This chapter… took forever to find the enthusiasm to start. And once I found the enthusiasm, it took awhile to figure out what the right beginning was. But I'm pretty happy with it. :) Although, what Kiyoshi does is needed more for the set up of what happens later (I needed an excuse for him and Akiko to fight) and what sane or partially sane person would want everyone to know that they killed their own mother? I only own, well, you guys know the drill.

Thanks to those of you who reviewed. As an author, that always makes me happy. :)

And if you can figure out the anagram, extra points! Or rather, some points, since I haven't given any out before now. But the next chapter is dedicated to you, even if I don't say so in the next chapter. And, just on the off-chance that someone isn't sure what an anagram is (I always get them confused with ambigrams and other such puzzle-like things) it's when the letters in a word or a phrase are all rearranged to say something else.

Without warning Akiko and Takeshi collapsed. In the second it took for Kasumi to turn and look to see what had happened, Kiyoshi stood. When she stood and faced him, her voice was accusatory, no longer sympathetic. "What did you do to them, Kiyoshi?"

Tears continued streaming down his face, a small consolation for Kasumi, because she could see that his emotions had been more than just a ruse. And when he answered, he averted his eyes, ashamed at what he had done. "Dream flower pollen. When they wake up, they won't remember anything after me explaining why it was such a big deal that Kurama's plants submitted to my will."

"Why, Kiyoshi? And why not me, too?" Her voice sounded slightly hurt, that Kiyoshi would stoop so low as to interfere with his own teammates' memories.

He paused. "The reasons are the same as before. As for why I didn't erase your memory… you were right, Kasumi. I hurt less. I may not be able to escape it entirely ever again, but doing so won't be quite so necessary, either. Did you want be to erase them?"

"No!"

"Then this will have to do." A plant shot towards Kasumi from Kiyoshi's closed fist. It hit her and she fell, almost immediately beginning to lose consciousness. She stared up at Kiyoshi, the betrayal she felt evident on her face. Seeing it he said, "Don't worry; that's just to make you sleep. Tomorrow is going to be more dangerous than today was." She drifted off then, her ears barely registering his soft words, "Thank you, Kasumi."

Akiko woke suddenly, and a strange scent settled in her nostrils. Strange, perhaps, but not unrecognizable. She thought back to the night before and understood. And that understanding was grounds for her to get angry. Very angry. She leapt up and strode as best she could on the uneven and unstable surface to where Kiyoshi lay. And she slapped him awake. Hard.

Takeshi and Kasumi woke to the dulcet tones of what Kasumi considered to be two incredibly smart people… who were once again acting like complete idiots. Then, because she knew it would distract at least one of them, she turned on her communicator to call Koenma. As she did so, she listened.

"What was that for?!"

"I don't care about your reasons. My memories are my memories. Do not use dream flower pollen on me again."

Kiyoshi, far from being angrier that she had discovered what he did, looked intrigued, "How did you know?"

"My tribe uses it for healing; erasing memories of a traumatic event can work wonders."

"How nice to see my team is still getting along." The sarcastic and unexpected voice made both Kiyoshi and Akiko turn. "I can see that this is a bad time, but I'm going to have to interrupt anyway. I don't know how long it'll be before Kasumi shuts this thing off again." His voice clearly stated his disapproval.

"She won't need to." Kiyoshi sounded bored, now that his spat with Akiko was over. "I had wanted her to keep it off so you wouldn't be able to track us using the scenery or some type of high-tech, inter-planar, GPS-like device hidden in the communicators. To prove how much it doesn't matter now, I'll turn mine on as well. You just can't keep calling it, because the distraction might kill us in here." He reached into his pack and turned his on. Seeing the look on Koenma's face, confusion because of Kiyoshi's sudden cooperation, Kiyoshi added, "Now that we're in here, it won't matter if you know where we are; you can't stop us."

Koenma's eyes narrowed. Even after his last team he hadn't become accustomed to being patronized by people who worked for him. Then again, Kiyoshi was just stating the facts as they were. At this point, short of blowing the whole place up, he couldn't get in. And he couldn't use explosives with his team inside. Instead, he looked down, hit a few buttons and said, "Kiyoshi, could you take a look at this map and tell me what you make of it?"

Almost immediately, Kiyoshi's device began beeping. He flipped it open and the other three looked over his shoulder at the carefully plotted points. Then they looked at Kiyoshi.

In Koenma's office, Koenma watched his team via Kasumi's communicator Akiko's face showed she didn't know what he was getting at, what he wanted Kiyoshi to see, but that she also didn't care. Takeshi and Kasumi looked unimpressed by the map, but confused as to what it meant. Kiyoshi's face revealed almost nothing. So little, in fact, that Koenma suspected Kiyoshi was revealing that small amount of emotion on purpose. Koenma let that one slide. "What do you see?"

"I see that you are… missing information."

"What?! How could you know that?"

"This is a game. I'm assuming you already know that. But to see the entire thing, we are missing pieces. Which means that either those pieces have escaped you or Kurama hasn't given them to you yet. I think it's the first."

"Why the first? And who said anything about Kurama?"

"The first because the final points look strangely complete. As for Kurama… I can see the file description, sir. 'Sightings of Urameshi, Kurama, and Hiei since 2010.' Kurama's name is highlighted."

