InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Said the Joker to the Thief ❯ Said the Joker to the Thief ( Chapter 1 )

AN: To avoid confusion, mental conversations are in italics. "..." is Hiei speaking, '...' is Youko, and no punctuation is Kurama.

Said the Joker to the Thief

The Spirit Detective Team stood in Koenma's office as the demigod pointed at a screen behind his desk from his position standing on said desk.

"She is to be considered extremely dangerous - Yusuke!" Koenma smacked his pointer against the desk and the teenager jumped in his seat, glaring at his boss. "Yusuke, you can't just rush in swinging like you usually do, you moron! Have you been listening to me?! You have one chance, ONE CHANCE, to catch this girl and if she gets away we'll never get another one!"

Yusuke pretended to stifle a yawn behind his hand, strictly to antagonize Koenma. "Yea, I heard you, toddler. Keep your diaper on."

"Geez, Urameshi, can you at least pretend to pay attention?" Kuwabara yelled.

The demigod's face turned red. "That's enough! It's like trying to talk to children… Now, as I was saying, she's very dangerous. She's a natural-born miko and a powerful one at that. I don't care how strong a youkai is, there's just not much you can do against holy power. This is why Kuwabara will have to be the one to physically catch her." Here, the young man interjected loudly, "I ain't hitting no girl!" Koenma continued over him, "Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, I can provide you with some protection against her reiki but you still have to treat her with extreme caution. This is the most current picture we have of her, but it's almost 500 years outdated, so she could look a little different now. And yes, Kuwabara, I heard you! You'll just have to work out the details amongst yourselves of how you'll catch her; I don't care, as long as you get her here!" He was panting and waving, red-faced in his excitement.

"I'm not gonna sacrifice my integrity to catch this girl, I don't care what she did!" Kuwabara insisted.

'Did he just say 500 years?' Youko stirred in Kurama's mind, turning his full attention to the conversation he'd previously only been giving half an ear.

Kurama spoke up from his position leaning against the wall. "Did you just say 500 years?"

"Yes," Koenma confirmed, happy at least one of them was paying attention to the information he was trying to give them.

"But she's in a school uniform…?" Kurama asked.

"And human?" Yusuke asked.

"Listen! I don't have time to go through the whole story but basically, this is her when she was fifteen before she was pulled back in time through a well on her family's shrine grounds to Feudal Japan. She has somehow survived for almost five centuries living in the Makai and has just now returned to the Ningenkai!" he waved his arms excitedly. "And! We're in luck because she's been crossing the border without a pass and we have reason to suspect consorting with youkai to make money off of humans, not to mention exterminating youkai without a license." Here, Koenma tapped his fingers on his chin thoughtfully and seemed to say more to himself than to the team, "That's enough to build a case for investigation, he can't say we didn't have probable cause."

'Finally something interesting is happening!' Youko paced excitedly.

Kurama asked, "Do you have any current information on her?"

"Yes, actually," Koenma answered with no small amount of pride. "I have a handful of operatives who have been in the field undercover trying to track down the youkai called Tokage I briefed you on a few weeks ago who has been hiring himself out as an assassin to unscrupulous humans in the Taito district of Tokyo. As I've told you, we don't know how he got across the barrier or where he's hiding out. Since we didn't know how to find him, we concentrated on likely targets. The previous two victims of Tokage had been linked to known crime bosses in that district, so they started to infiltrate into some of the other criminal rings in the area. While posing as a bouncer at a nightclub, one of my agents witnessed the club owner Komori, who uses the night club as a cover for his drug peddling, hire Tokage to kill his partner. Which was perfect, but then it got even better!" Koenma was pacing his desk now, waving his arms in his excitement. "Then! The club owner turned around and hired Higurashi Kagome, a VERY IMPORTANT woman who disappeared from our radar 350 years ago when the barrier was raised, to kill Tokage, under false pretenses, for a fraction of the price he would be paying Tokage! It's perfect! I could not have wished for a more lucrative opportunity!"

The detectives stared wide-eyed at the little heaving demigod as he tried to catch his breath. Kurama cleared his throat, breaking the awkward silence. "You say she's very important. Why?"

