Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. Never have, never will.

"Really?" Kuwabara asked, scrambling to his feet and moving to take a seat on the loveseat. He sounded excited, no doubt by the prospect of a potential clash with Mecca, and I smiled faintly. There's nothing like a boy and his love of fighting.

Yusuke grinned wickedly. "Heck yeah, we did." He appeared ready to launch into an explanation of what they'd learned, but Kurama began to speak before Yusuke had the opportunity.

"You should know that our news is not entirely good."

"What do you mean it isn't good?" Kuwabara said, perplexed. "Any news is good news, right?"

"Yes and no," Kurama replied. "We know more about Mecca than we did, but that new knowledge has raised even more questions. I'm getting ahead of myself; we should be explaining what we've learned." Kurama turned his eyes to Yusuke and waited expectantly for the hanyou to begin.

"Oh, can I speak now?" Yusuke made no attempt to hide his irritation.

"Yes. Did I ever say you couldn't?"

Yusuke glared at Kurama, apparently unable to formulate any kind of response. Finally, with all the maturity of a six year old, he snapped, "Well, that's too bad because I don't want to." Leaning back in his seat, Yusuke crossed his arms over his chest and glared at spot on the far wall.

"What did the wall ever do to you?" I asked. Finding myself subject to Yusuke's annoyed stare, I fell silent.

Sighing, Kurama looked away from Yusuke and began to speak. "Seeing as Yusuke no longer has any interest in explaining, I will take over. As you both know, we went to the Makai with the intent of visiting each of the territories and gathering what information we could about Mecca. Shy was right in her assumption that it took us very little time to learn what we wanted. Or, I should say, to learn what our informants could tell us. Much of what we learned raised questions that no one could answer, leaving us with a dilemma. In order to catch you both up to speed, I will explain what we discovered and then we can discuss what to do about our new questions.

"We already knew that Mecca is a raion, a lion demon. What we didn't know was that he is the head of a pride. Much like the lions found in the Ningenkai, raions live in prides, consisting of females, offspring, and a male. That Mecca leads a pride is clearly worrisome. We can assume that his pride members will be willing to lay down their lives for him, meaning that he has at least a small group of loyal followers. Besides leading his pride, Mecca is also the head of a slave trafficking ring."

I gasped faintly, so faintly that I didn't think any of the others would hear it, but Kurama stopped speaking, his eyes darting to me worriedly. Forcing myself to smile, I said, "Sorry, I was just caught off guard. By slaves you mean humans, right?"

"Yes," Kurama answered. "I forgot that you would be unused to the idea of human trafficking."

"Actually I already knew that some demons use humans as slaves, Kuwabara told me once. What surprised me was that Mecca is involved in one. I mean, he could have very easily kidnapped me and sold me as a slave. And, well, doesn't that raise another question? Genkai wanted to know why he left me alive, but now don't we need to know why he didn't take me?"

"Hn, the woman has a good point." I looked at Hiei, who had now taken a seat on the windowsill and was watching me appraisingly. I shifted uncomfortably under his watchful stare and looked away.

"Maybe we were wrong about our originally theory of why Mecca left Shy alive," Kuwabara said. "Perhaps it had nothing to do with Mecca thinking Shy's death to be irrelevant or that killing her would be against his orders. We don't even have proof that he was following orders at all, do we?"

"Other than our assumption based on him mentioning seeing a picture of Keiko, no, we don't," Kurama answered.

"Okay, so what I figure is that maybe Mecca wanted us to find out who he was. It would make sense if that was the case. By leaving Shy alive, he left behind a witness that could identify him."

"Yeah, but why would he want us to know who he is?" Yusuke asked, finally deciding to rejoin the conversation. "Isn't that a little counterproductive. If we know who he is, we can keep an eye out for him, which makes defending those we care about a lot easier."

"Unless that's what he wants," I said. I was talking quietly, somewhat unsure if should even be contributing to the conversation. "Isn't it possible that he wants you guys to focus on what he may or may not be doing, so that someone else can catch us by surprise?"

"So you're suggesting that he's trying to use himself as a distraction, something to keep us from figuring out what's really going on?" Yusuke asked. I nodded and the room fell silent.

After what felt like ages, Kurama cleared his throat and said, "Well, Shy, you've certainly raised an interesting question but for now I think we should concentrate on the other information we learned today."

"Sure, that's fine," I murmured. I hadn't really meant to start some big long conversation and I didn't mind the idea of moving on and talking about something else.

"As I was saying, Mecca is involved in a slave trafficking ring. Yet again this is troublesome because not only will he have loyal followers in the ring, but the ring itself provides him with an easy way to disguise what he is doing. Trafficking rings are shady and very little of what happens within their inner circles is revealed to outsiders. The actions of ring members are almost impossible to track, which means that Mecca can do just about anything he wants and the dealings of others in the ring will prevent us from figuring out just what he is doing.

"Kuwabara, you asked earlier if we had any proof that Mecca has some sort of superior or someone he takes orders from and as far as we were able to find out he doesn't. Nobody we asked today had any idea about who he may report to. This, of course, does not rule out the idea of Mecca having a commander, but it does mean that it will be nigh on impossible for us to figure out who it is if he does have one. Any questions so far?"