Koenma sighed. Was it really any wonder Kiyoshi was such a danger to the underworld? He controlled an inordinate amount of power and his mind had basically the abilities of an intelligence analyst's times eleven. 'Damn good thing he hasn't turned against me,' Koenma thought. Then, because of the fiasco with his last team and Kiyoshi's completely gray morals, his mind instinctively added, 'Yet.'

Kasumi really didn't care about the map. She understood the importance of the map, but it meant nothing to her at this particular moment. What interested her was the look on the boy's face. Tempered by a lifetime of hiding his pain, Kiyoshi's face showed nothing of his thoughts but what he wanted people to see. Along with his slight curiosity, he was allowing them to see a faint undercurrent of something else she couldn't identify. "Well, I'll see if I can find the other spots." Koenma said, and the object in Kasumi's hand flashed once before dimming to a monotonous gray, after which she flipped it shut. Kiyoshi also closed his, although with slightly more restraint than the snapping of Kasumi's.

And then the curiosity disappeared. Leaving only the faint… amusement. As usual, Kiyoshi understood more than he was letting on.

But she didn't have a chance to ask because Kiyoshi said, "We should probably start moving. We're wasting daylight."

Koenma, Botan, and several others were digging fervently through the files on Kurama, looking for something. Anything. So far they had found reports of two sightings they had previously missed. Not that two points made much difference on a map that was already a random smattering of dots. But Koenma trusted Kiyoshi. More than he probably should. Trust was a bad habit of his. One that was one of the main reasons he was in the position he was in. He had trusted two delinquents, a murderer, and a thief.

Koenma didn't know it, but they would only find two more locations. And he still wouldn't see what Kiyoshi had seen in only seconds.

"Beautiful, Akiko."

"Right."

Before them were frozen plants, reaching out to attack them. "I'm serious," Kiyoshi said.

"Then thanks, I guess."

They traveled a few more meters before Kiyoshi swung down from the tree, landing in a cat-like crouch on the ground. They had reached a small clearing. A crystal clear river ran through it, at a fairly slow pace. "The only way to get through it is by going across the river."

"Interesting." Kasumi said. "How is flowing water up to Kurama's usual standards?"

It wasn't Kiyoshi who answered. It was Akiko. "It's up to his standards because that isn't water."

"Then what is it?"

"I think what is happening is that some source is heating it to such a high temperature that it looks like water; I think it's actually glass."

"Glass?"

"Glass." The last came from Kiyoshi. A respectful grin covered his face. "Ingenious, isn't it? It's possible, if unlikely, that people have gotten through to here, then collapsed exhausted into the 'water,' thinking to cool off." He then threw a small chunk of wood he had picked up into the stream. It was carried away, but not before they had seen it catch fire from sheer heat. "The perfect irony, no? Get in to cool off, and you will be burned to death."

Kasumi looked at Kiyoshi whose eyes were alight and whose mouth was turned up at one corner. She then said, "Kiyoshi… what's funny about this situation?"

"Puzzles… that's what this is. There's more to this than meets the eye. Or the sixth sense. We just need to figure out what the missing pieces are. And I was thinking about Kurama's little publicity stunt."

"His what?"

"The points on the map. Places he's been seen. He's entertaining himself."

"And you came to this conclusion because…?" Kasumi was quickly becoming frustrated with Kiyoshi's cryptic messages.

"Let's just say that Koenma is off on a search for information he doesn't need."

"What do you meant? You told him you couldn't figure it out." Why couldn't he ever just come out and say what he meant?

"I said he was missing information. I didn't say I couldn't figure it out, or that he actually needed that information. I already know what it is, anyway."

"Then why doesn't Koenma understand the message?"

"Sometimes solutions can be so simple people overlook them. The puzzle was a simple connect-the-dots. The form letters. Some of which are missing dots and what I believe to be the last letter."

"Which is?"

"A."

"What does it say?"

"Out his candy ear, Koenma."

"And that is supposed to mean…?"

"Do you really think Kurama would make it as simple as connect-the-dots?"

"You just said it was simple."

"The part Koenma was missing. Which you need to figure out the second, more complicated part. And when he finally figures that out, he'll know there is a hidden meaning. Kurama isn't one to give out meaningless messages."

"What are you talking about? As far as I can tell, 'out his candy ear, Koenma' has no meaning."

A sly smile spread across Kiyoshi's face. "It's an anagram."

"How are they doing, Kurama?" Yusuke asked.

"Did you have to ask? Did you have to encourage him?" Hiei groaned.

"They've made it to the river of glass." Kurama muttered, barely looking up. He had been unresponsive for most of the day. What was unusual was that he was sitting his elbows on the table in front of him. His fingers were laced together and his golden eyes surveyed the room over them. The unusual part was that his thoughts didn't have him so agitated that he had begun pacing. Now he seemed almost calm. "They have almost reached the final stretch of my test. I hope they stop where they are for the night. If they don't there won't be any place they can rest."

"We should just let them die, if you ask me," was Hiei's callous remark.

"What happened to 'meeting them will be fun'?"

"Hmmm… Well, I've decided that leaving another note here, and any other place we stop, leading them on what is essentially a pointless chase to find someone they can't would be more fun. And then we can see how long it takes them to either catch up to us—unlikely—or get themselves killed." Kurama looked at Hiei for a moment before deciding that it might actually be a good idea if Hiei had suggested it for entertainment rather than out of pure maliciousness.

But Kurama's eyes were still alight. "No, Hiei. But we can continue annoying Koenma. I need something else to do while we wait for the team or I think I might go insane."