"Well!" Koenma cast about, red-faced. "She's wanted for unauthorized time travel. And some other things I don't have time to go into." His eyes darted about suspiciously. "But believe me, it is imperative that you bring her in relatively unharmed and able to answer questions." They didn't miss the 'relatively,' Kuwabara grumbling under his breath about his code. "Anyway, current information! Kagome has apparently aged only a few years by human standards, looking to be in her early twenties, and no I don't know how that's possible for a human. She carried a longbow but no arrows when she met with Komori. She was with a young man she introduced as her son. Based on information we have from her last sighting over three hundred years ago I'm assuming this is probably the orphaned kitsune cub she kept named Shippou. We don't have a picture of him, but he is described as about six feet tall, slim, with short auburn hair, appearing to be in his late teens. He didn't carry any weapons. His abilities are unknown, but as a cub he was gifted with illusions. As for her abilities, she is known to be an excellent marksman and skilled at hand-to-hand combat."

'A miko with an adopted kitsune son… I can't imagine what kinds of fucked up that kid has to be,' Youko shook his head, equally parts amused and pitying.

"I can't imagine what kind of hell raising one of your kind would be. The little bastard is probably lucky to have found anyone to take him in," Hiei broke in, having been silently listening through their open mind link.

'Maybe not. Have you ever met a miko? Nasty, hateful little witches. We kitsune have very particular needs that must be met for us to grow and flourish. He's probably so deprived and ignorant of his own natural instincts he may as well be a dog.' Youko sounded like this was a fate worse than death.

Hiei gave a snort of disgust across the mind link. Outwardly, his face remained its usual bored. "This mission is suspicious. Why is he so focused on this miko rather than the demon assassin with two confirmed human kills already?"

She does kind of sound like a character in a fairy tale. Maybe there's a lot more to her story that he's not telling us. Kurama decided to join the conversation going on in his head since Koenma and Kuwabara had dissolved into an argument about his misplaced chivalry.

'Well, obviously, Red. He's looking for reasons to bring her in so he can question her. It sounds like even he doesn't know the entirety of her story.'

"But he does know more than he's letting on."

'Oh, absolutely. I'd like to talk to this girl myself, actually. Time travel is an attractive concept…' the old silver fox said thoughtfully.

Youko, Kurama said nervously, Messing around in the timeline seems like a really, really bad idea. I don't blame Koenma for wanting to bring her in, who knows what kind of damage she could have done to the flow of time and history.

'Don't be so dramatic. If she changed the course of history, we wouldn't be aware of it and for all we know everything is exactly as it should be. Or it isn't, but again, we wouldn't be aware of it. So why worry about it after the fact? What I'm more worried about is how Koenma is so certain that we will only have this one chance to catch her. Ask him, Red.'

Kurama's head spun with the circular logic his other half seemed to run on sometimes. He cleared his throat to break the demigod's attention away from Kuwabara. "Koenma, why are you so sure that we will never get another chance to catch this woman?"

"Let's just say," the infant ruler said cryptically, "She has friends in high places and I'll leave it at that."

'That sneaky little shit!' Youko laughed disbelievingly.

What, Youko?

'He knows this is his only chance to get the miko because if she gets away these "friends in high places" will find out he tried to get her in for questioning! He's made some kind of deal with them and he's trying to get around it by building a case for a warrant for her arrest! That's what he was talking about earlier with the "probable cause" stuff. For him to take such a risk, this has got to be juicy!' He licked his lips in a distinctly vulpine manner, his tail swishing excitedly.

"Hn," Hiei had to agree.

"I really don't like the sound of this mission, toddler," Yusuke complained, crossing his arms. "You're trying to drag her in to answer for the same shit we do every day, taking out youkai causing trouble in the Ningenkai? And what about the Tokage dude?"

"Hey, yea! It seems like he's the real bad guy in all this!" Kuwabara spoke up.

"Stop asking useless questions; we don't have much time to prepare before she and Tokage are expected to be at the club! She's broken their agreement by crossing into the Ningenkai and that alone is enough to warrant arrest! And Tokage has killed two humans; you are to try to bring him in alive for questioning and judgement, but if he resists you can destroy him." Koenma finished with his arms crossed and an angry crease between his brows. "Now! Let me show you what we've got to combat holy reiki."

—

Kurama checked the tiny communicator that looked like nothing more than a button on the cuff of his white button-down shirt. "Testing."

