III. dance of leaves

Kitsune no baka, that Fox trusts this man too much. Hiei thought as he raced through the trees after leaving Kurama and his "brother" at the latter's house. But then the Fox was blinded from hope. He liked his new "oniisan" too much at the moment to think of anything else. Ch, he's getting soft. It must be something that Kurama got from hanging around ningen too long he supposed for no one could have survive for more than a handful of years in the Makai without suspecting their own grandmothers if need be. Correction, the clan-less and outcast need to be suspicious even of their own kin not those who had families… Old pain welled in him.

Be that as it may, he needed to investigate the Schwartz anyway. He might as well investigate this Ran Fujimiya as well. It wouldn't do to hurt the Fox unnecessarily but it wouldn't do to compromise the mission or the Fox's safety either. If that man was planning to betray or harm the Fox in any way…Hiei gripped his sword tightly, Ran will have to answer to him.

That surprised him, when did he feel such a thing for the flamboyant fox? Besides Kurama can protect himself very well, thank you. It was probably an unwarranted suspicion anyhow but Hiei can't shake the dark thoughts out of his mind. It was way too convenient for him to appear just now when the affair with Bolshai was coming to head. Coincidence? The way he moved, the steely glint hidden in eyes bespoke of more than passing acquaintance with battle and death. Though the man did not register very much above normal, that could have been a trick to lull the Fox into false security. And that lost sister, was she a true ningen or something the man made up to get the Fox's sympathy, Hiei wondered. Knowing the Fox he'd have taken the man at his word and not a thought to checking. Though the Fox may have his own suspicions.

Though Hiei had no friends or relatives here in the Ningenkai, he had other resources. Mukuro, like Yomi and Yuusuke's regent, had an intricate web of C- and D-class youkai here in the Ningenkai. They engaged in a matter of low-profile trades some criminal but not large enough to attract the attention of the Reikai. Or if they were noticed, Reikai and the Makai lords had an unofficial understanding about such things, for as long as the youkai in question was playing by Ningenkai rules, no official sanction would be taken. Hiei ranked high in Mukuro's command chain. Further more, he had been in the Ningenkai before and not caused any trouble, excepting the occasional brawl with Kuwabara. Therefore he was the logical choice to manage these agents for Mukuro.

***

It was much later and much more confused Hiei retired to the tree in Kurama's backyard. His contacts had offered much more and much less than he'd expected but having some facts had given him more questions than answers. There were no records to access about them in the police files but one of the youkai in question had seen the "short flame hair ningen" with a katana with several others at least two whose descriptions matched Omi Tsukiyono and Ken Hidaka at one time.

The youkai remembered it because he had been robbing a mansion when he sensed some humans using reiki, naturally the youkai had run. He had a gun with ample ammunition and with the speed of one of his kind he could handle any mere ningen or fair number of ningen in a group but he didn't want to chance fighting some ningen with reiki. He had been so preoccupied with running away that he had almost run smack into the group of ningen coming down the hallway killing the guards he had avoided before. He had managed to camouflage himself in time to be passed over but he got an eyeful of the group. They were armed to the teeth and determined expressions that were set to kill. Whatever they were doing in that house surely wasn't legit for they killed the guards with expert precision. Of course, that was all the youkai could tell Hiei for the latter had made good of his escape soon after.

Kisama! The little coward hadn't even gotten a look at the reiki users. What happened to natural curiosity? For the youkai had been adamant that Ran and his team were in his sights when he sensed reiki usage in another part of the house. But to be fair, he couldn't be faulted for all he knew he might have stumbled onto some Reikai business in progress. Hiei had the demon confirmed by visiting the Koneko to verify that it was Ran and his group of seemingly innocuous flower-boys that he had been talking about then had let him off to take care of business as usual.

