Thus begins the third and final saga of Gabrielle and Kurama. Please forgive the wait; but if you never liked it to begin with, why are you reading this? Happy belated Valentine's day!
Chapter 1
New Life, Same Trouble
Koenma sat at his desk, sighing tiredly. 'Stamp, flip, stamp, flip…' It was a dull day; it had been agonizingly boring between the three realms for nearly six months. No one had tried to puncture a hole into Ningenkai or destroy and/or take over the world for such a long time; the tiny ruler began to miss the excitement.
The remaining four Tantei had gone on to pursue their personal lives with vigor the past two years; Kuwabara was an apprentice veterinarian, so kind and knowledgeable with animals of all sizes. Kurama helped with his stepfather's software company, and pursued being a private eye, never ceasing his desire to exercise his wits and serve justice. Yusuke made a bold choice in career; he wanted to be a teacher. The former delinquent was in training to teach other delinquents that fell astray. Hiei, as always, protected his sister from afar and managed cases from Koenma when no one else could.
The princeling had had little contact with the shaman youko in Reikai, never needing her abilities, only checking up on her every once in a while. She, like the four others, had grown dear to him, though he would never admit it for professional reasons. His Tantei were also his friends- "Koenma sir!" George the ogre interrupted his musing.
"What is it, ogre? Something exciting for once, or have you dared to disturb me with some useless information again?" Koenma griped half-heartedly.
"There's been an urgent report of soul-sucking oni in the human realm!"
"Really? How entertaining- I mean-unfortunate…"
Botan flew on her oar alongside the four Tantei as they charged down a path in the park. "There are some oni reported in the woods, having attacked and taken captive a number of ningen and are on the run towards the mountains," the ferry-girl, mounted on her oar, filled them in as they ran.
"How many?" Kurama asked, like the others, still dressed for work in slacks and a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled back. "Five in all," Botan replied. Kuwabara still had his lab jacket on, and his hair was cut shorter in front; like Yusuke's, but shorter so it stuck up a little. Hiei wore his usual garb; while Yusuke had his hair un-gelled, and wore an uncharacteristic necktie.
The five came upon a clearing where a campsite had once been. The poles to a nylon tent were snapped into hundreds of pieces, perhaps under the huge feet of the oni. The cooler lay open with food strewn about, and the fire had long since died of neglect. All around in the dirt were footprints and marks that something had been dragged: a sign of a struggle. "They are not far ahead of us," Kurama deduced, "the ice from the cooler has not melted completely."
"We don't have far to go then!" Yusuke said, but Kuwabara interrupted him.
"Guys, the human foot prints- I see two adult sized, and the other three are really small."
"So they've collected a bunch of children for a snack," Hiei sniffed, "easier to remove the souls from a smaller body."
"We'd better quicken our pace, then." Kurama replied and took off in the direction of the oni tracks. The others followed the trail of crunched undergrowth and massive footprints in the mud. "Not even oni are this clumsy, the trail seems almost too obvious," the redhead commented.
The trees spread apart in a small glade in front of a cave, two towering figures stood over five huddled humans, staring up at their captors. The oni were much the same as Goki, the first soul-eating oni Yusuke met; tall, ugly, brawny, and horns on their foreheads.
"Which one should we eat first?" one of them said.
"I think the old ones would be best;" the other replied, "that way as their whelp watch, their souls should be good and marinated in fear!"
"Good idea!"
Yusuke aimed both of his index fingers at the back of each oni's head, "Reigun!" The two oni's toppled forwards on their faces. "Yusuke," Kurama began, "Didn't Botan say there were five oni?"
SLAM!! Six fists crashed into the back of the Tantei's necks; they staggered in different directions, but the blow was not enough to stop them. They turned to the other three oni in battle stances. "We have to get the captives away from them, before they get hurt!" Yusuke said.
"Save me an oni," Hiei growled and in an instant, he was gone. He relocated the five trembling humans into the trees above. Oni were no challenge for the Tantei, and they were dealt with, either killed or in handcuffs. Botan had the memories of the ningen campers erased and altered to explain their annihilated campsite.
The Tantei watched from the trees as the five ningen wandered back into their camp; apparently back after a walk… "It was bears, I knew it!" the youngest boy of the children cried, showing his mother a picture of animal tracks in his Cub Scout book. "Mama, they ate all our sandwiches and wrecked our tent!!" he continued, rubbing his fists in his eyes in sorrow.
The mother wrapped her arms around her son, "It's alright honey; this just means we can sleep under the stars tonight."
"And I can show you how to gut a fish!" the father interjected enthusiastically, "Now, we'll be fishing with a passion!" The mother laughed as the three children exchanged looks of disgust.
"Hey Kurama," Yusuke whispered, "You said your mother had invited us all to dinner; shouldn't we get going?"
