what they knew to be an undeniable truth. "Although both your statements are true, I had something else in mind. First of all, for ten years now Kiyoshi has emotionally concealed something no normal human should be able to conceal for even ten days, without so much as a single indication of it before now. Second, he has killed many times without letting it show or affect his daily life. And finally, he knew of his own power, but kept it concealed from me, the king of the underworld. What is Kiyoshi?"

Kasumi called Koenma later and he refused to tell her what he had learned. "That is Kiyoshi's business. If you can convince him to tell you, or if he just tells you, that's fine. But I can't tell you something like that behind his back. Now, where are you? And where are you going?"

Kasumi responded by turning her communicator off.

They then left, and after a single day's travel arrived outside what was obviously Kurama's second den, second challenge, second test. There they stopped, and Kiyoshi began staring calmly into the branches.

Although they had been plagued by lesser demons, they had made good time. This was due to the fact that any of the four of them could do no more than flick their wrist and dispatch their attackers. Permanently.

"You okay, Kurama?"

"He'd be fine if you'd just leave him alone."

"No, he'd think we didn't care—which is partially true, since you don't—and hide it from us, then convince himself he was overreacting."

"Like I said, he'd be fine."

"You are so insensitive."

"Was that an insult? If it was, you need to brush up on your derogatory comments, because I'm getting more of a feeling of having been complimented."

"Awww, shut up. But, seriously. Kurama, are you okay?"

"They left Mizuko's palace and made it to my den in a single day, even with all the demons trying to kill them."

"That's good, isn't it? It means we won't have to wait long"

"I fear for them."

"They killed Mizuko, didn't they? They'll be fine."

Kurama didn't look up, but at Kurama's next words, even Hiei became interested. "I feared I wouldn't get to meet them because Mizuko would kill them. But she was no problem. Before they met her, I was planning to make things a bit easier on them, should they run into too many problems; I could have done that, even from here. But now that I've seen proof of their power, the power-obsessed criminal in me wants to see the extent of that power too badly to allow me to do that. They will have to defeat my fortress completely on their own now. It is possible for someone to do that, not just them, but anyone…in theory…I suppose it's actually possible… But I fear for their lives more now than I did when I realized they were confronting Mizuko."