Were they rivals or enemies? Were they allies? It was no means even certain that Ran and his group were connected with Schwartz for all Hiei knew their presence at the scene was a coincidence. He knew some people were stupid or unlucky enough to attract all the wrong enemies. They tended to get several contracts on their heads as a result. There was two things that was obvious to him at this point though, he couldn't tell this yet to Kurama and that he must be wary of Ran. That ningen bears watching…

***

Kurama looked out of his window to look into the branches of the tree. Looking for the half-Koorime that usually slept there. Seeing the familiar dark shadow in the tree, he fell asleep, assured.

***

Ran unease developed into full-blown paranoia and so he decided to check into the records himself. Though Omi was their computer expert in such things, Ran had learned somewhat of the hacking business in his time as a freelance assassin. He didn't want to bother Omi since the morrow was a school day and he knew Omi needed the energy to be vigilant but was too restless not to try to find any information on Shuuichi's friend. In any case, what he wanted to do first was to browse through the criminal records, which was open enough to them, being as they were Weiß.

Two hours and several files later, he was no closer to finding anything about the man, "Hiei Jaganashi" simply didn't exist in the records. Nor was cross-referencing those distinctive gravity-defying hair and red eyes yielding any results. Which proved nothing either, he had no criminal record yet here he was a top-fledged assassin and so were the Schwartz and he'd bet that they were "clean" as well. Blood can be washed off the records with the proper incentive if not as easily from the hands. He thought wryly as he went to sleep.

***

Kurama grumbled. The school day was not any better today, though Kurama had manage to sneak some few minutes away from Omi-kun and Ran-niisan like right now. He had walked from the school locker room, his 'niisan always walked with him to the soccer field in an unspoken agreement but right now he was running late. Kurama was now glad that they never agreed to it verbally as well grateful for the respite, he felt like he was being the subject of a hunt with all this attention.

"Minamono-kun."

"Yes, Naoe-kun?" Kurama said, thinking frantically of excuses to say to the other boy, he really needed to be alone right now. Unfortunately, it seemed that Nagi Naoe was determined to talk to him. He was leaning on the tree with his dark brown hair mussed by the breezes as if he had been waiting there for at least a half-hour and with his face set.

"Minamono-kun—" Nagi started again, he was having a hard time getting it out, having bad experiences when confiding about his powers. He figured on taking the direct approach since the indirect one has failed miserably.

"What?" Kurama said kindly though his patience was getting to the point of no return. If this were something as inconsequential as a crush he was going to kick the ball into orbit to vent his frustrations.

"Er, what do you think of the powers of the mind?" Said Nagi assured that Kurama at least wouldn't mock him or laugh.

"Huh?" Said Kurama, deciding to play it neutral until he knew where this conversation was heading. Though it was getting—interesting.

"Telepathy, telekinesis, precognition and the like." Nagi said levitating some of the fallen leaves to prove his point in a dance that was so deliberate it couldn't be mistaken for the wind.

"Very interesting, Naoe-kun, rest assured that the knowledge of your Gift will stay with me or do you want me to tell everyone..." Kurama's eyes widened at the play of rei the boy was showing but he only showed normal admiration at his tone, his mind was frantically in calculations. Nagi Naoe had betrayed a lot of training in his manipulation of the leaves. A lot of training…and we don’t know much about Naoe-kun, why…why he’s as secretive as I am!

"No, Minamono-kun, please keep it as our secret." Nagi said smiling in relief, he knew well enough that Shuuichi Minamono meant what he said and waved a farewell. He's normal or he would have reacted. Though I may wish otherwise, he wouldn't have been a good addition to the Schwartz anyway. As he walked away, Nagi felt a disappointment he never thought he would feel.
Now it faced with it, he realized that Shuuichi and his circle was the closest he'd come to having friends of his own age not counting Tot. Before he had come to Meioh High he had kept very much to himself, telling himself that he didn't need any complications with his profession. Brad and the rest of Schwartz also encouraged his isolation. They were the only friends he would need he had thought then but now, now he realized that he missed being normal. Having friends of his own age, no problems other than studies and girls and just hanging out on Saturday evenings or lazy afternoons…

It would have been good to have a friend like him for real. But how can he be friends with someone he cannot confide in totally? Lost within his own thoughts, Nagi unknowing left one very thoughtful kitsune behind him.