When Kurama received no response, he continued smoothly on to his next topic. "As for Mecca's abilities as a fighter, we learned a surprisingly large amount. We'd taken the liberty of assuming he was strong, both because of Shyle's description of him and his ability to throw her across the Yukimura's restaurant, and everyone we talked to verified this conjecture. Most of his demon energy contributes to his brute strength and he has very few attacks, most of which are based entirely on blasts of pure energy. We were told that Mecca opts not to use a weapon of any kind." Looking to Yusuke and Hiei, Kurama asked, "Am I missing anything?"

When Kurama had resumed his explanation of their activities in the Makai, Yusuke had returned to sulking and now, looking balefully at Kurama, he refused to speak. From his seat at the window, Hiei uttered a quiet 'hn,' which I assumed meant he couldn't think of anything.

"Um, I'm not really sure it's important, but who did you talk to?" Kuwabara asked, speaking up from his seat on the loveseat.

Kurama answered, "We each went to our own territories and spoke to those we knew there. Personally I went to Gendar and consulted Yomi, many of his advisors, and a variety of people who spend time at his court. Yusuke visited Tourin, where he talked with Hokushin and the other monks. Alaric was Hiei's destination and I believe he spoke with Mukuro and members of her army." Kurama glanced from the hanyou to the fire demon. "That's correct, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Yusuke snapped.

"Hn."

There was a very awkward silence, which was finally broken when Kuwabara asked, "So what's our plan of action?"

I didn't bother to listen to the response. To be truthful, I didn't really want to know anything else. The sooner I was out of the room the better; I'd had more than enough talk about demons and fighting for one day. I simply couldn't get my mind off the idea that I could be someone's slave at this very moment and all it would have taken was a slightly different decision on Mecca's part.

The very idea of slavery made me shudder and I quickly set to work gathering the scattered popcorn, dumping it all into the bowl I'd been eating from. When the floor was clean I stood up, grabbing both Kuwabara and my own bowls, and headed for the kitchen. I made quick work of the popcorn and dirty bowls and then retraced my steps through the living room. Pausing in the doorway to the hall where the bedrooms were located, I said, "Have fun, guys. I'm done with all this demon business. I'll be outside."

It took me only a few minutes to change into my bathing suit top and a pair of shorts, grab a book from my bedside table, locate a beach towel, and head outside. I spread the towel out on the grass and lay down on top of it, propping my book open in front of me. Taking a deep breath, I banished all thoughts of demons from my mind and focused on the words in front of me.

The sun was setting, the last rays causing an orange glow around the trees, when Kurama found me. I heard him approaching and, flipping my book shut, rolled onto my side to greet him. "Hey. What's up?"

He smiled warmly and replied, "Keiko and Yukina just got back. They're starting to make dinner."

I raised an eyebrow when he didn't say anything else, confused as to why he'd bother to come outside just to tell me that. Cocking my head to the side, I asked, "Is that all?"

Despite knowing him only for a short time, I knew that the hesitation that preceded his answer was uncharacteristic. Uneasily, I listened as he asked, "Would you mind if I sit?"

"Of course not," I answered, pushing myself into a sitting position and making room for him on the towel. He took a seat beside me, but remained silent. Deciding to go for the blunt approach, I said, "Look, Kurama. I know you want to ask me something, so just spit it out."

He laughed slightly before replying, "Sorry, I'm not intentionally trying to drag this out, I'm simply unsure how to proceed."

"Allow me to suggest the direct approach."

Chuckling, he said, "Yes, that does seem to be the best method." He looked up at the sky, studying the sunset. "It's pretty here, isn't it?"

"I hope that wasn't the question that was giving you so much trouble."

"It wasn't."

"Good to hear."

"Alright, so you suggest the direct approach?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Have you told you parents about demons or the Makai?"

I blinked once, startled by his question. "Where the hell did that come from?"

He shook his head and said, "Answer the question."

"No. No, I haven't told them anything."

"I figured as much," he murmured. He continued to look at the sky, but his eyes were unfocused and I had a feeling he wasn't seeing the sunset.

Shifting nervously, I plucked a piece of grass and began to pick it apart, trying to separate it down its center vein. "Is something wrong?"

He sighed and shook his head. His eyes focused as he turned to look at me and the anxiety in their green depths unsettled me. "I suggest you tell them. And, quite frankly, the sooner you do it the better."

He fell silent, his eyes still locked on my face. I glanced away, plucking another piece of grass. "They'd freak," I said at last. "If I told them about all this stuff they'd go crazy and get all overprotective. They wouldn't understand."

"You're wrong." I glanced sharply at Kurama, annoyed that he thought he could predict how my parents would react. He smiled faintly, though it didn't reach his eyes. "I apologize if it seems I'm being presumptive, but I believe you're wrong."

Yet again he stopped talking, but I made no move to speak. We sat in silence until Kurama began to speak once again, explaining himself. "I've never told my mother the truth of what I am. It is easily the biggest regret of my life. I know what you think of that, you want to know why I simply don't tell her now, but you must understand how impossible that would be. I've kept the truth from her for so long that I would not know how to begin."

