Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Just Outside the Light ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I don't own it, nor do I own any free time.

Author: Letta

Rating: Probably R.

Warnings: Violence, slight OOC, possibly AU- it's up to you.

Pairings: none so far

"speaking"

/thoughts/

Title: Just Outside the Light

Yusuke smirked arrogantly. Between his spirit gun, Kuwabara's spirit sword, and Hiei's blood lust, these wolf demons were in for one hell of a surprise. He looked around, and saw one demon that looked way too eager. The spirit detective raised him right arm and winked.

"Spirit gun!"

The energy enveloped the demon, tearing him apart.

As if on cue, Kuwabara whipped out his spirit sword, and a sudden breeze followed by a few thumps led into a world of confusion for the hapless pack. Yusuke ducked as a demon flew over his head, rolling to the ground to end up snarling at him. He grinned and shot off his spirit gun.

The spirit detective whipped his head around to look for another demon to fight and blinked. Kuwabara and Hiei were standing amongst twenty or so hacked up demons, arguing about how Hiei had killed a demon that Kuwabara had been fighting.

Yusuke hadn't expected the fight to be over so quickly. He was disappointed. With a sigh, he shoved his hands in his pockets and figured they might as well keep going.

He rolled his eyes as he walked past the bickering pair.

"C'mon kiddies, we've got distance to cover."

"Kiddies?" Hiei asked.

"Well," Yusuke stopped and turned around to face the fire jaganshi, "you are acting like children." He smirked and turned back on his heel, walking away leaving the other two to follow.

~`~`~`~`~`

Leiko walked into the room, waiting for Kurama to look at her. He had been staring at the student id since she had left the room over an hour ago. His ears had twitched when she entered, telling her that he was fully aware of her presence. When he finally did look up, she spoke.

"I'm leaving. A wolf pack was slaughtered."

He looked at her a moment. Her ears were slightly pressed back against the top of her head, indicating anger or annoyance. She obviously wasn't happy about having so many attacks in her territory in such a short amount of time.

"Why are you telling me?"

"In case there's a connection between this and your attack," she said, looking even more annoyed. "Though I plan to kill whoever it was that did this."

"Hn."

She left the room, leaving him to stare at the card in his hands again.

~`~`~`~`~`

Yusuke wiped the sweat from his brow. Hiei had stopped flitting amongst the trees and was now walking with them again. He hadn't said anything about how they had blindly walked into a pack of wolf demons or why he hadn't warned them. Yusuke smiled slightly, knowing why. Hiei had been caught off-guard too.

That had been half an hour ago.

When Kuwabara stopped and Hiei disappeared again, he immediately froze, glancing around for any unseen enemies. Then it hit him. An enormous power washed over his senses, telling him that an S-class demon was very near. He steadied himself, switching into a fighting stance.

He watched as a white-haired demoness walked calmly from between some trees, clothes matching her hair. She had ears atop her head, and a tail curling and uncurling behind her. She looked pissed.

Her cat-eyes focused sharply on Yusuke, as a large white demon cat bounded up to her side, growling lowly at him. Kuwabara stepped up to his side, standing stiffly.

"Who are you?" she demanded, angrily.

"Glad you asked. My name's Urameshi Yusuke, spirit detective," he said, pointing his thumb to his chest as he announced his title.

"And I'm Kuwabara Kazuma," the redhead added, standing proudly.

She raised her eyebrows.

"I guess it would be illegal to kill you… but only if I get caught," she said.

Yusuke sweat dropped.

"Uh, why do you want us dead?" Kuwabara asked.

"You're hunting on my territory."

"What do you mean?"

"You killed a wolf pack," she accused, eyes narrowing dangerously.

"They surrounded us! What were we supposed to do? Say, `Hey, my left leg is especially tender?'" Yusuke yelled.

"Do you think I care?"

"Why do you care?"

"This is my territory, and I really don't like competition."

Yusuke groaned, gritting his teeth in annoyance. He shot a nasty look over to the demoness. He was never an extremely articulate person, at least not diplomatically. However, when it came to shooting one's mouth off and being a smartass, he was your go-to guy.

"We're just passing through," Kuwabara said.

"I'm sure, but right now, I'm not allowing any trespassers. You see, there have been a couple of attacks around here lately."

"Like what?" Yusuke asked, suddenly interested.

"A kistune I found. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that?" she asked, her voice held a note of accusation.

"A kitsune?"

"Yes."

"Say, Yusuke, do you think…?" Kuwabara asked quietly. The spirit detective looked at him, a look of hope passing through his eyes. If it was Kurama…

"Hey lady! Did this kitsune have silver hair?"

Her eyes narrowed even more if it was possible.

"Yes."

"Is he alive or…"

"Dead. Are you responsible?"

Yusuke's eyes widened as his mind grasped what she had said. Beside him, Kuwabara stiffened. If it had been Kurama, and it probably was if it was the same area… silver-haired kitsunes were rare enough… then… He dropped to his knees.

"No… Kurama…" he said quietly. He looked up at her, eyes growing moist, as if she could change what she said, then angrily back at the ground. His hands fisted at his sides and he raised them to smash them back into the ground, releasing his sudden need to hit something. He stayed there for a moment fighting back tears, feeling Kuwabara's hand on his shoulder and the demoness' eyes on him.

Then he looked up at her, voice low and dangerous, determination in his eyes.

"Who did it? I'll kill them."

She nodded slightly to herself.

"I take it, that it wasn't you."

"Why the hell would I want Kurama dead?!"

She walked up to him, stride brisk, until she stopped about three feet away, her demon cat trailing behind warily, occasionally sniffing at the ground. She kneeled, meetingthe detective's gaze before she spoke. Her voice was quiet, just above a whisper as if she was afraid someone else might hear.

"I lied. He's alive. I just wanted to know whether or not it was you. See, I intend to kill the predator who intruded on my territory."

"What about the wolf pack?" Kuwabara blurted out.

Her eyes snapped to him as the spirit detective yelled out his name angrily.

"You do realize that was an extremely stupid thing to bring up, don't you?"

The redhead blushed furiously in embarrassment, wisely deciding not to say anything further.

"I'll be willing to let that slide if you can find me the intruders," she said.

Yusuke looked at her sharply. She was willing to let them get away with `hunting' in her territory in exchange for information. He didn't know why, but if she knew where Kurama was, he'd be willing to cooperate in any way possible.

"We don't know who attacked him yet," Yusuke said, carefully.

"Well neither does he."

The two humans looked at each other questioningly. It was a cryptic answer that neither of them could guess the meaning behind.

The sudden appearance of a black cloaked figure behind the demoness distracted their attention.

The cat youkai, sensing another presence, spun around, then her eyes widened in shock.

"Hiei!"

"Leiko."

"Where the hell's my money?!"

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A/N: So this took much longer than it needed to for me to post. You have my word that the next chapter won't be quite so far away. Anyway, questions, comments? Suggestions? Requests? I'm versatile.

Oh, and eventually I plan to get back to that whole Alika deal… like next chapter.