Yelling. That's all one could ever hear at Kiren's house. Her parents were currently at it again. She wasn't quite sure what it entirely entailed, but she heard something about her good-for-nothing father not being able to keep a job or something like that. Everything normally went in one ear and out the other, but tonight she wanted a break from it. She walked downstairs, snuck past the kitchen doorway and quietly went outside.

There was a thunderstorm going on, but that didn't stop her; to her, this was the most perfect weather ever. She looked up and down her street, debating which way she was going to go. They had just moved here over the weekend and she hadn't had time to explore yet. She saw a forest in the distance and started walking towards it. One of her past times was walking through a forest, finding a clearing and just sitting there where it was peaceful and quiet. It didn't take her long to find the clearing.

It was a really big clearing. It even had a little pond in the middle of it with a big rock next to it that she could sit on. 'Perfect,' she thought to herself. She sat on the rock and looked up at the weeping sky.

"Maybe I should move out here," she laughed at herself. She heard a snap of a twig behind her; she whipped around and quickly jumped into a tree. A group of people walked into the clearing, two of them being obnoxiously loud.

"Kuwabara, I thought you said it was right here!" yelled a kid with slicked back black hair, wearing a green school outfit at a really tall orange haired kid in the same outfit but blue. She figured the orange haired kid to be Kuwabara

"I told ya Urameshi, it was right here!" yelled Kuwabara.

'Ugh, please, don't talk again,' Kiren thought to herself, 'his voice is so annoying.'

"Well, where is it then ya big balooka?! Cuz I don't see anything here unless it's invisible!" yelled the other kid.

"Stop it you two, this is getting us no where," said the red haired one that was in a purplish school outfit.

"That and it's very annoying and loud. I'm sure every demon from here to kingdom come can hear the two of you," replied the short black haired one wearing nothing but a plain black outfit with a black overcoat.

"Hiei has a point, Yuske," said the red head to the slicked back black haired one, who she took as Yuske, and figured the short one was Hiei.

"Yeah yeah, Kurama. Tell me something I don't know," replied Yuske to the red head, which she gathered was Kurama.

"So what now?" asked Kuwabara.

Yuske sighed, "I don't know ya baka, your sense of energy seems to be off today."

"I'm telling ya Urameshi, it was right here!" shouted Kuwabara.

Hiei started to look around. Kiren tried hiding herself a little more to be out of sight.

"Well, I think we should get going and look a different day," replied Hiei. "It doesn't seem like we're getting anywhere here."

The group sighed. "Alright, let's meet back at my place tomorrow. Gotta make something of the time we have left before school starts back up," said Yuske.

Kuwabara groaned. "Don't remind me Urameshi. School starts in just a few days ya know."

"Yeah yeah, quit your whining. Let's go."

Everyone followed Yuske and soon, there was no one there but Kiren. Once she was sure she was alone, she jumped out of her tree.

"I wonder what that was about." She shook her head and started back home.

*A few days later*

Kiren walked down her stairs, backpack on her shoulder and was about to walk out the door when her mother started in on her.

"Kiren, where do you think you're going?"

Kiren half turned and looked at her mother, "Where do you think I'm going? I have a backpack on. It's about 7:00am. There's this thing called 'school' and it kinda starts today. I'll see you when I get home."

As Kiren walked out the door, her mother stood with her mouth open, not expecting such a response from her always silent daughter.

Kiren started towards the school, which she took the time yesterday to find. She pulled out her schedule that she had received while at the school, making sure she had it ready to find classrooms. The principle seemed nice; she hoped she wasn't going to have any issues with her teachers.

When she was close to the school, she noticed two of the boys from the other day. She had to think for a moment, but she remembered them to be Yuske and Kuwabara.

'Well, this should be interesting,' she thought to herself.

She got to the school and walked in the doors and stopped, looking around for her first class. As she was looking down at her sheet, someone rammed into her from behind. Normally, she would have fallen flat on her face, but she quickly put her hand in front of her, and flipped back to her feet.

Her would-be-assailant just stood there with his mouth open. She looked up at him and saw that it was Yuske.

"Ya know, it's impolite to stare," Kiren said as she folded her arms.

Yuske quickly closed his mouth and said, "I'm sorry about that. You must be new here. The name's Yuske."

"Kiren."

"Well, Kiren, what were ya doing with your nose in a paper?"

"I was trying to find my first class."

"Let me take a look see here." Yuske took her schedule from her and looked it over. "Ya know, if we wouldn't have just met, I'd say you were trying to stalk me."

She raised her eyebrow at him, "What ever do you mean?"

"Your schedule is the exact same as mine."

"Really?"

"Yeah, so I guess, just follow me all day."

Kiren fidgeted a little but nodded her head and proceeded to follow him.