"For so long, I've believed that admitting what I am would drive her away from me, would ruin the relationship I have with her. In the past few years, I've finally come to see that nothing I could ever do would come between us. A parent's bond with their child is something that cannot be broken. I wish desperately that I had seen that earlier. It would have saved me so much trouble."

"Unlike me, it is not too late for you to explain, Shyle. You could come clean and tell your parents everything. I believe with all my heart that they would take what you said in stride, that they would still recognize you as their daughter and treat you no differently than they always have. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

I studied him, trying to figure out what had made him admit all this to me. He'd looked away from me, turning his eyes to his hands. I followed his gaze, studying his long, delicate fingers. Small white scars were scattered across the skin and without thinking I asked, "Why are your fingers scarred?"

He glanced at me in confusion. "I'm sorry. What?"

"Your fingers, they're covered in scars."

"I've grown plants all my life, roses in particular. They are my mother's favorite. The scars are a result of tending to plants that are both beautiful and dangerous."

I tried to hide my surprise at his answer. I'd assumed that he had acquired the scars in battle; that their nature was so innocent caught me off guard. I'd assumed that everything in his life that was important occurred because he was a demon, but clearly I was wrong.

And then it clicked home why he had brought up a subject that was so hard for him, why he felt it so important for me to tell my parents everything. He was sick of living two lives. He wished that when he came back to the Ningenkai from the Makai he didn't need to hide anything, at least not when in the presence of those he cared about.

I'd always thought of Kurama as a demon, but in truth he was just as human as Yusuke, maybe more so. Where Yusuke had both human and demon blood flowing through his veins, Kurama instead had both a human and demon soul within his body. From what I'd understood of Keiko's explanation, Kurama was in fact two people: Shuuichi Minamino and Youko Kurama. The Kurama I was sitting next to couldn't be defined as either of those people. He was neither a demon nor a human, but a combination of both, a man created by a complicated past that couldn't be packed neatly into a little box.

I glanced at him, the sun had set and he was lit only by the light shining from the shrine's windows. I'd expected that he would look different now, that my realization would allow me to see him better, but he looked as he always had. "Yeah," I said finally, answering the question he'd asked me what felt like ages ago, "I get what you're saying. I just don't know how I'd go about explaining it to them."

"Allow me to suggest the direct approach."

I glanced at him to find that he was smiling, his strange mood from only seconds before gone. It was as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulder when I'd admitted to seeing his point, as though I'd freed him somehow.

"Oh, really? You want me to just call them up and be like 'hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that all my friends are demons.' That would go over really well," I joked.

"You're right," he conceded. "It would be better if you at least went to their house."

I snorted. "I'm not really seeing how that would be any better."

Smiling, he elaborated on his originally advice. "What I meant is that you should go to their house and explain. Don't sugarcoat anything, just tell them the truth. Explain about the three worlds and then tell them about demons. Let them ask questions, be as honest as you can. They'll accept everything you say; it won't change anything between you."

"Easy for you to say, you don't know my mom."

He cocked his head to the side questioningly. "You doubt that she'll accept what you have to say?"

"Nah, she'll eat it up, it'll excite the crap out of her."

"Then what's the problem?"

"She's going to think I'm telling her everything because I have a boyfriend. A demon boyfriend."

Kurama chuckled but stopped when I shot him a threatening look. "I'm sorry, that's not funny." Even as he spoke he started laughing again and tried to cover it with a cough.

"It really isn't," I snapped. "She's going to assume that I'm only telling them about demons because I fell in love with one. She'll start crying and talking about wedding plans before I even have the chance to tell her there's no boyfriend. It's going to suck."

Kurama took one look at the pout on my face and broke out into unrestrained laughter. "You really don't find it funny at all?"

"I don't find it funny because it isn't funny."

"I beg to differ."

"I think you're being insensitive of my feelings. I'm going to be traumatized and you find it hysterical."

"I hadn't taken you for the drama queen type," Kurama said, standing up and brushing off his pants.

I rolled my eyes and said, "Your looks are deceiving also. You look way nicer than you are."

Chuckling and clearly not offended, he offered his hand and I took it, allowing him to pull me up. He reached down and retrieved my towel and book. Handing me the book, he flung the towel over his shoulder and turned to the shrine. "Dinner should be about ready."

Smiling sheepishly, I said, "I should go in and help set the table or something, at least make an attempt at being useful."

He nodded and started toward the shrine. I fell in step beside him. He paused at the steps. "Promise you'll talk to your parents?"

I nodded. "Promise."

AN: I had to rewrite the whole beginning of this chapter (most of the stuff about Mecca) because I'd originally had Yusuke explaining everything, but it just didn't feel right. Yusuke isn't really the type for long drawn out speeches, so I change things so that Kurama explained what they learned.

As for the talk that Kurama and Shy had, I know that Kurama wasn't his normal completely-in-control self, but I hope I explained why.

Eleven reviews! You guys rock. Can we have a repeat performance?