“So let me get this straight. You want us to go kill demons at some boarding school in England?”

Yusuke, an apparently average street punk, leaned against a heavily carved pillar framing a massive doorway. But this teenager was anything but average. He was one of the strongest spirit detectives that the Spirit World, or lands of the dead, had ever seen. At the moment, he was raising an eyebrow in confusion.

He had been called down, by himself, to hear the details of this new bizarre mission. Koenma’s excuse for being called here by himself was that Kurama and Hiei were getting supplies that he’d need for the mission.

Koenma, the infant ruler of spirit world who conducted affairs under his father, Lord Enma, rubbed his temples wearily with his pudgy fingertips. “No. Listen closely, Yusuke! There has been strong demon activity in the United Kingdom recently that is occurring at the same time as attacks by the bad sort of reiki wielders on innocent humans. Or their fellow reiki users.”

Yusuke looked confused. “Fellow Reiki users? I thought the ability to use reiki isn’t too common. And why would they want to attack each other in the first place?”

Childishly large eyes glanced away. “They’re called wizards, Yusuke. They-”

The teen snorted in amusement, leaning back against the wall. “Wizards? You’ve got to be kidding. Like in bedtime stories?” Like demons, I guess. “I thought this was serious.”

The demigod frowned in a quelling manner at Yusuke. “Shut up! This is too important for you to interrupt. These wizards,” Here he rolled his eyes skyward in exasperation, “are humans who have a slightly higher amount of spirit energy than normally occurs, or what they call ‘magic’. They directly force the ‘magic’ out of their bodies in the form of whatever form they need through wands, or not, depending on how powerful they are.”

“Anyway,” the infant god added quickly as Yusuke’s attention started to waver, “these wizards are known as being extremely biased against pretty much everything. This includes normal humans, demons, and normal humans. And most especially dislike any blending of the groups. One of these wizards, a shady character named Voldemort, was especially powerful and massacred hundreds of both normal humans and his fellow wizards before he was killed fifteen years ago.”

The spirit detective cocked his head in curiosity. “By who? You said he was powerful, right? So who did it?”

Despite himself, Koenma smirked. “A one year old boy named Potter, Harry.”

The spirit detective’s eyes widened. “He was one year old?”

A worried frown spread over Koenma’s face again. “Yes, Yusuke, but now he is sixteen, and has been the subject of a prophecy foretelling voldemort’s second death. He also needs spirit detectives’ help. Voldemort escaped death sixteen years ago, and has annually been trying to assassinate Potter, with increasing success.”

“This year will be even more dangerous for Potter, Yusuke. I’ve received word that the demon attacks are working as distractions for Voldemort’s attacks. That means he has demons helping him.”

When comprehension of the disaster Koenma foresaw failed to cross the teen’s face, Koenma slammed a pudgy hand on his desk, causing thick piles of paper to slide to the floor. “These aren’t normal demons, Yusuke! Most, if not all of them, are extremely powerful youkai! If any of them kill Potter or anyone at his magical school, who knows what will happen! It’s never good to mess with prophecies,” Koenma muttered.

“So Yusuke, I’m sending you, Kurama, and Hiei there to pose as exchange students. Or a student teacher in Kurama’s case. Even in the smartest house his intelligence would stick out. We’ll just increase his age by a year or two so he looks of age.”

“What about Kuwabara?”

Koenma snorted. “What about him? This mission calls for stealth, and that Kuwabara doesn’t have. Hiei will probably barely fit in at the school as it is.”

Yusuke looked disgusted at the idea of school. “School? Again? I thought I’d get out of that on this mission.”

The demigod grinned over at Yusuke. “Don’t forget, it’s a magical school that trains users of reiki. It’s definitely not the typical boarding school.”

P)P)P)P)P)

“What’s next, fox.”

The red head consulted a long list of supplies. “Next we need books and cauldrons.”

Hiei and Kurama were standing in front of a large book-filled shop in the middle of a vast shopping area that was packed with humans bustling around doing their shopping. It appeared to be a normal shopping center. But Kurama knew from long experience to look past appearances.

Almost all of the wandering people wore strange cloaks, and calmly discussed things like dragons and flying broomsticks like they were everyday occurrences. Since the fox-demon personally knew someone who rode a flying oar, he was willing to bet that these were normal occurrences.

Not only that, but anyone who possessed normal levels of spirit energy wandered right past the area - without seeing a thing out of the ordinary. Kurama figured it was a spell designed to redirect unwanted guests, since he had felt a vague pulling at his mind all afternoon, urging him to leave. Hiei had too, probably, but was far too proud to say anything about it. It was probably a good thing, Kurama added mentally, that these wards had been designed more to repel intruding humans rather than demons.

The two demons had been wandering the maze of streets that made up Fairl Plaza for hours, ever since the disguised kitsune had received a message from Koenma (and large piles of gold) to pick up supplies for the mission in England.

Kurama found it fascinating. All of the items in the plaza were infused with trace amounts of spirit energy, and some were quite valuable but poorly guarded. Absently, the former thief came up with dozens of way to steal every valuable without being seen.

Shaking off the thought, Kurama turned himself back to the bookstore. Glancing over at Hiei to get the small demon’s attention, Kurama almost froze when he saw where the ruby eyed gaze of his associate was directed. Another demon. Here.