"Check." "Check." "…Check, fox."

He looked around the crowded, dark night club and spotted his teammate Yusuke standing at the bar, swigging a beer and talking to a girl in a pink dress. Hiei and Kuwabara were positioned on the roof. Their insider, who had actually turned out to be Yanagisawa, one of the three high school kids who had kidnapped Yusuke years ago, was in the back office with Komori and his muscle, presumably along with their main target Higurashi. They couldn't confirm it because Yanagisawa was the only one of them not wired. The door behind the bar which led back to the owner's offices was guarded by two hulking men in sunglasses.

Youko was practically humming with excitement under their skin. 'Hey, Hiei! Can you see anything from up there yet?' He asked the apparition on the roof.

"No, stop asking, fox." They could hear the irritation in his voice.

Youko snickered. 'Is Kuwabara poor company, my friend?'

He only received a mental growl in return. Faintly, and if they hadn't had enhanced youkai hearing they wouldn't have detected it, they heard a thump on the roof. Youko, please don't antagonize Hiei. I really don't want to fail this mission. We'd never hear the end of it from Koenma.

"Shut up! The damn lizard is coming down the street!" Over the wire he said, "Target B approaching with three hostiles."

"Affirmative." "Affirmative." "Ha! I love this secret agent talk! Yea, affirmative, Eyes!"

"Zombie, try to be a little more covert, please." Kurama said calmly. Seeing the toushin laugh and try to wave away the suspicious look the girl he was talking to was giving him.

"Sorry," Yusuke responded sheepishly after the girl walked away from him.

On the roof, Hiei was ignoring Kuwabara's grumbling about codenames and had removed the ward on the Jagan Eye to turn its attention on the four youkai approaching down the empty street towards the front entrance of the building. "Target B is a class C, none of the others are above D class. Initiating." Those were his last words over the wire before he leapt over the edge of the roof when they were right below him and plummeted six stories to land silently on his feet behind the four youkai. They didn't take notice of him, thanks to the Jagan Eye. All he had to do was keep a constant link between the eye and the four youkai to feed them the suggestion that he was a member of their group and an ally. Hiei grudgingly did his best to disguise the eye under his bangs and followed the four into the club. He scowled in disgust at the stench of humans.

"This is hell." Hiei growled through their mental connection.

'I might be inclined to agree with you, actually. Especially since I'm stuck out here in this pig sty while you get the first look at Target A.' Youko grumbled with a distinctly pouting tone.

Kurama inwardly rolled his eyes. We don't have to use radio talk in our own mind, Youko. And is that all you're worried about?

'Well I'm sure as hell not worried about the lizard and his cronies. But isn't your interest piqued about this woman? A possibly attractive and mortally dangerous woman on the wrong side of the law? It has Cinemax late night special written all over it.'

Oh kami, Youko, tell me you haven't been watching that stuff after I go to bed again?

'Well when else am I supposed to watch it, because you won't watch it with me!'

Well, Youko, no I won't watch it. Not after the last time!

"What happened the last time?" Hiei couldn't resist breaking in.

He was answered with, in unison, 'None of your business!'

'And no, it's not just her I'm interested in; it's whatever secrets she's holding from Koenma that has him so bent out of shape. It's been way too long since we had any sort of interesting puzzle come our way… And also, I agree with the toushin, secret agent talk is kind of fun.' Youko added happily.

Hiei mentally rolled his eyes and was relieved to leave the chaos of the dance floor behind when they passed the two guards at the entrance to the hallway. "Target A spotted."

'What? She's in the hallway?' Over the wire, he said, "Eyes is in the back of the house, he has spotted Target A."

"Yes, she says she has been sent to escort us to the owner's office."

'What's she look like?' Youko asked eagerly.

"Her picture. Who cares?!" Hiei shot back in annoyance.

Does she have any weapons, Hiei? Kurama asked, trying to conversationally step between them.

"None visible, but her dress has long sleeves." He accompanied that thought with a quick mental snapshot of what he was seeing. Youko whistled long and low at the image of a young woman's back turned to him, a short black dress that dipped almost down to the top of her ass to expose the full length of her slender, lightly tanned back. Her legs, toned and lithe, were impossibly long in a pair of black patent leather stilettos and supported what Youko called an absolutely edible bottom barely covered by the lacy hem of the tight black cocktail dress. He couldn't see her face but her thick, wavy black hair was pinned up and over to one side of her head and left cascading over her shoulder.