*After school*

Kiren was walking down the street when she heard stomping feet behind her and someone shouting, "Hey Kiren! Wait up!"

She looked behind her to see Yuske running towards her. She glared at him, "Haven't you had enough of me today? What could you possibly want now?"

Yuske caught up to her, took a second to catch his breath, and replied, "I wanted to ask you a few questions now that we're not around other people."

Kiren backed up a little bit. "What do you mean 'now that we're not around other people'?"

Yuske looked at her funny, "What are you backing away from me for? It's not like I'm some pervert or anything."

"And just how would I know that? I've only met you just today."

Yuske thought for a moment, "Valid point. But I can reassure you, it's nothing along the lines of that."

She backed up a few more steps, "What do you wanna ask me?"

"About this morning, anyone else that I would've accidentally rammed into would have fallen flat on their faces, but you didn't. How did you do that?"

"It's called a lot of training at a dojo. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get going home if I want to avoid my ears bleeding."

She turned around and started running home, with a very confused Yuske behind her. Kuwabara came up behind Yuske and patted him on the shoulder, "What ya staring at Yuske? Keiko's still at school."

Yuske shook his head, "Nothing you idiot. Let's go to my place."

Kuwabara shrugged his shoulders and followed Yuske to his house.

Kiren ran straight home, got in the door, ran up to her room and shut her door. 'What the hell was that about?' she asked herself.

"Kiren, do you want anything for dinner?" shouted her mother from the stairs.

"No, I'm good thanks," Kiren yelled back.

Her mother shook her head and started back towards the kitchen. Kiren looked out her window, debating what she should do. She didn't have any homework to do; she got everything done in class since her old school was apparently way ahead of this school that she had already covered everything. She decided to go outside for a walk again.

She walked down the stairs and was heading towards the door only to be stopped by her mother.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

"Out for a walk."

"Where to?"

"I don't know, can't I just go out for a walk?"

"Depends, do you have any homework?"

"No."

"Fine, whatever. Just don't be out too long."

"Yeah yeah," she said as she walked out the door.

Kiren shook her head as she closed the door behind her. "Why does she even bother pretending to care?"

She started off towards the forest again. As she was walking, she noticed that she was being followed. She kept walking as if she didn't notice. When she got to the clearing, she stopped and waited for any noise to indicate exactly where her stalker was. A figure caught her eye and she grabbed a pencil from her pocket and flung it at the figure.

She took a defensive position as she heard an "Ow!" from the direction she threw her pencil. The figure walked out from the trees rubbing his face. Her body tensed as she noticed it was Yuske.

She backed up a little as she asked, "Now who's stalking who?"

Yuske giggled while rubbing his face, "I wasn't trying to but I definitely won't from now on if that's what you can do with just a pencil. If I wouldn't have moved just slightly, I'd probably have lost an eye. You sure you trained at 'just' a dojo?"

She backed up a little more. "Yeah, what about it?"

"I'm not sure. Hiei, Kurama, what do you think?"

Hiei and Kurama stepped out from the trees behind Yuske. "Why are you asking us? She seems pretty human to me," retorted Hiei.

"Yes and no," replied Kurama.

Kiren backed up to the edge of the pond, "What do you mean 'seems pretty human'? What else would I be?"

Kurama giggled, "Yuske was telling us that he thought you were some sort of demon, but I don't think he's right. However, I can't be too sure. It's really hard to tell with you."

"You people are nuts." Kiren started walking the other direction. She felt one of them move from behind and she dodged just in time to avoid a katana to her face.

"You're not very friendly are you?" she asked Hiei.

"That depends on who it is," he said as he went to take another swing.

All of it was in slow motion for Kiren. She watched the directory of the blade and caught it in between her hands and snapped it in half.

"Do I qualify now?" she asked with a smirk.

Hiei looked at her for a moment, looked at what was left of his katana, threw it in the pond and started back towards Yuske and Kurama. "Hn."

"And that's supposed to mean what exactly?"

Kurama smiled, "It means he approves for now. We will see you later Kiren."

Kurama and Hiei left, while Yuske still stood there looking at her with a dumbfounded expression.

"Don't you remember? It's impolite to stare."

"Oh yeah, sorry, I was just trying to figure out how in the hell you did that."

"Did what?"

"Catch Hiei's sword and then break it in half. I can barely keep up with Hiei myself let alone catch his sword and break it."

"You really don't get what they teach you at a dojo do you? Hiei's sword was moving like a snail to me. And as for breaking it goes, it's all just a matter of physics. You don't pay attention in school much do you?"

He laughed, "What was your first clue?"

Kiren shook her head and started walking home.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"Home, where else?"

"Wanna come hang out at my place?"

She paused and half turned to look at him, "What for?"

"Just to kill some time. From what you told me after school today, you don't really seem like you want to go home anytime soon."

