Hurrah! I am finally back. I must like you (my readers) a lot, because I still haven't found my USB flash drive, because I'm too lazy to clean my room. But I did realize that I wasn't a complete and total idiot. The USB is not the only place I had the finalized version saved (thank God). I am apparently not as stupid as I thought. I suddenly realized that I had printed out a hard copy of all the chapters I have written so far. Therefore, I must like you guys a lot, because I'm retyping this so you can have a new chapter.

Have you ever had a great idea for the climax of a chapter, but had no idea how to make that idea happen? This chapter took forever to write because I knew how I wanted it to end… no idea about anything from the beginning to that point, though. But it's here now! And I'm actually pretty pleased with it. As usual, I only own Kasumi, Akiko, Takeshi, and Kiyoshi. As for the amount of talking Kasumi does at the beginning of this chapter… I think I already established back with Genkai that, for the most part, she never shuts up. That's starting to show.

And if Pirate ever reads this, the 'Aye, aye, Captain' was for you.

Because I didn't have time to respond to my reviews:

Bhel-Elryss: Yes, Kiyoshi's morals are very gray. But that is more because he hasn't any idea how to handle it all. You'll find out more about that in this chapter, although his morals might seem even more gray…

Kurama no Miko2003: I like Kiyoshi too. :)

Oh yeah, one last thing. If you hadn't noticed, I got a new profile picture! Yay! I have been obsessing about Kiyoshi, so my friend who (unlike myself) can actually draw, asked me to describe him as I saw him in my head. And that picture is the result. So now you all know what Kiyoshi looks like. Remember, though, black hair and dark green eyes (cause you can't really see that in a pencil sketch). Now you can read the chapter (finally).

"I want to make one thing perfectly clear to you guys."

"What is it, Kiyoshi?" Kasumi asked.

Kiyoshi finally looked away from the deadly obstacle course of traps. For the past ten minutes no one had said a word as his eyes drilled into the forest. Now they turned on the other three, their green depths alight with what could only be called excitement. And a warning. "Compared to this one, the last one was simple… the difference is like that between first grade math and college calculus. But the stakes are much higher than a letter grade; you guys know that. The stakes are our lives. Because Kurama won't call these plants off, just because he wants to meet us If you step in here with me, it could mean your life."

Kasumi tilted her head slightly, "If you don't want us to come, just say something Kiyoshi. Not that that would stop any of us. But right now you're just insulting us. We're not completely stupid. We know you're powerful; more powerful than any of us at the moment. And we knew that before you killed Mizuko. Her death was nothing more than the proof we had been lacking. We haven't talked about it, but I'm sure Akiko and Takeshi feel the same way. And even though you were able to hide it from Genkai and Koenma… it's hard to hide something of that magnitude from people you spend all day with, every day." Akiko and Takeshi nodded, and Kasumi added, "Although, you are a very good actor, right up there with Light Yagami, just not quite so evil… or insane. At least, I don't think you're evil or insane. If not for the incident with Mizuko, I wouldn't be one hundred percent sure about your power and ability levels even now, you hid it so well."

Kiyoshi sighed. "Okay. But you're still taking the same risk. The fact that you knew of my power is proof; I make mistakes, same as anyone else. In this case, it will kill me. Then you three will either move and be killed or remain in the same place until you collapse from exhaustion, which will then make you move and be killed. Because, frankly, none of you have both the sixth sense and the connections needed to get through there."

Kasumi was the one who voiced the opinion of the other three, "I am willing to take that risk, if it's you who's leading us through it."

"Besides," Akiko asked, "Where's the fun in life if there isn't a risk involved?"

Kiyoshi seemed to have begun to feel the same way in the past months. Because now his eyes danced with his now-obvious excitement. "Okay then. Let's go."

What he did next surprised the other three immensely, because although Takeshi and Akiko could sense great danger from the plants as a group, they couldn't have said which plants were actually safe. Kiyoshi grabbed the vine closest to him, tugged on it and, when it didn't give, began climbing. He saw the looks on their faces and said, "As far as I can tell from this position, the only plants infused with his aura at first are those on the ground, as if to weed out the complete idiots." Akiko and Kasumi both narrowed their eyes, making it evident that the path Kiyoshi had just described would have been theirs. But he didn't notice, as he had continued climbing, shouting back down to them, "It also serves to lull everyone else into a false sense of security. But, as you can see, there isn't exactly a place to step down there on the ground. So we'll go through the treetops. After the first, oh, maybe hundred and twenty five meters there are traps in the tree branches as well."

Takeshi stared at Kiyoshi before saying, "You have got to be kidding me."