'Sweet kami, that is the sexiest miko I've ever seen in my life."

"You've seen a lot of sexy miko?"

'Meh,' Youko shrugged. 'None of them were very sexy. It was more about the possibility of getting purified than their physical beauty.'

"You damned degenerate," Hiei growled in disgust.

Alright, can we focus? Hiei, what's going on now?

"We're in the back office. I've made it so that they won't see me unless they're really looking. Koromi is seated, he seems very nervous. He looked surprised when we walked in, I get the impression he thought she would take care of us in the hallway before we ever got back this far. He's got six men, one of them is Yanasigawa. Target A is sitting on the desk, positioning herself between the lizard and Komori."

'Why would she break with the plan?' Youko wondered.

We don't know she did. Komori could just be nervous because of the situation or maybe he wasn't expecting Tokage to bring reinforcements.

'No, it would make sense for their plan to be for her to quickly neutralize the threat in the hallway, in an enclosed space with some back-up at the door to keep them from escaping. She wasn't supposed to let them get back to the office.'

"What's going on, Fox?" Yusuke asked over the wire.

"Eyes is in the office with the targets. Initiate."

Yusuke approached an irascible looking man at the bar and slid in between him and his date. As they had planned, the toushin provoked him easily into taking a swing at him. Yusuke ducked at the last minute, the man accidentally punched another man in the back of the head, and a brawl started at the bar, patrons with drinks in hand quickly circling the combatants and cheering. The two guards at the hallway door left their post to break up the snowballing fight and Kurama slipped behind the bar and through the unguarded door. It clicked quietly behind him in the silent hallway. He heard voices towards the end. Luckily, the door to the office they were in was slightly ajar and he slipped silently down the dark corridor, back hugged against the wall, to listen right beside the doorway. He peaked one eye around the corner. He could see the backs of Hiei and Tokage's men, but couldn't see further into the room.

"What is the meaning of this, Komori?" Tokage asked angrily.

"You will talk to me now, Tokage. What are you here for?" This was a feminine voice, calm and commanding, but young and warm as well. This was the voice of a woman who didn't have to raise her voice to get attention.

There was a short pause. "Who the hell is this supposed to be, Komori, your wife? Despicable, using a woman as a shield."

"Who I am doesn't matter. You will tell me why you're here, or regret it."

Tokage laughed and his henchman joined in, amused at the little human woman threatening their boss. "You have quite a mouth on you, little girl. I'd like to see what else it can do."

"Original. Really. But I have things to do, and I'm sure you're a busy… entrepreneur yourself. Just tell me what business you have with Komori-san so that we can get to the fun part."

Tokage laughed again. "I like your mouth, onna. I'll humor you, because I'm really very interested to know what you consider 'the fun part.' This human and I made a business agreement, money for a life. I've held up my end of the deal and now he will pay me." At that moment he stepped forward and allowed Kurama a view of the woman sitting on the edge of the desk.

'He lied. She's nothing like the picture,' Youko breathed, taking in the long, lean legs crossed primly at the ankle, the plunging neckline that left her bare from neck to well below her sternum, affording him an uninterrupted view of the valley between her ample breasts. When she looked up from examining her nails he saw piercing blue-gray eyes, strangely old and out of place in her otherwise youthful, almost childishly expressive face.

She glared at Tokage for a moment, then turned her head to cast a look of contempt at the human who sat trembling at his desk behind her. "You lied, Komori-san. And you know what I told you would happen if you were lying to me." She slid off the edge of the desk and smoothed her dress back into place.

Komori stood up, desperately reaching for her arm. He snagged her wrist before she could step away. "No! Miko-sama, he is lying! He is a demon, that is what they do!"

"Miko!" Tokage and his men yelled, suddenly taking defensive positions.

Kagome ignored them, turning her attention to the man who held her wrist. "First of all, don't make sweeping statements like that. It's very rude. Second, I was hired to exterminate this youkai on the grounds that he was extorting you. You're as guilty as he is. Pay him, or don't and I guess you'll see what making deals with shady bottom feeders gets you. Third, Tokage, didn't your deal state no weapons at your meetings? And you just strut in with a Jaganshi with a sword on his hip in plain sight? Come on."

