I am back at last. What's it been, what, two and a half, three weeks? I admit it, I fail. I was super stuck, and teachers enjoy giving huge amounts of homework just before finals. Not only was I stuck, but I had no time to just sit and force myself to write until I was unstuck. Well, enough of that. I only own Kasumi, Kiyoshi, Takeshi, and Akiko. Well, the special forces team too, but they're not important yet, nor are they individual characters. And look! It's the twentieth actual chapter! Hurrah!

Things may not be too clear at the end of this chapter, and I apologize for that. They will, however, be explained in the next chapter (which I have already started!).

Now for reviews. Thanks you guys!

animegrlsteph: yes, very sad. But necessary. That chapter was very hard to write. I almost started crying several times. :P

Kuramasredrose: that's pretty much how I feel too.

Kurama had awakened everyone early. "Since Koenma knows our location, I think we should leave today. Training can be continued as we travel."

Yusuke pulled himself to his feet, looked around, and said, "I'm gonna miss this place."

"We spend days trying to get in here just so we can leave? That's just delightful," Kasumi grumbled, unhappy to be awake.

Yusuke just laughed. "Get used to it. We've been moving around like this for a hundred and fifty years."

"Doesn't that get tiresome?" Kiyoshi asked.

"Not really. Much as I can tell, the restlessness in me increased tenfold when I became demon," Yusuke said, shaking Takeshi, who was still asleep. "You ever felt that way? So energized that the only way to calm yourself is to pick a fight?" Takeshi remained unresponsive but Kiyoshi nodded. "Well, moving from place to place helps dissipate some of that tension."

"Only because you pick a fight with every demon we meet," Hiei muttered.

Yusuke ignored him, "Wake up!"

Suddenly Takeshi's eyes snapped open and the look on his face left Yusuke and Kasumi laughing, Kiyoshi snickering, and Kurama smiling. Yusuke noticed the last. "That's the first time you've really smiled in God knows how long," he said, "I think these kids are good for you." Hiei nodded once and Kurama looked away, avoiding eye contact.

Once they were outside, the mood lightened a bit. "No training if you can't keep up with me!" Yusuke called to the group. As Takeshi and Kasumi prepared to run, Kiyoshi and Akiko simply watched. Suddenly Yusuke took off. Seeing his speed, Takeshi gave up. Kasumi however made to follow him, only to be stopped by Kurama's hand on her shoulder.

"The only one of us who could keep up with him is Hiei; I don't suggest you try. You'll end up separated from us in the demon plane. Never a good idea," Kurama advised.

"But he wasn't going that fast; I might've been able to keep up if he didn't have such a head start!" she protested.

Kurama looked at her a moment. "He was hardly jogging just now, Kasumi. He's just screwing around. We don't go out often enough because it's easier to avoid Koenma if we keep a low profile. Which just isn't possible with three S-class demons traveling together. Particularly when those three demons are us. Forgive him. He's got a lot of pent up energy. You chase him and he'll start running for real."

Only one word seemed to have registered with the youths in front of him. "That's jogging?" Kasumi asked in disbelief.

"Yep. Yusuke, get back here!" Kurama called. In a matter of seconds Yusuke had returned. "Thanks for the demonstration, Yusuke," Kurama said, "That, Kasumi, was almost full speed." Her jaw dropped.

At about noon they all stopped. Kurama and Yusuke were a bit displeased with how far they had come. As for Hiei and Akiko, they were frustrated that they couldn't move faster. The entire group had to travel at Takeshi's pace. Not that Takeshi noticed they were all holding back to some degree for his benefit.

But by mutual consent of Hiei, Yusuke, and Kurama, they stopped to begin training.

"What to do, what to do…?" Koenma muttered to himself. He paced back and forth. It was of the greatest necessity that he find those four teenagers. If he didn't… if they simply disappeared as Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei disappeared… he didn't think he could take it.

He hit the wall with the side of his fist. Nothing he did made any difference. If he chose to do nothing, they might vanish. If he sent a special ops team after them, Kurama might make good his threats. If he went after them himself… well, he could only realistically hope to keep one of those three at bay at any given time.

After several minutes with his head bent down and his arm stretched out, fist against the wall, his keyboard in rapid succession. A moment later his special forces team appeared in the doorway. "You needed us, Master Koenma?" the captain asked.

"Yes…" Koenma muttered, mostly to himself. "I have an assignment for you. First thing you need to know is that you all have no more than an even chance of making it out of this mission alive, probably less. If you're not prepared to risk it, I suggest you resign now."

"Master Koenma…"

"My new team has disappeared into the demon plane. I have their last known coordinates. I would like you to bring them back."

"No disrespect, sir, but how will our lives be endangered by four teenagers?"

Koenma sighed. "One of them is a demon. Another is a throwback although she hasn't transformed. A third is human. The last is what's known as a copycat. A human controlling A-class levels or higher of demonic power, while still being human themselves."

