Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its characters.

Yusuke yawned slowly. He shifted his weight in the uncomfortable chair he was sitting in as he glanced over to the small demon sitting on the room's only windowsill. He wondered if Hiei knew why they were there. Hiei was not facing him, but Yusuke doubted the demon's face would tell him anything anyway.

Hiei had shown up at Yusuke's house about an hour ago saying that Koenma wanted to see them. The two had then hurried to the demon world and had been waiting in the simple stone room outside Koenma's office since.

"This is pointless," the spirit detective complained loudly. "I'm so glad we rushed over here so we could wait for an hour," he said sarcastically.

Hiei turned and regarded the human dispassionately for a moment before turning back to look out the window. Great, Yusuke thought, at least I'm stuck with a great conversationalist like Hiei.

He turned his head when he heard the scrap of Koenma's heavy door opening. They stood as a blue oni stepped out and said, "He's waiting for you."

Yusuke followed Hiei into the small office where Koenma sat behind a colossal stack of papers. Yusuke shut the door behind them as the toddler-looking demigod got up onto his desk so that he could at least look Hiei in the eye.

"Alright you two," Koenma said around the ever present pacifier in his mouth. "Your next mission is strictly recovery in nature. I need you to find and bring back Kurama."

Hiei's eyes widened slightly and Yusuke scratched his head in confusion. "You mean, Kurama ran off?" Yusuke asked. That did not make a lot of sense. Kurama was on some sort of probation with Koenma so his movements were sure to be tracked to some extent. Also, Yusuke doubted the former thief would abandon his human mother without very good reason.

"No," Koenma said, looking decidedly uncomfortable.

"You sent him somewhere," Hiei guessed quietly. He was glaring at the small demigod indifferently.

"Yes," Koenma answered. He continued to explain. "I got word of a powerful artifact that was hidden deep in an old tomb. Because of the possibility of traps, I sent Kurama. With his experience, I thought he would easily be able to retrieve the artifact."

"When?" Hiei asked.

"That was three days ago."

Yusuke's jaw dropped. "Why didn't you send someone with him? Or at least tell us what was up!" He felt irritated at being left out of the loop.

"Kurama preferred to work on his own, and there was no reason to let you know," Koenma answered defensively.

"What is this relic?" Hiei asked with an almost bored look on his face. Yusuke briefly wondered how he could stay so cool. Kurama was probably Hiei's only true friend. If he were in Hiei's place, he would be both angry and worried, but Hiei showed signs of neither. Yusuke had never really seen him concerned before, but he was not exactly shy about his anger.

"It's a silver pendant in the shape of a bat," Koenma said as he shuffled through some of the papers on his massive desk. Finally he found what he was looking for and pulled out a yellow parchment. He handed it to Yusuke.

It was obviously a page formally out of a book as most of it was covered in writing. However, Yusuke could not even make out the characters, let alone recognize the language. In the top right hand corner was a small sketch of the pendant.

It was a bat, not with its wings out spread, but tucked under as though it was clinging to a cave wall. Its delicate claws gripped the chain.

Yusuke handed the page to Hiei. His red eyes darted a quick glance before he handed the parchment back to Koenma. "Why is it valuable?"

"It's a powerful charm that some demons can use to drain reiki from humans and feed off of it," Koenma explained in an almost bored tone. "It's only recently been located, and I believe a few attempts at obtaining it have been quashed already by the tomb's guards."

"What kind of guards?" Yusuke asked. There seemed like a realm of potential problems, traps, guards as well as some competition from other treasure hunters.

"From what I understand, mindless brutes. Strong, but not too quick upstairs," Koenma answered. "Now then, Botan will take you the to the entrance of the tomb. It up to you to trace his youki from there."

"Where is Botan, anyway?" Yusuke asked as he noticed for the first time that he had not seen her since he arrived in the Makai.

"I believe," Koenma said dryly, "that you'll find her behind the door."

Hiei walked over to the door and roughly pulled it open. The blue-haired ferry girl promptly fell into the room from where she had obviously been eavesdropping, blushing and babbling profusely.

"Get up," Hiei said, sounding rather annoyed. He never had had a long tolerance for the cheery Botan.

Botan stood, attempting to recover as much dignity as possible, and dusted off her pink kimono. "Why, Hello, Koenma sir. I was just waiting outside your door."

Koenma raised an eyebrow at that, but did not say anything.

"Egh!" Yusuke snorted impatiently. He was not one for standing around when someone he cared about was in trouble. "Can we get going some time this century?"

"Yes," Hiei agreed. "Let's go." He turned his glare to Botan again, and she quickly scooted out the door with a small, "eep."

Botan walked a few feet in front of Hiei and Yusuke as they headed out.

"Aren't you worried about Kurama?" Yusuke couldn't help asking.

One corner of the small demon's mouth actually twitched slightly in a very small smile. "Sometimes I think you forget that Kurama is one of the most powerful demons there is. No, I'm not particularly worried about the kitsune."

Sometimes Hiei could be annoyingly pragmatic. Still, Yusuke thought, he had a point. Kurama did such a good job pretending to be human that it was difficult to think of him as Youko Kurama instead of the polite Suuichi.

Yusuke smiled to himself as he and Hiei awkwardly positioned themselves on the back of Botan's oar. He was looking forward to a little action.

A/N: I'm not super sure about some of terms used in this fic so if you notice something wrong, please, please tell me so I can change it and not look like a total idiot. So, let me know what you think of this beginning. I'll probably keep updating regardless of reviews, but guilt tends to help move the creative process along. So, later.