Hiei's eyes widened in surprise a split second before Tokage dropped the bomb. "What the fuck are you talking about, onna?"

Kagome's eyes went to Hiei for a moment that seemed to stretch out into eternity. Then she swore, "Son of a bitch!" and all hell broke loose.

In an instant she had pulled a small capsule from behind the ear hidden by her long hair and threw it onto the ground in the middle of the room. Thick, acrid smoke filled the room, throwing everyone into confusion. Hiei had flickered out of sight a moment before the smoke erupted.

Kurama called to Yusuke over the wire and told Kuwabara to be ready. Swearing, he buried his nose and mouth into the crook of his left arm and slipped into the chaos, staying close to the door so as not to let the woman get through without him knowing. Two humans lumbered into him out of the smoke, hacking and swinging wildly. He knocked them out quickly with a right hook for one and a round house kick to the side of the head for the other. He tried to move toward where he could hear feminine grunts and shouts of exertion. A pink glow erupted across the room where he had last seen Kagome. He almost tripped over the body of Tokage behind him when he jumped out of the way of a flying fire apparition. The smoke flowed around him and swallowed him up again as he hit the wall next to the doorway and slid to the floor, dazed.

'Holy shit, Hiei, are you alright?'

The hybrid glared murderously at him, holding a hand to his chest where it felt like a hot sword had passed right through him. He coughed through the smoke burning his lungs and flecks of blood sprayed out of his nose and mouth. "Never felt better, you tailless jackass."

'Tailless!' Youko cried, outraged.

If you're well enough to throw around insults, you'll make it, Kurama said, eyeing Hiei with worry nonetheless. Her Reiki? 

"No shit."

Well at least we know the vests work. You're not a pile of ashes.

"I'm so relieved."

'Cut the sarcasm, what's she fighting with?' Youko growled, looking around as the smoke started to dissipate and figures emerged from the shadows.

"Her hands. Energy projectiles."

Then, Youko and Kurama swore in unison. "Well, shit," he said aloud, looking at two identical women in identical antique-looking masks covering the bottoms of their faces, standing amongst a slew of bodies, all of which were upon closer inspection merely unconscious.

'One of them is the son! Koenma said he was an illusionist! Holy shit, that's a good illusion.'

Are you really praising the enemy right now, Youko?

'I give credit where credit is due.' The fox answered indignantly.

Kurama looked from one to the other as they stood in identical stances, hands on cocked hips. 'I am definitely filing this little scene away for later enjoyment.' Youko said dreamily, licking his lips hungrily.

Youko, you just said one of them is a man! Her son!

'…Yeah, what's your point?'

Kurama and Hiei both groaned in disgust in the safety of their minds.

Suddenly, both of the Kagomes lunged toward Kurama. They moved swiftly in perfectly coordinated attack combinations meant to maximize damage to the weakest parts of the body. 'Damn, they're clever! They're not using energy attacks so we can't tell which is which! That puts at least one of them at a serious disadvantage though…' With the two women attacking him at the same time and him still needing to breath through his sleeve while the smoke dissipated, it was all the fox could do to defend himself and try not to let them gain ground towards the exit, at least not until Yusuke got to the door to keep them from going back out through the front of the building.

'Well, shit, Kurama, let me in on this if you can't handle it yourself!' Youko cried, blending himself more fully into his counterpart to gain more control of their body. 'Look at this kid, the poor bastard fights like a dog. Relentlessly aggressive from the get-go, holding nothing back from the beginning. No finesse, no strategy. It's shameful.'

Kurama swore as he dodged another well-aimed slug at his face and blocked the accompanying knee from the other side with his own leg. The impact still hurt like a bitch. Youko, they both fight like that, not just the kid. 

'Yeah, well, that's all well and good for a human. But a kitsune? We have more pride than that.' The old fox said with disgust.

Pride is definitely not something you're short on, Youko.

'Shut up. Hiei, what the hell are you doing? We could use some help! And where the hell is the toushin?!'