Nine sets of wide eyes stared back in horror. But then his next words made everything worse. "But they aren't the real problem. You could handle them." The long pause after these words seemed as if it would never end.

Finally the captain broke it, "Sir…?"

"You guys are equipped to handle up to two A-class demons. What you've not been told is that there are demons out there above A-class. And those S-class demons… they could easily kill multiple A-class demons single-handedly. My team is accompanied by three of them."

"And you would send us in?!" the captain protested.

"Only if you choose to go, knowing the risks. And only because those demons are Yusuke, Hiei, and Kurama."

Now, since the time Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei had disappeared, every member of the special forces team had resigned, retired, or been promoted. None of these members had had any contact with the ex-detective or his friends. So they didn't know just how violent they could get when provoked. They did recognize the names, however. Those three were somewhat infamous in Reikai, as the cause of Koenma's constant state of worry. Which now seemed to have grown exponentially. And, again, it was their fault. But other than rather sketchy backgrounds and the stress they caused Koenma, they weren't bad people. At least not the way Botan made them out.

But the fact that they had never met the demons they would be up against, only heard the stories, led to a lack of discretion. Every single member of the team chose to go after the fugitives.

The captain saluted Koenma and they left, leaving him feeling as if he had just made a huge mistake.

"Nice footwork. But your posture could use some improvement," Kurama told Takeshi. Takeshi nodded, adjusted his upper body as fox demon had indicated, then continued working through some basic stances. "Much better."

Kurama had become frustrated. He had still failed to bring out Kiyoshi's true power. It had become obvious the boy wasn't holding back. He currently wasn't capable of summoning that amount of aura. But why? Kurama reached a decision. Now was the time to provoke him. Force it out by any means necessary.

While Kiyoshi had improved (he had successfully halted Kurama's attack for a full one and a half seconds), it wasn't enough to help in a fight. "Let's stop for a moment," Kurama said, "And you can tell me what happened to you to make you bear so much pain."

The boy's eyes remained blank, but his voice was icy. "Unless it's relevant, I'd rather not talk about it."

"Not relevant, but I'd like to know. We can figure out the best way to hide what is apparently your only weakness," Kurama replied coolly.

"I think I'll take my chances." This silver-haired fox demon was beginning to tick him off.

Kurama had known this would be his response. He kept his face blank as he began with what would have been the most likely thing to provoke him, years ago, when she was still alive. "Okay, I am no longer asking. Now I am telling. All weaknesses must be erased, or bad things can and will happen. A demon could kill your mother. Me, perhaps." He hated being this cruel, but it was necessary. So he let the threat hang in the air where storm clouds were brewing over Kiyoshi's head. Little did he know he had hit both nails on the head. Kiyoshi's past and the key to his power, tied together in one little package. And he had just ripped it wide open.

But what happened next was definitely not what Kurama would have predicted.

Kasumi had reached the point where she could use rapid fire without hurting herself. This wasn't a testament to Yusuke's teaching skills so much as it was a reminder that Kasumi had been training for most of her life. Yusuke's heckling had only pushed her enough that she had surpassed her limits and reached a height that had previously eluded her.

He was excitedly telling her about some tournament he had fought in he had fought in when he was still working for Koenma when he suddenly stopped short. "Wait here," he commanded. He then ran off at an incredible speed in the direction she was pretty sure Hiei and Akiko were training in.

Akiko could now consciously summon small amounts of flame to her palms for short amounts of time, although it took a tremendous effort. Surprisingly, Hiei was happier with how far she'd come than she was. He knew how difficult it was to master fire; it had a life of its own that you had to overcome before you could even hope to do anything with it. And this girl was more ice than fire and she had only been attempting this for a couple of hours. Not that he'd ever tell her he was impressed. Quite the contrary.

"Is that all the better you can do?" he asked her, covering his face in the look of contempt that he had perfected long ago.

She glared. "You try working with ice for three hours straight and tell me how you like it," she snapped.

"Unlike yourself, I can control both sides of my nature, even if I don't choose to do so," Hiei snapped back. She didn't need to know that his control of ice was limited; that was irrelevant. And his control of ice was still better than her control of fire.

"Prove it."

Before he could respond, he was hit by the force of a powerful demonic aura that Hiei immediately associated with Kurama.

Only seconds later Yusuke appeared. "Am I the only one who feels that?" he asked. Hiei and Akiko both shook their heads. Then Yusuke asked, "Why would Kurama need to release that much aura?"

Then they were hit by a second wave of aura, the same strength as the first. It was only very slightly different than the first, but also somehow slightly more familiar to Yusuke and Hiei. But the two auras were almost identical in every way. "If that's Kurama, then the first was…" Yusuke trailed off. "Oh, god. That's insane. I definitely wasn't expecting that one." All Hiei could do was nod.