***

Hiei followed Nagi to an apartment in the suburbs. It was quite unremarkable except for one thing: Hiei couldn’t sense thought emanations in or out of the place. It wasn’t possibly be that there were no people there when he had seen Nagi, a red-head with messy hair, a man with glasses go in the interval that he had been observing the apartment. The only feasible explanation was that the apartment was shielded against mental intrusion. Yes, Kurama was right there was certainly something going on here. Such shielding was expensive, not only the materials but for the information in making it must have taken a lot of research. Hiei had encountered several demons that made a career of selling fake charms and such, there were a few genuine articles but these were generally lost in the trash, which is how the Reikai wanted it. The real thing would cost astronomical amounts of money to get and that without guarantee of success or, Hiei’s eyes narrowed at the thought would require the cooperation of a demon from the Makai. These must be the right ones or at least a close guess.

***

Crawford twitched he felt something was about to happen but no vision had yet to manifest itself. There were days when he hated his Gift. It wasn't as accurate as he projected to the rest of the world. As his teammates probably suspected, it went on and off, choosing to manifest itself and sometimes it never solidified into a vision but into random feelings. His training with the Estet had honed his Gift so that he could remember most of the details and not to put off random dreams or feelings so he "saw" more than most precogs but that was all. Those who trained him admitted it wasn't the most reliable of talents and, sometimes, it made his teeth grit. He was going to put the rest of Schwartz on alert but the feeling tapered off and vanished. Uneasy but aware that nothing was going to happen now, Crawford went back to the report he was typing in his laptop.

***

Hiei decided to flit off to Kurama's to tell him before going to the temple to see Botan so he could arrange a meeting with the rest of the team since their regular meeting wasn't scheduled for three days. Besides it would not do to hang around the potential target, they might sense something and become suspicious.

***

Kurama was about to go to bed when Hiei appeared in his room. He was about to give a flippant comment but stopped he saw that Hiei's face was set grimly. Instead he sat on his bed and invited Hiei to seat himself beside him that the latter did.

Hiei didn't want to seat himself beside Kurama, he didn't know why but it amplified the strange feelings that he had been feeling around his best friend for awhile now but, k'so, the Fox would surely be hurt or offended so…

"I followed your classmate. Found him entering a 'Shielded house." Said Hiei where he sat a little a ways from Kurama. Compromising with a couple of inches between.

"So he may be the one."

"Hn, he lives with at least two people. Both of them are gaijin."

"Suspicious."

"I agree, that is why I'm going to ask Botan to call a meeting with the rest of the team. Be careful of that Nagi and…and be well Kurama." Said Hiei before he flitted off.

Kurama was too astonished to say anything. Be careful of a child, a child a fraction his real age and be well? He closed his mouth realizing that he must have looked like a landed fish for at least three minutes after Hiei had left. That was the first time he had heard Hiei care. Oh, he'd seen Hiei show enough "affection " with Yukina and himself looking out for them now and then, and there was the wrangling with Kuwabara and the subtle deference to Yuusuke. Well Kurama, do you think you've gotten to him? Maybe, maybe we have a chance. Kurama fell asleep with happy thoughts of a certain half-koorime.

***

Why did I say that to him? Asked Hiei to himself as he smoothly jumped from tree to tree. His own words echoed in his mind long after he had gotten away from the kitsune's house. Kurama didn't need them. For one, he was the most cautious of them all and rarely did he take on more than what he could handle. For another, why wouldn't he be well? He wouldn't be going anywhere dangerous with that 'niisan of his following his every move, unless that man himself was the threat. His eyes narrowed at the idea. Preoccupied though he was, Hiei managed to get Botan to summon Yuusuke and the Idiot for an urgent morning meeting and now he curled up in his favorite tree branch just outside of Kurama's window to sleep. But sleep wasn't coming, he checked his partner. Kurama had fallen asleep with a sweet smile curving his lips. Somehow though he didn't know why it reassured him and he also fell asleep with an identical smile curved his lips as he slipped into dreams.

~TBC~

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