They received only a dangerous growl in return as the fire apparition struggled to pull himself up to lean against the wall, his hand still clutched painfully to the protective vest on his chest where the purifying energy had struck him. 'Damn, he really is hurt. Red, this isn't looking good. We weren't counting on her spotting Hiei or the poisonous smoke. Damnit! Hiei, I'm losing them! Shit, pull yourself together and don't let them get back out the front way!'

Just as the two mikos were finally able to break past Kurama, Hiei was able to regain his footing. Unfortunately, he couldn't move with his usual speed, feeling like all the strength had been drained out of his muscles. The women were able to slip past both of the spirt detectives. When they got out into the hallway they split up. Hiei chased after the one that went back they way they had come and Kurama followed the one heading further down the hallway, to the rear of the building. Kurama looked back over his shoulder to see Hiei slip into another room in the hallway after the other woman. 'Damnit, Hiei, don't you dare let her get away!'

"Shut UP, fox, I'm working on it!"

When Kurama looked ahead of him again Kagome had disappeared. He reached the end of the hallway and found her shoes left in front of the locked door to the back alley. He looked to the left to a door that indicated a stairwell. "The stairs! It worked!" he said to himself, quietly slipping through the door and letting it shut softly behind him. He listened very carefully and could just hear a flight and a half perhaps above his head the soft, padding footsteps of bare feet on linoleum.

'Gotcha!' Youko said excitedly.

They followed swiftly up the stairwell which spiraled straight up to the roof. She would be looking for a way out of the building, and would logically head to the roof if they blocked her other exits. The miko was quick and quiet, he had to give her that. Above him he heard one of the doors open and close softly and smirked. When he got to the door that led to the fifth floor, he slipped through just as quietly and looked both ways down the hallway, seeing no sign of her but an abundance of dark rooms she could have slipped into.

'She'll try to get to a window! She thought better of getting to the top of the stairwell and possibly the roof access door being locked from the outside.' Youko kept a running commentary in their mind.

Damnit, I know that Youko! Kurama walked up and down the hallway, peeking into each room and seeing closed and undisturbed moonlit windows.

'Just take the fire escape; she got ahead of us!' 

Kurama obliged and shoved open the window at the end of the hallway and climbed out onto the fire escape. He looked up and down but didn't see Kagome on the steps. He ascended the last story of stairs and climbed over the lip of the roof just in time to see the Kagome he had been chasing expertly disarm the hesitant Kuwabara who had tried to catch her by surprise as soon as she burst out of the roof access door. Kurama swore when he realized Kuwabara just wasn't going to hit her no matter how many times she hit him. It only took two well-placed kicks to the ribs and a punch to the kidneys to take down the man who was easily a head or two taller than her. He fell to his knees with a groan, dropping the enchanted cuff he'd been trying to slip around her neck to absorb her holy reiki the way their vests did. Kurama watched her kick away the cuff and run towards the edge of the building. She looked down over the edge. Kurama walked up to stand a few feet behind her.

When she turned around, he could see bruises covering her left arm and shoulder, leading up to a mottled blue bloom spreading over what he could see of her left cheek under the protective mask she wore. At least Hiei had gotten a few hits in.

'Shit! Now we don't have the cuff and we don't even know if we've got the right woman on the roof! We have to try and knock her out! We need to get closer!' Youko urged him.

She looked him over with calculating blue eyes as she reached behind her head to loosen the heavy mask and let it fall away from her face to hang around her neck. Youko marveled that even when her facade was calm and her gaze serious, her eyes were still warm with emotion. "You're from Reikai, aren't you? You people move fast. But I figured you wouldn't be able to keep your hands off me for long when you got the chance."

Kurama didn't bother to deny it. Youko made a crude remark about getting his hands on her that Kurama, of course, didn't repeat. "Why do they want you so badly?"

"They didn't tell you?" She surreptitiously cast a glance over her shoulder and down to the street six stories below. She shrugged. "I guess they want my secrets. You know bureaucrats. They can't stand loose ends."

"Why didn't you kill Tokage?" Youko had taken over talking, trying to get her to relax her guard as he stepped closer and closer to her. He met her gaze and held it with a deceitfully open expression.

The miko looked shocked for a moment. She had seen the curiosity burning in his eyes and had expected him to ask her about those secrets. "What?" she asked, confused.