The redhead snapped out of his daydream, staring at the young boy and his mother fondly. "Yes, and we're already late!" he cried, racing off in the opposite direction. Yusuke crooked his finger at Hiei, who had been trying to sidle off, "You too," while Kuwabara followed suit.
The four were somewhat laid-back, yet a thought in the back of their minds kept them in edge. "We really haven't had a lot of cases from Koenma." Yusuke said, thinking aloud, "I wonder why…but something wasn't right about this case."
"I got the same impression," Kuwabara agreed, "I mean, I know we've all gotten a helluva lot stronger than when we were when we first started doing this, but that was way too damn simple."
"Keep in mind," Kurama pointed out, "That oni don't think things through; they are very simple."
"I don't like it!" Hiei hissed, gripping the hilt of his sword. "There's something not right here, my Jagan can sense it."
They piled into Kurama's car to drive the long distance to his parents' house, but when they got there, Kurama pulled up short and jumped out of his car. The other three stared at him, "Kurama, what's wrong?" Yusuke finally asked after the redhead stood for several minutes, sniffing the wind outside the gates to the mansion his stepfather owned. He finally ran into the gates and to the house, a feeling of dread in his heart.
Something was very wrong; the front windows of the house were smashed in, and the front door hung open on one hinge at a precarious angle. Kurama burst in the door of his parents' house, "Mother!" he called into the waiting darkness. "Little Suichi! Joe! (I decided to name him 'cause I didn't know his stepfather's name.)" He flipped on the light and gasped. The whole house looked like it had been ripped through by a thunderstorm. Furniture had been ripped apart and thrown into the walls; there were burn marks on the carpet and ceiling, the remains of what might have been dinner were splattered across the kitchen and dining room, along with piles of shattered glass and china.
The others slowly followed the redhead as he darted through the house searching for his family. 'The upstairs had not been touched, this was only a violent abduction, not a raid,' he thought. 'That means they haven't been murdered; only kidnapped. They may be alive, held captive somewhere.'
"Kurama," Yusuke came up behind him as he stood on the landing of the stairs. "What the hell happened here?"
"They're gone, Yusuke. The only question is, why?"
"That's why." Hiei said, pointing to a black envelope that had been carefully positioned on the dining room table. Inside were videotape and a number of tickets. "From the kidnapper?" Yusuke asked.
"Has to be," Kurama took the tape to Yusuke's house to use his VCR, and put the tape in. They saw no face, but heard a voice. "Hello, Suichi Minamino; or would you rather be addressed by your youkai name, considering it is youkai you are now dealing with?" Kurama knit his brow marginally in annoyance.
The screen flickered from static to a dark room with three rather fine, antique wing backed-chairs in it. On each of the chairs sat the three kidnapped members of his family. They were staring about the empty black room, looking rather frightened and shaky. Shiori's shirtsleeve was torn, little Suichi had his right arm in a sling, and Joe had a black eye and a cut lip. Kurama growled audibly, which made the others stare at him in fear; Kurama never showed his most powerful feelings.
"Your family is, for the most part, safe and sound. But whether they remain that way is entirely up to you. They will be cared for like royalty during their time as my hostages, unless you do something to displease me; one or all of them could lose an appendage, or their life. But enough of the drama," the screen switched from the family to a far-off picture of a floating island, "This is the Citadel of the Seven Suns, a floating land in Reikai, also the place hosting the next Dark Tournament. I know you can put two and two together; you and your comrades must compete in the tournament eight weeks from now, or you and your family will die." The screen switched again to a scene of the four fighters in a void of darkness, it was an artificial image; they each made expressions of pain as blood gushed from deep cuts that appeared in their skin.
"If you try to escape, I will find you, just as I found your family, and your darkest secrets, Kurama. This is no ordinary tournament either, only youkai of class B and up will be permitted to even set foot on the Citadel to compete..." The tape cut off and the screen turned to static.
Yusuke went into a ranting, cursing storm, "Fck, sht, damn it to hell, damn it all to the fcking asshole of hell!! How the hell are we supposed to get to a flying island?!"
"Look, genius," Hiei shoved the tickets into his face, "These are boat tickets; we obviously sail and go from there."
Yusuke took the tickets from Hiei and stared at them, a fearful realization hitting him. "There are four of us, but they gave us five tickets. We need a fifth member."
Kurama collapsed onto Yusuke's couch, him having sharing his home with his still-irresponsible mother to take care of her. "Who can we get to be our fifth member?" Yusuke asked aloud.
A pop resounded in the room and the tiny ruler of Reikai appeared in midair. "Yusuke, we have a solution to the dilemma." Koenma said. "I've been watching you from Reikai, and of course, the next person to take the place of the fifth fighter is…"
An old wound in Kurama's heart opened as his thought were instantly fixed in his mind's-eye image of Gabrielle, the long-unemployed shaman he was fallen in love with and refused to interact with. His gaze rose desperately to Koenma's, prepared to plead with him to be released from the situation.
"Botan."