Kasumi answered, still staring after Kiyoshi, and still slightly stung at having been called an idiot, even if Kiyoshi didn't know he had done so, "I wish he was."

Kiyoshi could evidently still hear them, because his distant response to that was, "Awww, come on guys. This'll be fun."

"Tree climbing through a jungle of man-eating plants and other deadly traps, all infused with an S-class demon's aura?" Akiko asked, her voice containing more than a trace of sarcasm. "That's definitely what I'd call fun." Turning to Takeshi and Kasumi she added, "Then again, we are talking to the person who has a poisonous vine growing out of his arm…"

"They. Are. Driving. Me. Insane."

"So I've noticed."

"I hire them and then Genkai teaches them a few things. And then I completely lose any control I had over them to begin with even more quickly than any of my other spirit detectives. And after Yusuke, that is saying something. They can't even allow me to know they're alive because their communicators are always turned off. Maybe I should just give up on this whole spirit detective-Reikai Tentai thing and go back to bounty hunters… The headache I always got from Yusuke and the one I keep getting from these four makes that tempting."

"Of course," Botan said, interrupting Koenma's ranting, "It's your old team's fault the new one disappeared."

Koenma froze.

Botan continued. "And this isn't such a bad thing—they are talented enough to be as safe as it's possible to be in Makai. And it was you who sent them there in the first place anyway. And they might actually find Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke for you, which would lift another weight off of your shoulders."

Koenma sighed, blowing air out of the corner of his mouth. Then he admitted, "This is true."

In a forest in Makai, up in the treetops, four teenagers, three of which were human, stood lined up on a single branch. One was grasping the trunk as if his life depended on it; the next was crouched with an extremely nervous look on her face; the third stood upright, but had solidified her hold on the branch with ice; the last was on the thinnest bit of branch that could support human weight, but didn't seem to be bothered in the slightest by their height. In fact, he was grinning. "Told you guys this would be fun!" he said.

"I take back what I said earlier. I know you aren't evil. But you have got to be completely insane." Kasumi muttered.

Kiyoshi was having no problems in the treetops, having found his center of gravity almost immediately, thanks to the plants. To him it was like being on the ground. He leaned forward to look past Akiko at Kasumi; then, with a perfectly straight face, he said, "That is entirely possible."

She put a hand to her face and her next words came out muffled. "Could you stand up? Watching you all but dance through the branches as if gravity doesn't exist, and then trying to follow you is bad enough. You leaning over like that is making me sick."

Kiyoshi straightened up before saying, "Sorry, Kasumi. I am having trouble remembering that the plants aren't helping you three in the subtle way they are helping me."

"They're actually helping you?"

"No… not exactly. But I can sense the best footholds and such, as well as the fact that my aura is aligned with the plants', and somehow that affects how easy it is to balance. Not that it really matters. Tree climbing has always been really easy for me."

"Kiyoshi… Did you learn anything while we were studying under Genkai, or did you already know everything she taught you?"

Ignoring her question, which was an answer in itself, Kiyoshi said, "We have stopped because, after this point you can't just step on any of the branches; from here on out it'll be like last time, only vertical and horizontal, and in the trees with fewer gaps. You ready for this?" He seemed to be ready, as he couldn't even stand still, even for a few moments, and kept switching from foot to foot. In response the tree branch kept shaking.

"Two things, Kiyoshi," Kasumi said. "This is nothing like last time. Okay? And second, could you quit dancing? And if you can't, go walk off of a tree branch, or something."

"Aye, aye, Captain."

Then before any of them could do anything, he stepped out of the tree, and began falling towards the ground.

"I want to find Kurama's den, Botan."

"Not gonna happen, sir."

"Don't care. It gives me something to do. Go get any files that have anything at all to do with Kurama."

"If you insist… but Koenma, sir… I don't think I'll have them ready until tomorrow morning at the earliest. Even with the help of the filers."

"That many?"

"I suspect so, sir."

"Perfect."

Takeshi gasped, Kasumi screamed, Akiko raised her eyebrows.

And Kiyoshi's plant set him down gently on a branch some seven feet below them.

"You idiot!" Kasumi yelled at him. "You almost gave me a heart attack! Quit fooling around and get back up here! I don't want to be stuck in this tree for the rest of my life."

"To reach our goal, you need to be down here."

"And how do you propose I do that?"

"Jump?" he suggested. "Don't worry; I'll catch you. Or I could come up there and drag you down here." It was evident Kasumi wouldn't be able to jump, so Kiyoshi pulled a seed out. It grew, somehow stretching between the two limbs and fastening itself there.