Youko was delighted to finally catch her off guard. "You refused to kill him because he wasn't extorting Komori, but he admitted to killing a human for money."

Kagome raised her brows in surprise and comprehension. "Ah, well, getting Komori out of paying his hitman wasn't what I agreed to." She shrugged again. "And I learned a long time ago you can't save the world. You have to pick your battles."

By this time Kurama was standing less than arms length away from her. He could smell her now over the stench of the city. She smelled like fragrant, damp hydrangeas, something a little spicy, and beneath that the sultry scent of wet, hot jungles that spoke of her centuries of residence in the wilds of Makai. His gaze moved over her bare feet which seemed a much more comfortable state for her, her lean legs, voluptuous hips, calloused hands, trim waist, exquisitely, tantalizingly partially exposed chest, her beautifully arched neck, long dark hair, sweet open features and eyes the color of rough seas. His eyes finally rested on her lips and he moved in close, loving the way her eyes smoldered under her lowered lashes and her pink lips became flushed and parted just so slightly when he touched her chin with his thumb and forefinger. He dipped his head so that he could feel her warm breath set fire across his lips in the chill of the late fall night. He had the brief thought that she must be freezing. Youko told him to shut up and let him warm her up.

He closed the distance between them and covered her lips with his. The heady scent of sun-warmed leaves and damp moss filled his nostrils and spoke to something indescribably primal inside of him, eliciting a growl in the back of his throat as he devoured her soft, pliant lips. She was beginning to respond, pressing her chest against his and laying her hands on his shoulders, lamenting the protective vest underneath his shirt that kept her from feeling what she knew would be hard muscle. Her flesh erupted in chill bumps when the chilled skin of her chest and thighs met the warmth of his body. She sighed and melted against him when she felt his rough, hot palm slide over her the outside of her thigh and up over her hip to caress up her naked back and press her tighter against his chest. Kami, I hope this isn't the son, Kurama thought through the haze of arousal that clouded his mind.

Suddenly, Kurama broke the kiss and turned his head to see her glowing hand hovering over a poisonous bloom that had sprouted from a seed in the hand on her back to slither up over her shoulder. It had been about to release its payload, a single toxin-tipped quill that would immediately render a small target unconscious, into the side of her vulnerable neck. Now, however, it was quickly being reduced to ash under an invasion of holy reiki. Kagome leaned away from him after he broke the kiss and to his surprise started laughing.

"What do you find funny, miko?" Youko asked her, mildly annoyed but not totally surprised that she hadn't fallen for his deceit.

Still smiling and laughing to herself, she explained, "A dear friend told me that a kitsune would be the death of me."

Youko smiled at that, but before he could respond Hiei's voice reached him through their mental link. "Shit, fox, the son is coming up the fire escape, bleeding all over the place! He broke his illusion when I got him in the stomach!"

'You were fighting him with your sword? What if that would have been the HUMAN woman we're supposed to bring in alive?' Youko asked, irritated at the whole damned situation because he had no doubt his interesting, sexy quarry was about to get away.

He felt Hiei shrug through the link. "I had a hunch I was fighting a kitsune."

Youko grumbled about the shame of a kitsune fighting like a dog. "Shit, he's a fucking bird now!" was all the warning they had before they heard a voice shout "Mother!" from somewhere below them and Kagome looked down over her shoulder with a brilliant smile. She looked back at the stunned and admittedly extremely attractive kitsune that some laughing kami somewhere had sent to cross paths with her, probably for their own sick amusement. She laughed again and said, "I can't wait to tell him he was wrong!" and without warning let herself fall backwards off the roof. Kurama lunged forward, reaching out futiley toward her falling body. She fell only ten feet or so before what looked like a giant bird of prey caught her and soured away over the streets of the city.

"Hey sorry guys, I got caught up in this huge bar fight, couldn't get away. I'm coming down the hall, where are you-? Oh shit!" They heard Yusuke swear over the wire. Kuwabara groaned and rolled over onto his back behind them. Hiei had just now crested the fire escape and climbed over the ledge onto the roof. He was hunched and had a pained, hateful scowl on his face. Even the Jagan eye seemed to be glaring.

After several moments of silence, Youko said, '…Goddamn, that was a good illusion.'