She eyed him with curious eyes. "Fine, whatever. Lead the way."

As they approached Yuske's place, they were met with Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara. Kuwabara looked from Yuske to Kiren and back to Yuske.

"What are you looking at baka?"

"Ummm, what are you doing with the new girl? Keiko's going to murder you."

Yuske punched him in the face. "You make it sound like we're dating or something. I just asked her if she wanted to come kill some time, that's it."

"Got it," came a little voice from the ground.

Yuske looked at the other two, "What are you two doing here. We don't normally have gatherings like these unless something's up."

"Koenma would like to see us," replied Kurama. He looked over at Kiren, "All of us."

Kiren looked at him, "What do you mean by 'all of us'?"

"Just as it states, he's meaning you too."

"Why me? I don't even know this dude."

"We told Koenma about you and he's very intrigued and would like to meet you."

"I think I'm going to go home now."

Hiei stood in front of her, his deep crimson eyes staring into her sterling silver ones, half covered by her matching colored, chin length hair.

"Why don't you just come with us? You never know, it could be beneficial to you."

"And just how could this be beneficial for me?"

"Wanna know? Come with us."

Kiren glared at him, but turned back towards Yuske and Kurama. "Fine, take me to wherever."

"Hey Kurama, where we meeting him at this time?" asked Yuske.

"Actually, he's right upstairs waiting for us in your bedroom."

Yuske gave him a questioning look. "That's strange, but oh well, works for me. Come on Kiren, let's go upstairs."

When she walked into Yuske's room, she couldn't believe what she saw. She had to turn away to refrain from bursting out with laughter. On Yuske's bed, there sat a little toddler with a pacifier in his mouth. Normally she would have asked if that was Yuske's little brother or not but when she looked at everyone else she noticed that they were looking at the toddler like he actually had authority or something. How anything so small could have authority, she had no idea. Then the toddler spoke, making her jump.

"I thank you very much for coming and not having any snide remarks about me being a toddler. I may look like one, but I'm actually much older than I look."

She looked at him like she was out of her mind. "And just who are you?" 'Can he read minds or something?' she thought to herself.

The toddler cleared his throat, "I am Koenma, ruler of the Spirit World. After the briefing I had with Hiei and Kurama, you seem like someone of interest; as opposed to this bonehead already working for me." He pointed his finger at Yuske.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean ya little toddler!" screamed Yuske.

"Pipe down Yuske. Anyway, I was wondering if you would like to join our little team here. See, Yuske is what we call a Spirit Detective. He does all my spirit world deeds for me. Deeds like battling demons, entering tournaments, capturing demon criminals for me. But there are many occasions where he can't do the job by himself so we send a team in with him to get the job done. And from what I've heard from these two, you would be a spectacular asset to this little team of mine. What do you say?"

She stared at the little toddler with disbelief. 'Does he know?' she thought to herself. 'I had better play this cool like I don't know anything.'

"You want me to believe that things like spirits and demons actually exist?"

"That would be correct yes."

"You guys are more psychotic than I thought. I'm outta here."

"Would you leave us so soon, Mazuki?" asked Koenma

Kiren stopped in mid-step towards the door. She turned and looked at him wide-eyed, as did Hiei and Kurama. She kept her attention on Koenma, "How exactly do you know of that name?"

Hiei turned towards Kiren, "How would YOU know the name?"

Kiren quickly looked at Hiei. "No reason. I'm leaving."

She ran out the door, being followed by the little fire demon.

She found the tallest building she could find and climbed all the way to the top and sat on the roof.

Hiei stood right in front of her, "How do you know the name Mazuki, Kiren?"

She looked up him with a glare, "I could ask you the same thing Hiei."

"Mazuki is a legend in the demon world. How could a mere mortal know anything about her?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? Why don't you go ask her yourself?"

"I would if I could, but she's been theorized dead for centuries."

She snickered, "And how exactly does everyone think she died?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, "If you seem to know so much, why don't you tell me?"

Kiren gave him a smirk, "That's a story for another time small fry."

Hiei glared at her, "How dare you talk to me like that!"

"What? Not used to being talked to like you talk to others?"

"How would you know how I am?"

"I have my own secrets as well, Hiei of the Third Eye. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going home."

Hiei watched her retreating form with narrowed eyes. Kurama appeared from the shadows, "Why the sour look Hiei?"

"I don't trust her."

"You don't trust a lot of people, Hiei."

"There's something not right about her."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and find out, won't we?"

"Hn. Says the fox hiding in the shadows."

"I was just curious."

"About what?"

"There's more to her than meets the eye. I wanted to see if I could figure her out."

Hiei raised an eyebrow, "And?"

Kurama put his hands in the air, "And I can't. For the time being. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of her soon."

"Why do you say that?

"You'll see," he replied as he started walking away.

"Stupid Fox."