After more than a little persuasion, Takeshi, Kasumi, and Akiko climbed down the rope to meet Kiyoshi, who was suddenly somber. "Only the trees I touch are safe. And unless I tell you otherwise, assume any plants growing on even those to be dangerous as well."

"And you didn't tell us this up there?!"

"The danger doesn't actually start until past this point. I wouldn't have risked jumping otherwise."

The obstacles they fought their way through for the next few hours were similar to the first time around, just as Kiyoshi had said. And just as he had said, it was much more difficult simply because there were fewer gaps, more traps, and they were in the trees. Eventually as the light began to fade out of the sky, Kiyoshi stopped.

"Why are we stopped?" Kasumi asked.

"After this point, every so often there is a plant that will go out of its way to kill us. 'A good offense is the best defense,' you know. As well as blind spots, ones that don't contain plant life. I suspect those are natural traps Kurama built this huge one around. So we'll sleep here." Kiyoshi replied.

"In the tree?"

"See that branch?" Kiyoshi pointed to a limb about one meter higher and five meters away from the one they were one, but growing from the same tree. "Watch." As if they could. So quickly their eyes could barely follow, hundreds of plants erupted from miniscule seeds in his hand to weave together and form a giant hammock.

Kasumi's eyes were wide. "Good Lord, Kiyoshi."

"I never realized it would be this many."

"I didn't either, sir. And we're barely halfway from his birth year to present day."

Surrounding them were stacks and stacks and stacks of files.

"I suppose we shouldn't be surprised; I asked for everything. That means everything he was even suspected of having a hand in."

For once Takeshi was quiet, something Kasumi was quick to notice. "You okay, Takeshi?"

He hesitated before answering, showing he wasn't telling the complete truth. "I'm a bit nervous because of all these plants; even the trees that are safe are crawling with dangerous ones, this one included." They understood what he meant; the tree Kiyoshi expected them to sleep in had a very creepy deep green vine growing all over it.

At Kasumi's next words, Takeshi looked away, his eyes landing instead on Kiyoshi. "Oh. I thought you might be a bit homesick, that you might miss your mother or something like that." And, since he had looked that way, Takeshi was the only one who saw Kiyoshi flinch at the word mother, before looking away from the group entirely.

And Takeshi decided to act macho, pass attention to someone else, and used that reaction as an excuse. But, because it was Takeshi, mocking had to be involved somehow. "I'm fine. But I think Kiyoshi might miss his mommy."

Before anyone, least of all Kiyoshi, knew what was happening, Kiyoshi was on his feet and Takeshi had been thrown backwards eight feet and pinned to the trunk of the tree, suspended above a sea of deadly plants, by dark green ivy. The low light revealed that Takeshi's face was covered in fear, but Kiyoshi refused to look at them. His voice was forceful and uncompromising. "Never say that again. Never speak about my mother. You know nothing about our relationship."

Akiko, like Hiei, however, couldn't let it rest. She had to see how far she could push him. "And if we do?" Her voice was cool, unaffected by fear, or even a rational amount of wariness.

"I will kill you." As he said this Kiyoshi turned, and Akiko stepped back, now truly afraid. Not of the words or his voice but of what she saw in his all-too-expressive eyes.

Kasumi saw them as well. And hidden behind hatred and rage was the guilt and pain so intense she wanted to cry for Kiyoshi, because he absolutely refused to cry for himself. And she knew that, somehow, his mother was related to all the pain Kiyoshi held in his heart.

Then, simultaneously, the four of them realized that the vines holding Takeshi weren't the plant growing on Kiyoshi's arm. Nor had he grabbed seeds from his pack. The plants were some of those infused with Kurama's aura.

Kurama leapt straight up from a dead sleep and began pacing yet again. Yusuke opened his eyes and looked blearily up at the fox demon in front of him. "What is it this time, Kurama?"

Kurama didn't even seem to hear him but both Yusuke and Hiei, who was awake and silent, got the gist of what was going on and what was going through Kurama's mind from Kurama muttering to himself.

"Not surprising… after their display last time, their progress now is really not a huge deal… but this… this shouldn't even be possible! But he somehow managed to pull it off… pain, fear of death, sheer rage…? Which is it? Which could give him access to such power? Knowing Koenma and the type of people who work for him it's the last…" He spun around and his fist collide with an intricately carved wooden shelf, which promptly broke. He didn't blink, didn't seem to hear the broken pieces fall to the floor but continued his pacing, admitting out loud but to himself, "I am so… confused… even with that rage or whatever it was and the power he's already demonstrated… even with me miles away… there is nothing that should have been able to force those plants to submit to anyone's will but my own… the fact that they did… that kind of power and control… it's frightening."