Chapter 2: Worried
"Hey!!!" Yuusuke barged into Kurama's apartment. Kurama's mother, Shiori, was there drinking tea and talking to her son. She looked up in surprise when Yuusuke barged in. Kurama too, was surprised.
"Yuusuke! What brings you here? I thought you were working in the ramen stall," Kurama said, sipping at his tea. Yuusuke declined Kurama's offer for a cup of tea.
"Hie, Mrs. Mina....err... Hatanaka," Yuusuke said, almost forgetting that Shiori Minamino was now Shiori Hatanaka. "I came to ask for Kurama's help in the ramen stall." It was a white lie, but what could he do? He couldn't possibly let Shiori now that her son was involved with the Reikai.
Kurama caught on. "Well, sure. After all I am free now." He turned to his mother. "Kaasan, I'm sorry, but I have to go now. I'll visit you this weekend?"
Shiori smiled. "Yes, dear." She got up. "Promise me you'll come this weekend? Shuichi is dying to see you. You rarely come to visit nowadays."
"Of course I promise, Kaasan." Shiori smiled at her son and got ready to leave. "And tell Shuu-chan I miss him too," Kurama continued. Shiori nodded and left.
Kurama looked at Yuusuke. "So?"
"Follow me to my place. Kuwabara is there already."
"It's a fairly simple assignment this time," Yuusuke said. They were all in his house now, with the exception of Hiei.
"Where's Hiei?" Kurama asked, looking around.
"Who cares about that runt?" Kuwabara muttered. He had never liked that irritating, fire-breathing runt.
"I don't know. Couldn't find him. My guess is he must be at Mukuro's place," Yuusuke answered. "Never mind. This assignement is so simple that we don't need his help."
"We never did." That came from Kuwabara, of course.
"Untrue. Remember that time we had to fight the Spider? You were caught in its web and without Hiei, you would have become dinner to it," Yuusuke pointed out. "And that time when we fought the....."
"Shut up," Kuwabara told him. He didn't like to be reminded of the embarrassing details that ever happened to him during a Reikai- Tantei assignment.
Kurama put down his cup of tea. "So when do we start?"
Kurama lay down in his bed and tried to sleep. He was tired. The assignment may have sounded simple, but it wasn't very simple. He sighed and tried to go to sleep. But he couldn't. He couldn't help thinking about Hiei. He was worried about him. He couldn't help feeling that something had happened to him.
. .
